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  1. September Harvest

    September 19, 2005 by John

    We got home from holiday on Sunday to a bumper harvest:

    Courgettes and tomatoes:
    courgettes and tomatoes

    The courgettes (variety Zucchini) come from three main plants with two or three smaller plants. The tomatoes are from six greenhouse plants (three cordons in large pots, three Tumblers in hanging baskets) and two Totem plants in outdoor pots. Outdoor tomatoes have been very successful this year, which surprised me at this latitude.

    And a single pear from our Conference pear tree:
    pear

    We did not expect any fruit this year, so were surprised by the single pear. We hope for more next year.

    Category Food, Garden | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Gardening on a bank holiday

    June 3, 2005 by John

    Although we had intended to go for a walk on Bank Holiday Monday, we ended up slumming around in the garden all day. Jacqueline was planting dahlias, I was planting out new salad crops and sowing more beans.

    Here are a couple of pictures taken in the evening, with the sun on the houses opposite
    jungly garden

    And of the veg plot. I’m trying Square Foot Gardening this year, and it makes the veg plot look much more organised. The big area of bare soil is set aside for my courgettes and squashes.
    veg plot

    A very relaxing way to spend a day.

    Category Garden | Tags: | 2 Comments

  3. Sunny Glasgow

    April 24, 2005 by John

    We’ve had a cracking weekend in Glasgow – both Saturday and Sunday saw unbroken blue skies.

    On Saturday, we went down the Clyde Valley to get a few plants in the garden centres (tomatoes, peppers etc), then we had a great circular 7.5 mile walk starting and finishing at New Lanark. Most of the walk was in t-shirts, followed by ice cream at the end.

    On Sunday we spent a bit of time in the garden. I’m experimenting with a new technique called Square Foot Gardening, that splits the vegetable garden into 1 square foot sections, to enable better planning, succession planting, plant spacing and usability of the veg plot. I’ve started with some broad beans, in four 4×4 squares.
    Square Foot veg patch
    Only another 75 squares to go! I’m hoping that Square Foot Gardening will help me to be better organised, and to have less wasted space in our limited veg plot. I’ll keep making posts here through the summer.

    Category Garden | Tags: | No Comments

  4. Little aliens

    March 20, 2005 by John

    beansThe broad beans (variety=Sutton) we planted on 6th March are now “little aliens”, having sprouted in the last day or two, poking their little alien heads above the compost. These are a short (40cm) variety, and they worked really well as a bean hedge last year.

    Other work in the garden today:

    • Planted Dunluce potatoes in the first potato barrel.
    • Potted up some strawberry runners that had self-propogated in front of the greenhouse.

    Category Garden | Tags: | 1 Comment

  5. Sunday in the garden

    March 13, 2005 by John

    To compensate for Ireland losing to France, spent Sunday afternoon in the garden liberally scattering Marshall’s Organic Farmyard Manure and Silver Birch Mushroom Compost. The garden now stinks (so we apologise to the neighbours).

    Seeds in the greenhouse are doing well – the sweet peas are well on, today we just spotted the first “little alien” of a broad bean, and the rocket in the drainpipe has just started to grow.

    Spring has sprung. Weather forecast is for warmer but wetter weather. Maybe it’s time for war on slugs…

    Category Garden | Tags: | 7 Comments

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