Due to shielding my wife, the back garden including the patio was taken over to grow Tomatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Mint and Potatoes. I've had a few harvests already but though perhaps I should take some photos before it's all over so lets have a quick whiz around the back garden
The Quadgrow has performed magnificently on the patio and I'm so looking forward to getting this installed in the new greenhouse on the plot next year.
The next Gigantimo tomato turning red, not quite as large as my first picking
The Gigantimo tomatoes in the Bio Green City Jungle are growing well, the plant really needs a trim and tidy up now so that the large tomatoes that are on it can max out. This is another reason I took the photos before the plants get their next hair cut.
I have now harvest four punnets of tomatoes from these plants
There are a few more punnets to be had, I'm keeping an eye to see if any splitting is occurring and if I spot it then I will harvest them to prevent losses
The mini and micro tomatoes in the Space Saver Greenhouse are doing well and I will soon be harvesting these as well. Two Buckets of new potatoes have been harvested and consumed and the next two buckets will be harvested during this week when the rain stops.
The envii
web site states that SEAFEED XTRA is an "Organic liquid seaweed fertiliser
that contains additional iron and plant based amino acids to improve a plants
root development and crop yield."
Envii use Ascophyllum Nodosum seaweed
which is harvested in the UK between April & October when it is at its
healthiest. They then add additional iron and plant based amino acids to
provide plants with further nutrients.
Seaweed has been used for centuries by gardeners and is
still recommend by celebrity gardeners. Using a liquid seaweed fertiliser
allows easy and convenient access to the benefits of this natural plant aid,
without having to scour the beaches collecting your own seaweed and processing
it.
What makes SeaFeed Xtra special?
·Includes additional iron and plant based amino acids.
·Protects plants from harsh weather conditions.
·It is 100% organic.
·Provides plants with essential nutrients and minerals.
·Contains one of the highest concentrations of seaweed.
The dosage rates in English
can be found on the back of the bottle
The same information in
other languages can be found by pulling back the rear label.
The product can be applied either
via foliar spray or root drench, again following the guide on the bottle
Reapplication every 7-10
days is recommend for the best results
SeaFeed Xtra is suitable for everything, from
vegetables to shrubs and hedges. The NPK of SeaFeed Xtra is 0.9-0.6-0 but it also includes
extra iron and plant based amino acids sourced from sugar cane. None of the
ingredients have been sourced from animals and the product has been recognised
as being organic
Now what I really like about this product is that it
has an in built dosage measuring chamber that can’t be lost and makes using the
product clean quick and easy. As you can see there are different values marked on the front and the back of the bottle.
The camera doesn’t really do justice to the visibility
of graduation scales, so I took a sharpie pen to them just to make them stand
out better for the photos above.
As you squeeze the bottle the liquid rises up the tube
on the side and floods into the chamber and you can use the appropriate side to
measure the amount you need based on how you are going to apply it and what you are applying it on.
I’ve now been using this product on my tomatoes pre
flowers to help green them up a bit as some where a bit washed out this year,
on my potatoes and my young Agapanthus and mint plants and I have to say the
results have really been good. I would go as far as to say I don't think I have ever had so healthy looking foliage on my spuds in buckets.
I will be using this product in the future and next year I'm going to try an experiment treating half a vegetable with Seafeed Xtra and the other half without and see what the difference in quality of final harvest produce is. Now that my tomatoes are showing flowers I'm now feeding them with the envii Maximato Tomato Feed.
The Small Print. I have not been paid to review this product, I'm not on commission and I was simply provided with the product to trial and review.
Gigantomo Tomato and Trellis added to the Bio Green City Jungle, it took quite some time to fill up the water reservoir but the level indicator in the front left corner is so useful showing you the progress and when you are going to need to top up the water. I'm going to put a cucumber plant either side of the planter so they can grow up the trellis.
The Treasure Island Sweet Potato collection arrived today from Thompson & Morgan and there were in excellent condition unlike a number of plug plants that fellow gardeners on Facebook have been sharing recently. I think people forget that Saturday deliveries have been stopped in most areas because of a reduction in staff and a backlog of mail. During these times they need to give Thompson & Morgan a little latitude.
