Big Greenhouse de-glazed

Today we had a work party to dismantle the glass from the Big Greenhouse. This has been on the to-do list for over 6 months and we wanted to do it before the winter winds make it impossible. About a dozen people offered to help and I prayed that the weather would calm down, but things were not looking good. Then, luckily, a break in the southward-advancing cold winds gave us a perfect day with only 6pmh winds and a few gusts.
11 of us showed up and we stripped all the remaining glass in less than 4 hours!
So, many thanks to Becky, Helen, Nick, Ruth, Jono, Richard, Will, Ann and Peter. And many thanks to Lynne for a wonderful lunch and copious coffee!
Job Done!!!

Glasshouse tryptych

I worked with Joel's dad Alan fixing up the lower greenhouse glass. Kinda went ok.

Altoculumus Lenticularis

Here is Sunday night's sunset after a beautiful weekend of blue sky, sun and clouds shaped like UFOs.

Last tomato crop

Today I did the last major tomato crop, almost 7 kilos. There are a few healthy ones hanging in there but most are now withering and going funky.
I will be making a special green chutney with the unripe ones, together with green sweet peppers and green chilli - Green Chilli Chutney!
Sungold seem to be the most resilient of the eight varieties that we have, although Moneymaker have done very well too.
I don't think it's blight affecting the Purple Beefsteak - it's simply age. They are definitely more susceptible to adverse conditions but they've also produced very well.
All of the inside tomatoes have done particularly well for us this year. I don't have an exact account of the total weight produced. We've sold about 25 kilos; I've made 6 batches of sauce & chutney with at least 3 kilos in each, so another 20 kilos; given away about 10 kilos and eaten about the same; then the 7 kgs here and another 3 or so left on the vines. So in all somewhere around about 70 kilos have come out of the marquee this year. Bonanza!

I still have a few left for seed-saving this week.

Here are the funky ones:

All steamed up

I gave everything in the marquee a big old soaking last night and this is the result! With the outside temperature in the early teens and the sun pushing the inside temp toward 30, my camera's plastic lens doesn't stand a chance...

It's a cover-up

A visitor

Go! Catch rats!!

A week goes by...

I've been meaning to take photos of our gradually thinning crops and then realising that it doesn't look particularly interesting! The indoor tomatoes are looking very skinny with their single stems and a few fruit hanging on.
I began taking out the withered remains of the outside crops - the tomatoes were all blighted, the sweetcorn dried up and wind-blown, the karashina forlorn without bees and the salad looking sad in the autumn light.
It's now very cold and even the toughest plants are going to sleep.

Indoors today reached 20 degs, so still some summer feeling, but night time is getting cold and new leaves are becoming more rare.

Tomorrow I will be doing a major clearout, which I'm kindof looking forward to. I haven't decided what to plant indoors after the tomatoes. I will heap the beds up and pull out the bottom half of the compost heaps and mulch the marquee, add stinky and then keep hoeing down for a week or two until it settles. By then I'll have decided which winter crops to put in.

Final salad crop

Today I did a 30 bag crop for Liz & Joel's box scheme. There has been a lot of wind damage on the outside salad, and it's all getting very old anyway. So i cropped very harshly. It was difficult to find enough leaves to make up the amount and some of the leaves were of a condition that I wouldn't normally allow into the bags, but still good enough for me to eat.
I spent over 6 hours doing this crop (with a nasty hangover!) and then took them over to Joel's for delivery.
We have now run out of bags - the last 26 bags out of the 1000 bag batch, which means that we've made and delivered 1000 salad bags since February when we began selling!
I made a final new label 'Rocket Rainbow'.

In many ways I am quite relieved that I've finished doing salad bags because they really are a chore, especially when the weather is bad and when the slugs have been busy.
Now I must concentrate on clearing beds and wrapping everything up for winter.

We owe Joel some money for salad that we've used from his beds, which when including what we owe for water and then converted to time means that I will work 10 hours for Joel mending the windows in the Bothy greenhouse and doing some planting.
The economics of all this doesn't really work out very favorable for me - I've been working for almost nothing in the end. I'll just have to put it down to experience. Which is fine, but it's another reason why I'll be glad when I'm free from having to bust my butt in the wind and rain for a few quid.

Again, it feels very sad to be coming to the end of this experience. Being on my own at the gardens without Junka is hard work. There is still so much to do and it's not so much fun without Junka. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount that needs doing.

But hey! Chin up! A few more days of hard work and things will get much easier and I'll be able to see and think more clearly about what to do in the last remaining months.

