crops

Steve’s Leaves. Not.

I was reading a magazine the other day and its cookery section extolled the virtue of something called Steve’s Leaves, bags of ready-to-eat loose leaf salad which you can buy on Ocado apparently. I was curious to know exactly what was in the bags so I duly headed to Ocado and found that it consisted of 60 g of pea shoots, baby spinach and baby chard. For £1.35. Given that I’ve been picking the equivalent of this at least every other day for well over a month, I feel quite smug! Pictured right is Lottie and a bowl of baby chard, parsley, oak leaf lettuce, rocket, pea shoots, Welsh onion, baby spring onions, red mustard leaves and chive flowers. BTW, the red mustard is starting to bolt so in future I shall be sowing it half a packet at a time rather than using a whole packet all in one go.

Can you grow globe artichokes in containers?

As you can see from the picture, the answer to the question is “yes”, but perhaps a more pertinent question is “Is it actually worth growing globe artichokes in containers?” Given that after three years of gradually potting up this particular specimen (it now lives in a pot that’s 14 inches across), it’s managed to produce ONE artichoke, then I’d have to say the answer is “no”. It does look nice though. And we will be eating the artichoke with due ceremony when it grows to full size. On a more prolific note, we do have some nice strawberries coming along – we should end up harvesting enough to fill a half pound punnet… just not all at once LOL.

Giant red mustard… and pea shoots

As you can see below, the giant red mustard that I planted in early April is now coming along nicely – it’s already featured in several of my stir fries and mixed salad lunches. As the plants grow bigger, I just keep on thinning them out and when they no longer need thinning, I’ll just treat them as you would any cut & come again salad crop. Next to the giant red mustard is a container full of pea shoots, grown from a handful of Morrison’s dried peas which cost all of about 40p! Tip: if using pea shoots in stir fries, don’t fry them (it makes them go all fibrous and lose their lovely delicate flavour) – just cut them up raw with some spring onions, and sprinkle on top.

One Ball, Black Beauty and Golden Zucchini

…are the varieties of the three courgette seedlings I bought at a local charity shop yesterday – I will be planting them in suitable containers this week, with a mulch of home made compost! I told the man who sold them to me of my singular lack of success when growing container courgettes in the past. “What size container did you use?” he asked. I made a gesture to indicate 12 inches or so. “Ooh no, that’s not big enough”, he said. You need something really big for a courgette. Really big it is then. See if that makes a difference.

More tomato stuff

Yesterday I potted up four of my Brandywine tomato plants into a trough filled with a 50/50 mixture of home made compost and bog standard container compost, bought from Aldi. I’ve chucked a lot of the other Brandywine seedlings out because they just looked too wind- and/or sun-scorched. Ditto some of the Gardener’s Pearl, although I did pot up seven of those into hanging baskets. They’re all going to have to take their chances in the big outdoors now, anyway.

Next year I shall plant my tomatoes a bit later – say, the middle of April, so that I can transfer them outside asap without having to worry about them being damaged by the elements! This part of England is a bit deceptive; it’s sunny and hot (compared with say, Manchester), but the April winds do blow ‘cos we’re surrounded on three sides by the sea!

Sunburn on my tomatoes!

Here’s a tip for all you tomato growers out there: when you harden off your tomato plants, don’t put them in bright sunlight – at least, not for the first few days anyway. The poor things get sunburn (or leaf burn if you want to use the technical term)! This is particularly true of my Brandywine tomatoes; the other two varieties I’m growing (Gardener’s Delight and Gardener’s Pearl) don’t seem to be as bothered by the sun. Apparently (see here), the thing to do is put your tomato plants in a shady spot for the first few days of hardening off, and then they’ll be OK. And don’t get water on the leaves, either.

Giant red mustard

Last week I planted some giant red mustard seeds, which are already making an appearance, as you can see below. I had a few left over, so I planted them in my garlic troughs to fill up the space. If the slugs and snails don’t nobble it, we will be enjoying some very exotic stir fries in a few months’ time.

Spring onions

I planted these spring onions back in March and straight away afterwards, we had a cold spell so I was worried that they wouldn’t sprout. But they have, as you can see! When planting them in pots (as opposed to in the ground) is that you ignore the bit on the packet that says “sow thinly” and just pack ’em in. As they grow bigger, you just thin them out gradually and eat the thinnings, which are gorgeous in salads. I love spring onions so much that I’ve since planted another lot, in an old washing up bowl with holes I punched in the bottom. (Tip: to create a hole, hold a large metal skewer in a gas flame and poke it into the washing up bowl. Repeat as often as necessary. Don’t stand too near your smoke alarm when you do this.)

Brandywine tomato seedlings part deux

This is what the Brandywine seedlings look like now I’ve potted them up into individual pots. (It’s Saturday as I write this and the potting up took place on Wednesday. Took me ages, because I had to (a) find enough suitable pots in the corners of the garden, and (b) rinse them off to remove dead snails/spider eggs/worms.) Anyway, the Brandywine seedlings are the ones at the back – the ones towards the front are Gardener’s Pearl. They’ve got smooth-edged leaves, rather than the slightly curly-edged ones that you expect on tomatoes. Today I also potted up ten Gardener’s Delight seedlings, so all being well it should be a tomatotastic summer again!

Brandywine tomato seedlings

Well, I planted the Brandywine tomato seeds and here, about a fortnight later, is what the resulting seedlings look like. They will need to be transferred to individual pots very soon. I’ve also got a few seedlings of something called Gardener’s Pearl, which is a hanging basket tomato (it came as part of a big packet of mixed tomato and basil seeds, which I bought from my local pound shop last year). I was going to plant Tumbling Toms again this year, but what with the Brandywine, the Gardener’s Pearl and some good ol’ Gardener’s Delight that I’ve also just planted, I think the Tumbling Toms would be overkill. Even we can’t eat that much chutney LOL.