Tree pruning time

This week I have pruned the apple and pear trees to keep them producing lots of fruit. This is year two for the trees so I have pruned each branch by a third of the new growth to encourage more side shoots which will produce the fruit next year.
The tomatoes germinated but don't look like they are going to survive. I think I took them out of the propagator too early. Next time I will leave them in until the first leaves are more established. The cucumber and pepper pants are doing fine though. We have fair new apple trees delivered yesterday so they will go in this weekend.

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December 2010

The year is nearly over but the new planting year has just started. I decided this year to start off the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers early. I have planted up 3 Tiffany F1 cucumber seeds, 3 suncherry premium F1 tomato seeds, 3 Rosada F1 tomato seeds and 3 Jalopeno Summer Heat F1 chilli seeds. All are in a heated propagator in the living room. I have saved half the seeds from each packet to do a later sowing if things don't work. I've gone with F1 hybrids this year mostly because I prefer fresh seed every year and you get too much normal seed in a pack to use in one year.
I'm going to be updating regularly this year so I have a record of what went well for next year.

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The start

I decided to start this blog a little late into the season so most of the early planting has been done but to give you a bit of a catch-up here's a quick summary of what's growing at the moment.

• Bed 1: Tomatoes planted out in May after being started out in the greenhouse. We've got various varieties all which should be OK outside. We've also got a row of Rocket and basil dotted about the bed to try to control the pests.


• Bed 2: This is our salad bed. It's got a variety of lettuces planted out from modules in May. We've been picking these for quite a few weeks now.


• Bed 3: This is a bit of a variety bed with two rows each of Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Leeks and Celery.


• Bed 4: The stawberrry bed. Planted this up in April with plants from Woolworths, not the best plants as some of them died. What is left is doing well and I've replaced the dead ones with plants from a nursery. We've had strawberries on the plants for about three weeks now.


• Bed 5: This is mostly Sweetcorn planted in a block formation with a small block of bush tomoatoes al planted up in May after starting off in the greenhouse.


• Bed 6: The Onion bed. I've go t amixture of Red, White and Yellow onions all planted up on the spring equinox and garlic planted up in February. The onions are doing really well but the garlic is taking a bit of a battering from the wind. Think I planted it a bit late.


• Bed 7: Another variety bed with two rows each of turnips, early cabbage, parsnips, spring onions and radishes. Everything is flourishing in this bed. We've beed eating the radishes for about a month now and have just started on the turnips.


• Bed 8: This is the pea bed with half normal peas and half tall sugar snap peas. I di dan early sowing in March whcih was not very succesfull but later sowing in May has all germinated. I'm supporting the peas with fallen branches from the nearby trees.


• Bed 9: This has the beetroot, some carrots and some spinach. The beetroot started in the greenhouse in modules in February and got planted out in April, it's nearly ready for picking so I've got another lot coming along in modules in the greenhouse to replace it. The carrots have come up but look a bit weak, I've planted a row of spring onions in between to try to keep the carrot fly down, not sure if this will work. The spinach is just aobout ready after being sown straight in the ground in late March.
• As well as the beds we've got 6 large pots with 2 courgette plants in each which we're started off in the greenhouse and planted out in May. We've had our first few courgettes this week. There are also four more pots containing runner beans and dwarf french beans along with climbing french beans. For the potatoes I've used potato planters from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. I've plated 4 tubors each of charlotte potatoes in three of the planters and 3 tubours each of maris piper in the other three. When you pplant the tubors you wait for them to grow up and then earth up to the top of the planter. They are now fully earthed up.
• Then we've got our herb bed with various herbs and a small bed full of lavender.
• We've planted up an apple, a pear and a cherry tree in around the pond at the top and finally we've got the large plum tree which is bursting with plums at the moment and various berry bushes left over from the last gardener.