Goodbyeee Tomatoes

Today I continued stripping out the finished tomatoes in the marquee. It's beginning to look more empty now. It feels really sad!
I was very methodical, moving through the beds taking out the bare plants and stripping off all but the remaining tomatoes on healthy plants. There is still some more of this to do but I'm pleased with my progress so far.

Autumn take down

Today I began stripping out tomatoes from the marquee. I picked 7 kilos and took out several bare plants. The Courgettes at the front of the marquee are still doing their best to produce, so I cleaned them up, re-trained them and cleared the invading Nasturtium.
I need to get on with collecting tomato seeds!
The outside tomatoes are now finished. I will begin clearing outside beds soon. Today and tomorrow I will will cropping the last of the outside salad for Joel & Liz's box scheme. The bolted Karasina will be coming out as the bees are now disappearing and no longer frequent the flowers. I want to get the outside covered by plastic so that I can concentrate my efforts on the marquee without worrying about the outside becoming weed-infested.
It's always a little sad to see crops go, but I'm trying to reduce the amount of time I spend at the gardens so that I can concentrate on other work.
I will be planting some winter crops and maybe supply some new salad bags over winter.

I'm looking forward to clearing everything up and making it all more easily managable as it's a lot to deal with on my own.

Peas on 2nd season

A month or more ago I rescued some pea sprouts that self-set from our summer pea crop, and today I ate the first of this second generation crop. Very sweet and juicy.
The indoor pumpkins have also have a second summer with three new babies on the way.
On Monday we had a celebration for Lynne's birthday and for the soup starters we supplied the pumpkins from this patch. I gave Derek all but one of our crop this year (besides a few we've eaten) which weighed over 10kg. The idea was that he choose which ones he wants and let me have the rest back. He used them all.
Mind you, the 3 biggy cinderellas outside are growing proper huge!

Today was another beautiful clear day. I went to the gardens to check on our plants and to clean and polish our VW. I've been meaning to do it for ages. Don't like polishing cars, but it has to be done because Gerty is a rusty old gal and with the salty Borth wind she needs all the protection she can get. And since she's our salad delivery van, it's only fair to include her here!
Anyways, she's happy and shiny and waterproof now.

Aubergine update

Beautiful Day

Today was the clearest day I've seen in a long time - totally clear sky, deep dark winter blue and sparkling sun.

I cleared up the front of the marquee; cut out all the dead tomato from outside; took out all edges of karashina and shungiko; stinkied the peppers; tidied up and tied down all outside groundsheet

In the evening I made ketchup with St.Pierre & Sungold.

October 5th .... Courgettes still goin strong

Uber Auber

Aubergine 1 is GO!
Aubergine 2 is GO!
Peppers are lookin good.

Goodbye Gardens

Today I handed in our notice at Ynyslas Gardens. It was hard to do and made us sad. Decisions.. We've put so much work into it, seems a shame to let it go.
We are planning to be involved in Borth Community Gardens, or what it be named.

And so here is the marquee with its late summer crops.

I wish Junka were here.

Autumn closing in

The autumn chills are setting in. Summer plants are beginning to go to sleep. Mad rush to get the rest of the ripe tomatoes picked and given away or made into sauce for storage. Ketchup is my latest favourite to make.

Some tomato plants are now finishing. I need to start more Kabu, Japanese leaf and winter garlic using some cloves from last winter's crop.

Much to do and finding hard on my own...

Sunny sunny

Beautiful day, 28degs in the polytunnel, happy happy tomatoes!
We have an Aubergine!! O yes, we thought it wouldn't happen but it has! (photo to follow shortly)
Today I cleared up outside:
- Emptied the couche grass bin and spread the contents on the empty ground soon to be seeded with alfalfa. The existing alfalfa bed next to it has not sprouted very well and will be seeded again.
- Refilled the couche bin with grass from the north end.
- Removed wild grasses and weeds from the surface of all blacksheet.
- Moved Butternut Squash indoors (it's still alive!) and extended the blacksheet.
- Removed infected branches from tomatoes.
- Weeded salad beds.
Inside:
- Culled dead pumpkin branches and gave super-stinky mix to boost new buds.
- Weeded and cut back Courgettes.
- Prepared bed for remaining salad seedlings.

Siwan and Bodge visited for a looky around and to discuss the new field in Borth. Sounds good.

