This little lot of pictures from my garden where taken today after what was my last mega mission in the garden for 2010. From now on its a little planting here, a little weeding there and just alot of minor stuff from week to week. The morning started early with me cutting back the weeds behind the fence, hoeing the weeds on the various plots and more weeding, got to love the weeding. Its really nice to see clear soil but  I just cant stand doing it. After weeding I planted some of my shallots, lettuce, monge tout, radishes, (red, white, lisbon) onions and cucumbers. I think there was more but its been a long day and I cant be bothered to think any more. I know there is no need for poly tunnels in June but due to the cats pooping on my plot I have had to do this so that they dont dig up my lovely little seedlings / seeds when covering it up.

Well this is all the trees, bushes and plants in there green wonderfully state for you viewing pleasure:

1. weeding.
2. planting of tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, leeks, salsify, potatoes, chilli’s, pepers,berry bushes, beans, lettuce, radish and a few other seeds and herbs.
3. supports and netting erected to protect strawberries and to grow my bean and monge tout.
4. compost attacked and eaten by ratty, which has now been batted, I hope.
5. Irrigation system in place.

So quite alot going on, I am planning some pics and a new way of showing some of the classic fruit and veg and how they are looking throughput the growing season to help others see what they should look like & when, I hope this will help you if its your first time growing your own so you know your going in the right direction!

Next year I will be starting a little gardening advice application that will be online via this blog or it will be via a new site with a nice little iPad / iPhone app, depends on time really.

The seedlings are doing really well, the cucumbers so well infact that they have had to be put into their very own little 3 inch pots already. The rest of the seedlings have been watered and next week either given some feed or will be moved into individual pots and placed in the cold frame.

Progress

The seedlings on the whole are doing well. Some of the pots are now showing growth and we are looking good apart from one area! the herbs. I struggled last year with them and this year its proving even harder as they are all doing really badly, just dying so much. The spring onions are following suite pretty quickly so I hope the ones I plant straight into the soil outside do the business for me! The cucumbers, tomatoes, chillies and courgettes are all doing really well and last years speedy growers the sweetcorn are having a slow start this year. We wont panic as I planted them quite early so we still have time to use the heated propagators with a new batch if any thing really struggles!

TOP tip

After looking around on the net I found a few good little tips that will save you some money and get you some good guides at the same time. After looking around I found a magazine subscription that gives you free seeds and a book worth £25. Its called GROW YOUR OWN and is really cheap, its £17.50 for 6 months so with the book, mag and free seeds and vouchers you will be quids in!

Tip 2, go to allotment.org.uk and buy either or both “Veg Growing Month by Month” and “Essential Allotment Guide UK” you get about £10’s of Sutton’s seeds and also the books! they are £7.49 each including delivery so you get two books and £20’s of seeds for £15! perfect way to start your green fingering future.

Tip 3, want to get cheap seeds and fruit / veg feed? well go to the 99p store and you get 4 packets of seeds with the longest dates I could find with 2/3 years and they grow well. The feed is really good, it works as good as anything else you can buy from places like BnQ. Obviously the more expensive stuff is alot better but for the first timer or semi-pro gardener you wont need the posh stuff any how.

Today’s pictures

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So enough of the chit chat, remember to water them all really well but not over the top! plus the pots are not featured in these images as there is no growth yet but week two images might just have a few little gems to show!

1 Week and this is what we have got to show for it.

** Use picture lense to view photos as its better than clicking on them! its a nice little slide-show / viewer

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The first thing to remember is that if you water, feed and look after the soil, plants and seedlings you will get plenty of crops! Last year was my first year and I had way too much. During the summer and warm days you must water every day! if in the ground it does not matter if the ground is soaked. The plants, weeds and everything in the surrounding areas will suck it up before the next mornings sun was fully risen.

BTW the week that I started planting I also weeded and prepare the ground outside for this years crop. Will place compost and feed in the ground a couple of week before sowing seeds and seedlings outside.

My top tips:

1. Weed all the time, make sure the plants are not fight for water, nutrition and most importantly sun. If you leave them they will win and its alot hard to get rid of them when they are big with huge roots.
2. Make sure you water every day during the summer and every other day on the mild days where you can get away with doing it a little less.
3. Always use plant food. Not too much but every three weeks will keep the plants growing and happy. Its not expensive and if you go to the 99p store you can get it for a £1 a bottle. A small plot will only need one of two for the summer so you will not spend alot of money on that! but remember that if you grow toms that they love tomato food so buy some of that too in the 99p store.
4. Always harvest the fruit and veg as soon as you can, beans, tomatoes and cucumbers all grow lots of products and the more you pick the more the bush / plant can grow.
5. Look out for pests and insects, they are usually slow to move on in but when they do they can really mess up your crop so make sure you have treatment at home or can get it quick to stop the little buggers taking over.
6. Plant the crops inside in heated propagators or non-heated for slower results but make sure you plant them with plenty of time to get them established for the summer and stagger them going outside to get crops week after week and not in one go.
7. Enjoy it, its really easy and not every thing will work but if you follow my tips and step on time and in good time you will have a love crop and will get them “Green fingers” I cant shift!

