Plant plans for 2013

For the veg garden this year I am sowing a mix of my long-standing favourite varieties from previous years, but also trying out a few new ones (marked with *). I haven't decided on everything yet, but am getting there having just sent off two orders this morning (to The Real Seed Company who I have never heard of before but the fact they are powered by the lovely Good Energy who also supply us makes them alright, and Robinson's Mammoth Onion Seed)

A mix of garden produce from 2011, (from bottom LHS going clockwise: Cosse violetto beans, Peaches, Patty pans and courgettes, cardoons, yellow french beans, Sungold F1 tomatoes)

Aubergine - F1 Galine*
Artichokes (globe) - Violetto di romagno*
Artichokes (Jerusalem)
Beans (broad) - Martoc, Crimson flowered
Beans (dwarf) - Norweigan Dry, Yin Yang
Beans (french climbing) - Pea bean, Cosse Violetto

Cosse Violetto beans (2011)

Beetroot - Touchstone yellow*
Brussels sprouts - Red ball*, Bedford
Carrots - Dragon purple*
Chard - Bright lights
Chilli peppers - Fresno*, Red cherry* Jalapeno*
Courgettes - Black Forest (not a new variety to me, but might this be the year I actually manage to germinate these seeds?), Genovese, Bennings Green*

Courgettes (2011) - Genovese variety is at the bottom of picture and on very right hand side, the others are One Ball variety

Broccoli - Kailaan*, Rapini*
Celeriac - Giant prague*
Cucumbers - (anything I can buy in the garden centre)
Kale - Sunderland kale*

Leaves (varieties for salad and for cooking) - Red veined sorrell (brought from old house), comfrey (brought from old house), Mesclun, Purple orach* (I've previously only grown green varieties), Salsola*
Leeks - Jaune de Poitou*, Bleu de solaise*,
Lettuce -
Marrows -
Onions -
Peas - Calibra, Asparagus peas (not really a pea though...), Purple podded (finally returning to these after struggling last year to find all the peas growing on the plants - purple pods are so much easier to spot!)
Spinach -Spinach beet
Squash  - Mixed varieties (who knows what will be in the packet)
Sweetcorn - Supersweet (by far the best variety I have ever grown, the sweetest and most reliable, I hope to have a decent crop this year without weather or chicken destruction problems)

Supersweet variety of sweetcorn (August 2008)

Sweet peppers - Sweet banana, Corno di torro rosso, Purple beauty
Tomatoes - Sungold F1, San Marzano


One of my aims this year is to supply a local pub, The Royal Oak in Bishopstone, with veg in exchange for bar vouchers. This was an aim last year too but I was scuppered by the horrible weather and a lack of time, but in 2010 I had a free birthday meal there in exchange for Patty Pans!

Patty Pans from the garden (2010)

Spring seed planting

As the garden is still in need of so much work, I've started seeds in the greenhouse in a desparate attempt to feel like I'm making progress on the garden - maybe I'm trying to keep things moving by forcing myself to have to have beds ready for the plants in the near future. I've planted a number of things over the past few weeks - mainly these are veg that I love to grow or can't seem to function without.
If I was only allowed to grow five types of veg I would have to have tomatoes, sweetcorn, courgettes, sprouts and globe artichokes - all of these seem to be infinately better freshly picked from the garden and eaten within 5 minutes (especially the sweetcorn). Fortunately I can grow more, this is what I have grown so far:

 

Sunday 3rd March

Sungold F1 tomato - cherry tomatoes that taste fabulous and seem to keep cropping heavily  forever - I've been picking them in Christmas week some years. Last year I didn't grow these and regretted it daily throughout the summer while the the tomatoes I was growing yielded little and poor tasting fruit.
Spinach beet
Bright lights chard - mainly for the variety of stalk colours, but if left to go to seed, the whole plant can be uprooted and chickens love to strip the stalks bare
Peppers (chilli and sweet) - Sweet banana, Corno di torro rosso, Purple beauty, Freso, Red cherry and Jalapeno - these are all new varieties to me
Calibra peas - a petit pois variety I've not tried before

Saturday 9th March

Red ball and Bedford brussels sprouts - one red and one green variety that I've not tried before but promise a long cropping season from August to March between them
[Sweet peas: Lilac ripple, Erewhon, Old times - all grown for the fact they are meant to have a really heavy strong frangrance]
Yellow hop roots from the old house put into compost as they have started putting out shoots now

Sungold F1 tomatoes - 2 weeks after planting

Sunday 17th March

Mesclun - to go into a bed in the greenhouse for early spring salads
Nasturtiums: Alaska mixed, Peach melba, Golden jewel, Tall mixed, Mahogany gleam, Tom thumb mixed
Artichoke - Violetto di Romagna - I normally grow Green globe, this is a smaller variety
San marzano tomato (very old seed so will probably not work)
Calibra peas ( yes more!)

My new kitchen garden

Finally, after an unbelievable sale/purchase process, we are in the new house and I have a new kitchen garden - complete with a 14 x 8 foot greenhouse. I freely admit to feeling very overwhelmed by the garden as it's pretty neglected - but I also relish a challenge.

The first task has been to remove many years worth of rubbish dumped in the garden - its unclear quite why, but the previous owners kept absolutely everything. The scrap metal man has done very well out of it and the cast iron bath, four old lawnmowers, slide set, numerous metal fence posts and a random and varied assortment of other things filled half his van one weekend.  There is much still to remove.

23rd February - 8 days after moving in

There is also an abundance of glass panes all over the place - probably about 30 in all, none of which seem to be the right size to replace broken panes on the greenhouse but might make some nice coldframes?

3rd March - a developing path to the greenhouse

The plethora of paving stones in all sorts of random places around the garden has been highly beneficial - new paths are under development around the greenhouse - none have been put down properly yet, but they are keeping me off what will be the beds for now.  There are also some nice chunky pieces of wood abandoned here so I'm using them to mark the edges of beds

4th March - one clear veg bed emerging

One thing the previous owners seem to have been obsessed with is water - there are hoses, watering systems, sprinkler heads, watering cans and more hoses everywhere. The greenhouse already has two metal water tanks running off it - annoyingly they are to the side of the greenhouse taking up valuable space. Clearing the overgrown ivy behind the greenhouse added 4 foot to the end of garden and has provided space for the water tanks to be moved to. I've plumbed in two water butts onto the front of the greenhouse.

10th March -in the background is a mammoth heap of ivy that Rod pulled

 off fences and trees to double the available garden space

Other useful things that have emerged from the overgrowth include a plastic coldframe, gazebo frame (the cover was totally knackered), huge quantities of pots and tubs, two nice metal watering cans, numerous apple picking loppers and about 100 empty bags of compost.

17th March - water butt already totally full!

There is plenty more to do with the beds, but I'm trying to concentrate on getting seedlings underway in the completely rearranged greenhouse. I'm going to dry a no-dig system on some of the beds - as the garden has been previously worked I think this may work nicely - or am I just trying to avoid some hard work?