Back to Wales

Junka is back in Japan and Chris is now tending the crops and fighting the slugs all on his own!
Things are looking ok - 20kgs of courgettes, one weighing 2.5 kgs (it's a Marrow...)
Lots of Tomatoes and plenty of bolted salad.
Nisa are begging for stuff - they've begun taking party bookings, so all those I need to get more salad on the go.
Unfortunately one whole bed of new lettuce outside has been completely destroyed by slugs - only the stems are left.
Fortunately the Cos inside are doing fine, if a little large in the leaf.
Tomorrow I will begin clearing up and crop the excess, clear the bolters, sort the weeds and plant some more salad.
I also need to start saving tomato seeds for next year. And make more sauce. And and and...

Tomato Chutney

Today was the possibly the first and last hot day in August. I was drenched in sweat after planting out karashina. Chris dug out a new bed without shirt. I found out that lettuce & komatsuna planted lately disappeared, obviously eaten by slugs, and so sprinkled slug pellets on the bed. Because Chris has been taking out slugs constantly, there are not many huge ones as seen in Joel's field, but they are harsh enough for baby plants.

I transplanted komatsuna inside and Chris sowed more lettce directly onto outside bed. These days people turn up to buy vegetables. It is nice way for both producer and customer.

We have been cropping lettuce heavily for Boulders and realized that we will be running out of supply soon. We made new beds and transplanted cos lettuce inside and outside.

Kinpira Gobo

Gobo was beautifully grown and I cooked kinpira with the gobo. This is small variety, 40 cm long but tasted good. It reminds me of Japan so much!

Edamame and sweetcorn

We enjoyed fresh edamame today. All people who try to grow edamame in this country said to me that soya beans are grown well with lots of beautiful leaves but have a few pods. It is probably due to lack of heat. As our edamame was grown inside, they have plenty pods and taste delicious! On the other hand, sweetcorn was not as sweet as we expected. Is it just the variety? or any other reason?

Veg Box

We started veg box for Japanese family in Aberystwith. We delivered various boxes with some Japanese vegetable like gobo, kabu, edamame, shiso plus basic summer veg such as tomato and courgette etc. It was so good to have their feedback saying that I cooked this, enjoyed that. Sounds like our tomatoes are very popular.

Weather or not

Over the last few days we've had monsoon style rain - sudden bursts of extreme precipitation. Today is sunnier. I'm hoping for a hot weekend.
Today we cropped for Treehouse, Family, Nisa and Boulders.
I'm getting loads of kitchen waste from Nisa - about 2 buckets per day. It's not all organic, but I'm thinking that once it's been through the compost it'll break most 'additives' down.

Wynnstay delivery

We delivered cougette, basil and shiso to Wynnstay hotel in Mach. The restaurant is well known as the best food in Wales and we are proud of supplying to them.

Soggy day

Today we hid from the drizzle in the Marquee, hoping that the rain would ease so that we could crop outside salad. But it didn't, so a merry half hour was spent by Chris outside picking a kilo for Nisa!
Beefed up [D3/4] with compost and liquid, ready in a week or so for japanese leaves.
Took out some of the flowering weeds from the Marquee sweetcorn. Needs more.
Hoed the outdoor paths.
Re-covered GHab(cd) that were dug over by japanese students on Friday.

We ate out first Sweetcorn tonight! Not as sweet as we had hoped, but great all the same.
For our main course we had roasted veg from the garden - onion, garlic, potato, small sugar pumpkin (not quite ripe), green pepper, tomato, courgette, carrot, and a little bit of oil, bacon and butter. Niiiice!!

Junka sowed Karashina, Umaina (delicious leaf), and syungiku.

Today we delivered to Nisa:
600g lettuce
150g kara/shun
600g cherry toms
125g basil

Lucky number day

Today was 8/8/8 and we had 8 japanese students from CAT who were doing a practical module of their course. They did diggy diggy of [Gab] and [Habcd] and the old potato and garlic beds [ABCdefg]. We then planted Alfalfa onto [ABCde]. Later I will also plant ABCfg with the same and do control feeding with different inputs.
The students also helped with collecting nettles for liquid compost (i didn't bother weighing this batch) which we added to the existing batch in the barrel.
They also helped crop down some of the grass along the greenhouse wall, adding this to both compost piles.
Much work was accomplished. We love enthusiastic volunteers! :o)

Tomato parade

Salad spreading

A new bed opened up from beneath covers to accomodate salad thinnings. Chris did the digging, Junka the planting.
Chris diluted the barrel of nettle tea by half. A week or so ago Misato collected 8.5kg of nettle which was added to 85 litres of water. The nettles have since liquified and we now have a batch of around 170 litres. This should then be diluted 5:1. I've also been reading that nettle fertilizer should be allowed to fully ferment (stop frothing) before being used as it produces heavy chemicals during the process. We have around 50 litres of 10:1 in the bothy which we should used first!
We have been cropping salad heavily to supply Nisa for their new coffee lounge, Boulders. This is great for business, but we really don't have enough to keep up with demand: 66 units of salad in the last week (8 kg), which may not seem much, but it's probably a record for us.