So what did I do in week one (20th of Feb 2010)

1. Got my heated and non-heated propagators and 3/4inch pots ready in my spare room. I then filled them all up with compost (must be John Innes).
2. Read each packet of seeds to make sure you give them the right spacing and depth.
3. Plant them a little deeper and firm the soil! Gemma did not do some rows to deep and did not firm the soil making some seedlings die as they did not have enough root in the soil before they grew out the top soil.
4. Firm firm and top up soil where needed.
5. Water them very lightly and place in warm, bright and safe areas away from pets and children!
6. Keep them warm and at a constant temperature!
7. Tidy up the mess thats if you are like me.
8. Oh and label the seedlings!

Lets see what I did

** Use picture lense to view photos as its better than clicking on them! its a nice little slide-show / viewer

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I have been meaning to get my garden sorted for months. This year I want to have all my seeds nicely established for the summer season. Last year I was 6 weeks late and that affected my crop so badly. I had loads of stuff but I think the full potential of alot of my crop was not met. Thinks like the peppers never kicked off, the onions I have just chucked away as they had not formed and the tomatoes just did not get big.

So my plans for crop 2010:

1. Shorter rows, I will put the rows in a vertical fashion compared to last years long lines.
2. Two or three rows planted of each fruit / veg in one or two spots.
3. New plot where old tomatoes where.
4. Dedicated little pots for herbs with a automated watering set-up.
5. Early propagation.
6. Early preparation of the ground, this includes feeding and the de-weeding of these areas.
7. New and better propagation tunnels outside and more use of greenhouse.

So that is my steps to success this year? well lets hope so. I will be keeping a diary of the weekly progress with pictures and possibly a video diary to go with it but that is only a might be!

When I have my plan of the garden mapped out I will scan it and upload it.

Stay tuned….

So lets start with the garden, its looking dead in one section and the other section is growing well, its very strange and is like loosing a pet mouse. Its not that sad but the attention you showered and directed at it seems such a waste for that little time you had it! I have had a few weeks of loads of beans, tom’s sweetcorn, cucumber, peppers and a few chillies. Reckon thats about £40 of yet more veg. All in all this year me and gemma have made our money back and more some!

The house is getting cold and the cats are getting very lazy. Have got new skirting, doors, guttering and facia’s sorted out so thats all great news to make the house look better.

Been ill on and off since last blog so not great but hey ho, my office has alot of illness and bad going around all the time so I have done well not to get really ill yet.

Gemma kept her job and is in her new office. She is happy but not happy, lots of work to make up for the gaps in her team and the company as a whole, how recessions ruin lives of the people that get let go and the ones that stay to struggle on with more redundancies later down the line!

Have completed jquery.validation.js beta version, needs a little home page knocked up but thats part of my bigger picture in terms of sorting out my portfolio!

Lastly would some one please give my brother a job, he might start thinking that no one likes him and that would be harsh! may be the tories need to suggest all ginger short lists and Nick will be in luck! that or Nick needs to have a sex change and make it onto the planned female short list.

Gonna try and blog more often, likeliness, 60%, I hope so as its a good way to remember what I have done! often forget, why am I here again?????

In summary, tomatoes still going, cherry tom plants doing really well, loads of cucumbers, sweetcorn still going, potatoes are still going and much much more.

See for your self:

back from the dead parsley

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Back from dead parsley with the other hrbs! just cant kill em ;-)

I reckon that todays little lot would have been about £12 in the shops! so that with every thing else makes us break into profit! with more to come, plus all dead plants go in compostor and help me make compost for next years, 80 litres of compost to add to bounty.

Here is what I harvested:

todays potatoes harvest

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These are the few potatoes we harvested today. I recon we have about another 5 harvests this size.

• Cains £40
• Pots £20
• Propagators £40
• Greenhouse £20
• Compost £30
• Seeds £40

So about £190’s to get going. I have loads of seeds left so I think seeds could come down to £20. So £170’s is alot but apart from compsost and seeds they will be usuable for next year! What crops do I think I have got so far:

• Tomatoes to date: 50 * 12 / 15 (per punet of shop baught) = 40, 40 * £1 = £40
• Cucumbers to date: 80, 80 * £1 = £80
• Potatoes: (not yet all picked) 12, 1 bag, £3
• Chillis: 4, 1 pack, £3
• Peppers, 8, 2 packs, £4
• Dwarf beans, 200, 10 packs, £30
• Runner beans, 80, 8 packs, £24

So without any of my other crops, onions, spring onions, sweet corn, betroot, carrots and loads of all the other to pick we are looking at an income / savings of: £184.

So I have all the equipment, seeds and still more crops to come and they have almost paid for themselfs!

Say ne more.