The patio garden is not looking bad considering that SWMBO informed me I was not allowed to turn the patio into a substitute allotment plot whilst we are shielding her and I can't get to my plot. It was really useful that I had the Quadgrow, Elho Tomato Panter, Bio Green Maxitom & Bio Green City Jungle at home and had not taken them to the allotment before self isolating & lockdown started #IsolatedGardeners I have a long article and review of the Quadgrow planned, It was near completion when I had a hard disk failure so I'm having to re create it for posting next month, so keep an eye out or use this link to find all information re the Quadgrow The timber decking tiles really need replacing unfortunately they no longer sell the diagonal ones and I have already replaced those that were at the end of their life with the parallel to edge in the middle that are at least the same size on plan.
Eight flower buckets of first early spuds are doing well on the left and the rest of the flower buckets have two dwarf or mini. micro tomatoes in them apart from the two buckets in front of the broken fencing trellis which will have cucumbers planted in them.
Those nice people at BioGreen sent me a CityJungle, Stand and Cover to play with and review and below is a short video of the unboxing and assembly of the stand and the City Jungle for your viewing pleasure. It may be worth watching the video before reading the review.
The City Jungle is aimed at those with small terrace, patios, yards or flats with a small balcony, and provides an area 0.2 square metres if growing space with a generous 34 litre compost/ soil capacity for the growth of homegrown vegetables, herbs or flowers, with a maximum total weight of 120kg. It has been designed and engineered in Germany and comes flat packed, and as seen in the video above is assembled very easily. The obligatory manual in many languages and illustrations is provided and easy to follow. The product has a built in reservoir in the base that holds 17 litres of water and is easily filled via either of the two water fill port spouts built into the long compartment plates that form the walls to the container element of the product. A water level indicator is provided so that you can monitor water levels and know when a top up is necessary.
A heavy duty frame can be provided for climbing plants or just plant support, and for supporting the optional cover. I'm growing a coupe of Gigantomo tomatoes in my City Jungle that is now sitting on my patio. The manual states that City Jungle should not be used at locations where a wind speed of more than 11m/s or 25mph is expected. This is the first product of this kind that gives that level of information and as a structural engineer I like it, see my article on Blow-A-Ways
Optional Extras include a stand and a cover to turn the City Jungle into greenhouse, which is ideal if you want to plant out and offer some light frost protection to what you are growing or additional heat for peppers etc.
Whilst I was assembling the City Jungle and was having to bend down, I suddenly realised I could do that on the stand which raises the whole thing up an additional 360mm. The stand is to make using the City Jungle more back friendly when standing or sitting, and it certainly helped me when assembling and photographing, and ultimately planting and filling with water,
The dimensions of the stand Height 360mm Width 690mm Depth 410mm
The City Jungle, Stand and Cover were so well packaged for transporting, I was impressed. The recycled packing paper was shredded and has provided me with two buckets worth or brown material for my composting daleks. The carboard box will be used for a no dig bed or under my woodchip path. In 2019 Bio Green made inroads into America and opened a warehouse there last year, and in 2020
they are looking to make the same inroads into the UK despite Brexit and the Coronavirus. They
currently bring all UK products in from Germany but plan to open a UK warehouse
in the near future once the UK business is big enough repeating the success found in America.
At the moment there is no UK Bio Green web site, if you try biogreen.co.uk what you get is a translated German version with prices in Euros which is most confusing, not all the pages are fully translated and in fact makes people think that their products are more expensive than they really are, and prices in Euros puts British gardeners off buying from it. Bio Green is a family business set up in 1984 and is run today by Alfred & Jan Brusius and if I can give them any advice in making inroads into the UK market it would be, please bite the bullet and make a dedicated UK web site with prices in £ As I have discussed before in my article Gardening for Health and particularly at this time of lockdown and Isolation, growing plants and vegetables, and playing with soil has great therapeutic value. #IsolatedGardeners In discussion with the Matt Evans the UK marketing Manager for Bio Green if you like the look of the City Jungle and have a small space in which you would like to grow, and would like to purchase whilst the Garden Centres are closed you can order via Matt using the email at Matt.Evans@biogreen.co.uk or directly from the Biogreen order line 01772 368023 £59.99 JGL City Jungle Basic (Base Unit Only) £39.99 JGL-TR Tower £89.99 JGL-T City Jungle with Tower Saving of £9.99 £39.99 JGL-S City Jungle Stand £29.99 JGL-C City Jungle Cover These prices are correct at the time of publishing this article and include UK Mainland post and packaging The small print I have not been paid to write this review and I'm not on commission in any way shape or form I just like the product, and Matt is a really nice guy.