Oooh, that's a nice pumpkin!!

Boulders

Today we made our first delivery of salads to Boulders, Derek and Gwenda's new coffee lounge upstairs from Nisa in Borth. We wish them best of luck!!

bolting

Karashina has already bolted although they were young and short. Shyungiku will be bolting soon.
Is it because light? or heat?

Chris and Misato made new beds and I transplanted lettuce and mustard right away.

more lettuce

Today's weather was unstable, on and off shower but still and warm. So it was actually perfect for transplanting lettuce when it was sunny while I worked inside, sowing lettuce in module when it was pissing.

Bird's eye view

lovely day

The first still, sunny, hot summer day for a while. Misato & I transplanted kabu, mustard and karashina. Chris cleared the beds after we cropped the potato and garlic. And we cropped our first carrot!!

Working party

We had 6 adults and 2 children for our working party this weekend. It was a joyful event to crop garlic, potato and broad beans with many people. Almost all ingredients for lunch was from our garden, which was great. We also weeded and mulched and feeded tomato.

Woofer from London

Misato has come from London to help us gardening for a week. We did weeding and cropping together.

Pepper harvest

First harvest sweet peppers. I found loads of lavae of ladybirds on pepper's leaves and all aphids disappeared. Well done ladybirds!

More harvest

Back from London, we found that the broccoli was passing its peak so we quickly harvested and sold them to Treehouse. Indoor sweetcorn has grown so well that it reached the ceiling and started fruiting. We also cropped a pumpkin (small sugar), courgettes, tomatoes, onions, broad beans, peas and spinach.

Our visit to Namayasai

Ｗｅ visited Ikuko, Robin and their young son Kazuo in Lewes over the weekend. They run their own company, Namayasai, growing various Japanese vegetables on 8 acres of land using a natural farming method. A lot of hard work weeding 8 acres by hand! Even using a selective weeding method it still takes time. They had 6 volunteers working with them, mostly young Japanese people.
We learned a great amount from them, especially in the way that they organize their work and learn from past experience and data. It is great to meet people who are dedicating their time to making something work that at times seems impossible. A wonderfully inspiring visit that we hope to repeat in the not-too-distant future. Thankyou Ikuko & Robin!

weeder

i weeded. all afternoon.
arse.

harvest

I thinned out and transplanted karashina and planted out more leek. Cropped tomato, courgette, onion, garlic, french beans & broad beans and cooked them. Delicious!

Food for plants

Peppers started to fruit but aphids still covered all plants. We gave up spraying soapy water and ended up rubbing them with finger every single leaves. I gave them comfrey juice to boost. I also basil nettle juice because they look pale. Potato look all right but they have small black spots on leaves. What a smell! The plants on outside row were particuraly small and I gave them organic potash. I also gave potash to carrot, beetroot and cucumber.

fruit

The Edamame (Soya bean) pods are growing! They look great. Courgette don't look very well with a few and small leaves unusually but were ready to crop. They taste all right.
Peppers look to be failing to fruit. I don't know what the problem is but gave them organic potash. Why are there so many aphids on them?
Today I sowed mustard seeds in module.

more tomato

What a great feeling to see the fresh beds after weeding! I sowed fudansou outside and lettuce(iceburg) and kabu in module. I also planted out tomato which were from cuttings of side shoot. They grew huge roots while soaking in water for a couple weeks, which was impressive. Lylia and matina were ready to crop but don't look great. Loads of aphids were around tomato and I sprayed quite strong soapy water out of wash up liquid.

interesting guest

Today we had interesting guests, mother and two children and her Japanese friend. Chris showed the children cropping potato and raddish. Mika, the japanese was excited to see japanese vegetables. It was chilly and good to work inside. I did most weeding and gave comfrey & seaweed juice to tomato and pepper. Chris made a new bed for tomato.

Working party

We had 7 people to join working party today. We are little bit crumsy because we didn't expect so many people came. Good surprising.
It was amazing that 7 people did weeding so quickly and the beds was beautiful after weeding. We planted out tomato, shiso, and sowed shyngiku. I made lunch from our fresh vegetable cropped this morning. We had a good time chatting over lunch at caravan.

shiso

I planted shiso(japanese basil) on the border of marquee, hoping slug won't attack them. It is perenial herb and grows vigourusly, almost invasive in Japan, even in Hokkaido where is covered with snow for more than 4 months. However, people who have tried to grow shiso in Wales, only two though, failed. It's interesting to see.

Basil

I took out indoor brassicas and planted out basil in their place. I planted out basil on the border next to the tomatoes but they didn't grow well and began bolting. Was it because of heat? Lack of water? Or stress by slug attack? Some of them were actually taken by slugs and disappeared.

Tomato, Leek & Ladybird

Inside tomatoes (Lylia) have begun ripening! I took off their lower leaves and pinched the tops off anything taller than me. Aphids are still around but less than before since more and more ladybirds are coming to work. They are great predators, especially their larvae.
Outside tomatoes don't look good as their leaves seem damaged by wind & cold. I planted out leeks outside following the traditional way, pouring water in hole and not firming.

food for plants2

I ordered organic potash and fed them to tomato, courgette, pepper which are all flowering and fruiting as well as other root vegetables. Hopefully the fertiliser will power them up. Perpetual spinach from last year came back and established. I transplanted some of them. I also sowed seed of lettuce and karashina directly on bed.

plant out

I sowed lettuce (cut and come again) directly on ground after brassica today. Cucumber and melon were also planted out inside. Pepper has flower and so does edamame (soya bean). Tomato fruits are beginning to blush!

Baby Carrot

This is the carrot that thought it was an onion, in the wrong row. But it also happens to be the biggest carrot so far. Could this be a case of good companionship?

food for plants

Tomorrow will be windy and rainy according the weather forecast. Rain will be good as plants are dying for water. I retied tomato and sweetcorn against wind. Courgette and tomato look hungry. I gave mix juice from comfrey & nettle & seaweed for them but not much enough. Chris collected more nettle to make juice but we might need to buy some fertiliser.

clubroot

Shockingly I found another sign of clubroot outside rocket. I should be careful crop early and make quick rotation when growing brassicas. I took out all the rocket and chard too. It was hard to pull out horsetail in order to renew the bed.

plant out

I took out komatsuna which was infected by crubroot. Lettuce(little gem) and tomato(Sungold) were plannted out, so was sweet pepper inside. It has been sunny for more than a week and the ground was very dry. Need for rain. Outside courgette looked wilting and I gave them seaweed&nettle mix juice.

Food festival in Mach

Today we joined the food festival at Winnstay in Machynllth. The event aimed at promoting local growers. We sold our salad bags, raddish, kabu and broadbeans.

weeding

The potato and onion patch turned jungle. We hadn't got around to weed as we were too busy to plant out and absent for two weeks. They are absolutely overgrown. We did a big weeding today. I also planted out tomatoes(Welish farmers law & My gilr) outside and courgette inside. Unfortunetaly we don't have enough mature compost and I gave comfrey pellet and nettle juice.
We cropped kabu and broad beans. They were beautiful and tasty!

Pest and disease

We gave a carefull baggy check on plants. Broad beans looked good and alreay ready for crop but some were attacked by black fly. I rubbed bugs and pinched the top to distruct fly although I should have done early. Tomatoes has huge colony of aphid. I found many ladybirds fighting against them though. Soap spray didn't seem to work, so I rubbed them too. Basil were jagged, supposedly by slugs or wood rice, and so were raddish. Outside blassica, such as chinese cabbage, santona, komatsuna were terribly nibbled by slugs and flea beetles. They became too hard because of harsh weather, strong wind and drying. I found these were not marketable. The final shock was the notorious crubroot on inside komatsuna. It was not too bad, probably the first stage and leaves were still fine. However I decided to take out blassica as soon as possible. We heard that previous farmers also suffered from this annoying disease in this garden, which is said to take 7 years to get rid of.

back from holiday

We are back from the 2 weeks holiday last night. We went to the garden right away and made sure everything was all right. Janet, Chloe&Chambo, Cath helped watering and cropping while we were away. Many thanks to them!
Indoor tomatoes grew so big and crazy. Some leaves were curled and showed yellow and brownish spots, which seem some disease or nutrient deficiency. We tidied them up by chopping off funny leaves and sideshoots. Peas look very dry and old. We also chopped old leaves and cropped the most of fruits, which will hopefully help to encourage new shoot and flower.

outdoor tomato

Unexpectedly, people from Get Growing course came and helped us today. We showed around our garden and made outside tomato bed together, which I gave up doing before holiday. Great! We planted Welsh Farmers Law and My Girl which I am expected to report to the Seed Saver, also cutting sideshoot of Lilya and St.Pierre. My girl were not sturdy and healthy whereas Farmers Law looked very good. Soil seemed fluffy and rich enough, so I didn't give any food but nettle juice. We supported tomatoes and sweetcorn by cane because the wind last night snapped sweetcorn.

Today was so windy that we have up planting out gobo although Chris made a super fine bed for them. We have two days before going on holiday and asked friends to water plants while we are away. Chris completed the irrigation system and I planted out all plants from modules into pots.

Today was rainy and windy. We worked all day inside. I planted out lettuce(salad bowl) and pumpkin(small suger) between sweetcorn. I found aphid on tomato and rubbed them off. I planted basil, garlic chive and marigold onto the tomato bed. They are all good companion plants for tomato and hopefully help to reppel pests. Nigella and california poppy were also planted on the border. Chris built a watering system using a water but.This will save a lot of time and lavour for watering.

Working party

Chloe and Chambo came to join us for cropping indoor potato. We ate them for lunch and they were delicious!Chris is going to work out the difference of product depending on compost. Sweetcorn(Double standard) was planted out straigt away after potato. Today was windy and some newly planted plants were snapped and blown away. We earthed them up.

Completed Planting out lettuce(salad bowl), komatsuna and rocket. Chris was making the special bed for gobo.

New product

Japanese leaves grown outside are smaller and harder than those inside - tasty but not suitable for salad. It's interesting to see the difference depending on their growing environment.
We cropped early : Japanese leaf mix for stir-fry and a mix named Rainbow Salad, which is lettuce & rocket with various flowers: nasturtium, borage and sage. Very pretty.

Junka planted courgette and french bean inside.
We made a careful check for aphids on the salad and rubbed or sprayed soap water wherever we saw them. Catapillar eggs were on the broccoli only one day after planting. It seems we will have to fight against pest all summer.
Chris rigged up one of the new water butts as a huge nettle collection bin to make 200 litres of liquid compost. This is at the Stinky Station where you can get all your high-nutrient liquid fertilizer!
Chris planted out the rest of the White Cos lettuce from modules.

Broccoli was planted out. I didn't have time to put any organic matter and feed fertilizer and liquid compost from nettle and seaweed. I put cane to support the plants from wind.

more plant out

Modules are becoming overcrowded. I planted komatsuna and rocket into bigger pots for the time being. Gobo, leeks and lettuce need to be planted outdoor as soon as possible. Chris planted out pumpkin(Cindellara) between sweetcorn on the same bed. I planted out courgette(Albavellodi Sarzana) and sowed more(Nero di Milano) in pots.

plant out

Lovely sunny day. Chris planted out sweetcorn(golden bantam). I made beds for courgette and broccoli, putting chopped rocket, comfrey and nettle as well as seaweed & comfrey juice. They all have been ready for weeks but we haven't got around to make beds. Indoor beds are becoming weedy and messy. I wanted weeding but there are more seedlings in pots and module waiting to go to new beds. So many things to do!

Seedling Saturday

We joined Seedling Saturday at Machynlleth and hold a stall in the event. Unfortunately, we haven't got much stuff for selling after supplying to local shops and sold some seedlings of komatsuna, karashina instead. We showed Japanese food recipe and taste for demonstration. It would have been a good chance to sell our salad bags in bulk but it was worthwhile as we could let people know our garden. Some of them are interested in our working party. We also got some interesting seedlings and look forward to planting out them.

Tomatos are growing well and Lilya started fruiting. I tied string with them and cut sideshooting. I also planted marigold next to the tomatoes. The soil inside the marquee looks dried and thin. We put a lots of chopped chard and grass cutting onto the beds. There is need for irregation and ventilation before summer. We cropped more potato. Some were very big!

suffering

We had difficult time with cropping this morning. Rocket became bolting and too hot, santona and lettuce don't look very good because they got burnt with heat and attacked aphid. I was expecting to be able to crop outside but they don't look good either. They are suffering from slugs and wind. I was shocked to see some plants blown off by wind.

Keep on Digging...

Up early for a 7-bag treehouse crop.

A fresh batch of stinky nettle juice and another 10 metres of beds dug over on the hottest day yet - 37 degrees in the Marquee and about 24 outside.
Continued digging out new beds outside. Very hot, big tan, burnt my back. Ouch.
Began testing soapy-water spray on indoor salad to combat greenfly and aphids. Mixture possibly too weak and/or Ecover washing liquid is not strong enough. Will try stronger batch tomorrow.
I recruited some Ladybirds from the infested flower outside and brought them into the Marquee in a glass cup. They immediately stared bonking whilst in the cup! The more the merrier...

More planting

A perfectly warm, still day for planting out.
We completed beds outside [Eb+d] and planted out seedlings of Kabu (japanese raddish) and Lettuce (White Cos). No time to put compost into soil as the seedlings have been ready to go to new beds for a while. I put organic fertilizer and special stinky juice of nettle and seaweed.
Hardly finished planting when we had a thunder storm & showers. So we did digging, weeding & hoeing inside instead.
Chris chopped chard, nettles and rotted grass clippings onto new bed [C2] ready for Tomatoes in a couple of weeks.
We moved the cold frame outside and Chris began digging it out and laying in compost.
Junka planted sweet pea and poppy on the border.
Junka took out the radish at the far end [D3] and Chris put chopped up chard, nettles, grass and stinky juices in.

The outside is beginning to look like a real garden now! We were very pleased with our progress today.

slug party

Sunny, still day. Lovely day to work outside. I continued making a new bed (Ebc) after Chris dug out, sowed more carrot and raddish too. Inside was too hot but I tidy up the border, cut back flowers because I found tons of woodlice in there and nibbled crops. Peppers, hot and sweet were planted out. Also planted tomatoes into bigger pots. We cropped potatos, quite big as early potato, and enjoyed them for supper.Delicous! Crhis did proper slug search at night after a couple months and discovered hundreds of slugs and snails having party.

Big croppings

We stayed over at the gardens, rose with the sun and cropped nice & early for Nisa:
Ten bags of No7 (the final crop of Syungiku)
Eleven bags of Tricolor Chard
Thirteen whole Little Gem lettuce
Four bags of new No9 (Kom, Let, Roc & Nasturtium

Junka re-sowed outside beetroot
Chris transplanted perp. spinach & chard to [DEd]
Chris started new outside brassica beds [Ebc]

Hot & Windy

Junka planted more karashina, chinese cabbage, sowed radish inside. Also planted out Japanese snap pea outside. (PHEW!) Courgette, broccoli, peppers, tomato (sun gold), and coriander are big enough to plant out and crowded. I planted them into big pots for now because ned beds are not ready.

It has been superhot summer-style but also very windy.

New Salad

Made new beds for salad (brassica) [DEc]. Planted out komatsuna, karashina and santona. They will be in the next Japanese leaf mix.

Junka re-sowed carrots outside and pricked out borage and nasturtium into pots.

Final Shirona

Cropped five No7 Salad Mix (Kom, Syu, Let, Roc) and secretly added the last usuable Shirona leaves before taking them out. They have served us well for over two months!

At the moment we have very little sellable salad, so we cropped some Chard from outside and gave this to Family.

Evelyn planted out tomatoes in the Marquee.
Junka planted out Edamame in Marquee.

Mix mix

Snail bloom

Today we went to the garden briefly first thing and found that the snails and slugs have come out full force - a combination of rain and warmth has flushed them from their hibernation. The chickens must learn to eat more snails!

We bought some new old tools from the Tre'r DDol car boot sale.
We also bought a Venus Fly Trap plant. What we really need is a Mars Slug Trap plant.

Did a quick crop in the evening and delivered to Nisa for the first time in ages.

New outside bed

Tomato have started flowering.
Planted lettuce and rocket into a new bed outside. Gave special comfrey liquid to tomatoes and stinky nettle liquid to the newly planted salad leaves.

Mum Wooff

We put Chris' Mum Evelyn straight to work digging new beds outside for salad. We have no time for holiday nonsense around here.

New croppings

Cropped the first new potatoes (indoor) just to see how they were: not big but good enough for early potato.
Komatsuna grows quickly, even over night.
Peas have started having pods.
Outdoor: Carrots haven't come out so Junka re-sowed.

Evelyn is here

Chris' Mum arrived. We had a meal with Janet and Fred, eating new potatoes, radish and salad from the gardens.

Heavy sh*t

Chris added another stack of pallettes to to make one big pile out of both because we need a pile that we can use immediately fopr trench-filling with no horse manure in it. So, the double-decker pile on the right is now the manure pile.

tough world

Melon are coming out. I pricked out broccoli and pumpkin into bigger pots. Planted out marigold and basil next to the tomato bed. They are good companion plants for tomato. When the sun came out the marquee turned into a sauna. I had to water salad twice. Even new mizuna and shungiku bolted. This is too harsh for them. Komatsuna taken out for hardning seem to grow well and ready to stay outside but nibbled badly. Looks like outside is also tough world for the veg.

Feeding

I fed comfrey pellet liquid to newly planted tomatoes and peas. Also gave nettle juice to tranplanted santona and karashina. Sprinkled finely chopped corn salad, spinach and nettles onto outside bed in which salad will be planted out next week. We have pile of horse manure but have to wait for months or a year. We are hopefully making hot compost to speed up its breakdown. I cropped rocket and lettuce for the new salad bag, called East West Mix. The new label is pretty.

working party

We held the first working party in our garden this weekend. Three people came and joined us for making new beds. Tomatoes were planted out straight out in the new bed in the marquee. Komatsuna and lettuce will be planted outside next week.
I cooked Japanese food for lunch and we enjoyed the meal together: Spinach & carrot with sweet sesami sauce, cucumber & avocado with wasabi & soya sauce mayonase, oinarisan which is sushi rice in soya beans pastry. We would like to have regular open weekends for anyone interested in growing. It would be a great chance to meet different people, show them how our food is grown, how they are eaten in other countries and get feedback from participants.

temperature control

Today was cloudy and chilly all day long. Then the temperature of the marquee was constantly 13-15 ℃. Salad looks very happy but this was not warm enough for other veg such as tomato, pepper, cucumber and soya beans. When sun comes out, temperature reaches 30 ℃, which is obviously too hot for salad and brassica. Leaves will get hard and bolt soon with heat. I started taking out seedlings of salad outside to harden off, planning to transplant them next week. People say it is too early but who ever know the future weather? I also planted out santona and more lettuce inside for safety.

coming out

Outside potato is finally coming out. Hello spuds! Pepper and basil, which failed to germinate last time, also came out followed by sweet corn(Golden Bantam) and cucumber. I gave diluted nettle juice to mizuna and lettuce. Nettle particulary spring leaves contains a lot of nitrogen and liquid fertilizer from nettle is perfect to boost leaves growth. It is super stinky, though.

summer day

I sowed shiso which was given by my japanese friend in London. She said it is grown well in a container although some people say it is impossible. Let's see. It goes well with tofu hamburger. I love it. Sweet corn(double standard) , Eschsholtzia(mission bells) and Nigella was sown too.Cold frame became busy. I pricked out komatsuna, santona and courgette into bigger pots. Today was sunny and too hot to work inside. 31 ℃！I was also trying to clear the boarder but had to go outside every now and then. Chris turned up in a short pants and we dugged out a bed for brassica, hopefully transplanting komatsuna, karashina in a week time.

Bed time for St Pierre

Today we cleared B1 and planted out 14 St. Pierre and one Lylia tomato. Soon we will be clearing C1234 and putting out the rest of the tomatoes.

Everything is doing really well - the indoor potatoes and peas are flowering.

The salads are all growing well and other seedlings are coming along well.

Soon we will begin to focus more on planting outside. Still a little too cold and windy.

plan plan plan

I sowed more lettuce (salad bowl) in modules as well as kabu, gobo and spinach.
The mizuna and shungiku transplanted from the potato patch look good and will probably be marketable in two weeks time. Strangely, the bed is dried out quickly but constantly mossy around crops.
I'm gradually clearing the salad beds to finish, hopefully after another crop next week. I need to make a new bed for tomato as I keep changing the plan while more and more salad are taking up space. Should we stick to the plan??

crop for market

Today was cropping day for the Treehouse. We are now in the process of clearing old leaves and starting new stuff. Then we are running out of marketable salad and realizing it is difficult not to create gaps of supply. Hopefully new salad would be grown in two weeks for the market. So, I sowed more komatsuna to ensure consecutive supply as well as nira(garlic chive) , chinese cabbage and marigold in a module. I also collected nettles, trying to make liquid compost from the nettles to boost leaves. Tomato and french beans (from seed savers) are coming out in a cold frame.

Columbine

Spuds Beans & Rocket

Garden Army Girl