Four number 15 cell Containerwise modules filled with compost and left in the sun to warm up before 44 Sweetcorn Moonshine F1 - Marshalls seeds sown and placed in the Space Saver Greenhouse with Propagator lids on.
Tomatoes sown a few days ago brought into the house as not germinating in the unheated greenhouse, and I suspect it's because of the low night time temperatures.
5 Vilmer tomatoes from the Joe Mills Grow With Me 2022 potted up into 127mm 5" pots.
2 Shorter Vilmer tomatoes on the shelf
3 Taller Vilmer tomatoes on the floor to the Space Saver Greenhouse.
It was getting time for the tomatoes to be potted up to larger pots, so I didn't water them from the bottom and allowed the soil to dry out a little and then transferred the Aztec tomatoes from the vending machine cups into 127mm or 5" pots.
I've used the clover peat based compost and the plants were heavily watered from the top and the bottom and placed in the space saver greenhouse to recover.
Melons sown on the 15th March 2020. I think those Amarilli Oro Melons on the right need potting on! The Sugar Baby on the left are catching up but the Rugoso di Consenza Giallo seeds from Suttons have not germinated at all, which is a little disappointing to be honest.
The Joe Mills Grow With Me 2022 - Ganovese Basil was sown on the 15th March and from the looks as if it can also do with potting on.
On the 25th March I sowed all 11 Seeds as that's what was in the packet - Aubergine Jewel Marble F1 - Mr Fothergill'sthat was supposed to contain 10 Seeds. I put a Black Beauty in the corner cell, but I'm still waiting for it to show its head. These were the first Aubergines to germinate and show from the three varieties I sowed that day.
Only one of the 12 Aubergine Long Purple - Kings Seeds that came with a copy of Kitchen Garden also sown on the 25th March is just breaking the surface of the cell.
With sub zero temperatures and frost last week and overnight lows of 1 - 3C forecast which could still drop lower, my babies above will be staying in the house and not going out to the unheated Space Saver Greenhouse just yet a while.
Now this does cause a little problem because I can only get away with having so much in doors before it will become a bone of contention with my good lady and daughter.
Beetroots can be sown outdoors under cloche in April, so on that basis I have started some off in modules that will go into the Unheated Space Saver Greenhouse. Today so far has been dry 13C but very windy I filled one of the 40 cell CHM Ltd or Containerwise HD Plastic modules with a mixture or Golden Eye and Rainbow beetroots, and then sowed another tray of wilko Cylindra Beetroot seeds. It was very windy and the wind took the potting tray whist I was taking the tray of beetroots to the greenhouse, so I now have beetroot seeds over the lawn!
Last year I did the Charles Dowding multi-sow approach thing, but think sowing with mates didn't really work out very well for me, so have gone back to one seed per module cell. I will be planting and direct sowing into one of my 105 hole planting membrane and trying to sow in succession a third of a bed at a time in order to not have to process all the beetroots in one go as it can get a bit daunting and time consuming to pickle that amount of beetroots in one hit.
The cells were filled with un-sieved Clover compost and a sieved fine layer of Clover was put over the seeds in the cells. They were watered with water that had been standing for a few days and was not cold and then placed in the Space Saver greenhouse with a propagator lid placed over them. I will look in a few days to see how they are doing.
The Cauliflowers got hit when we had the spring heat wave a few weeks ago and only one Andromeda remains so I decided as it survived to sow a new tray with all the 11 seeds that were left in the pack.
Again during the hot spell a few weeks ago many of the Brussels Sprouts turned their toes up so I have sown a tray of 12 Brodie F1. I need to keep an eye on the greenhouse temperatures and remove the Brassicas as the heat increases in there during the day, as at 9am on a sunny day this time of year the temperature will already be between 20C - 22C.
Andromeda F1 Cauliflower & Brodie F1 Brussels Sprouts
Broccoli didn't get hit as bad as the sprouts and Cauliflower
The Cabbage also didn't get it as bad, once I have potted on the Cabbage & Broccoli into vending machine cups I will sow some more of each.
I've purchased some more of these spring clips as they are so useful for fixing the debris netting to the blue water pipe hoops. With more fox activity I will be netting up more vegetables this year than normal, as I have the additional beds on plot 1 now to play with. Plus the two Square Foot Gardening bed not using weed membrane need to be netted to keep Basil and his mates at bay.
Basil Ganovese - sown on the 15th February and trying to get 5 seeds per cell in a 5 pattern lice found on a dice. I have been turning the tray around to try and encourage them to grow straight but they are quite happy to lean towards the light and change direction.
Tomato Vilma - Sown on the 15th February and again only in the last week has the little seedling in the bottom left cell pocked it's head from out of the Carbon Gold compost. Dalefoots compost a little disappointing but perhaps a little heavy for the seedlings to lift.
Tomato Aztek - sown on the 10th February and only in the last couple of days has the small seedling in the bottom left cell pushed it's head out of the Carbon Gold Biochar Seed Compost , Only one viable plant from the Dalefoots Compost for Seeds and 2 out of 2 in the sieved Miracle-Gro Multipurpose Compost.
I noticed the Joel Mills Grow With Me 2022 - Ganovese Basil sown six days ago was poking it's heads trough today. The spacing is looking good at the moment I tried to get a five in each cell like on a dice.
Finally caught up with Joe Mills - Grow With Me 2022 this morning after the compost had time to warm up in the house over night, and now I will have to wait and see if the Basil is any better spaced out than Jenny Mills managed in Video #3.
I'm doing the little compost experiment again with the sowing of the Vilma in Video #2 to see which one produces the better seedling.
For me this is at least a month earlier than the earliest I normally grow tomatoes, but with the blight last year, I'm willing to give it a bash and have an earlier crop.
If push comes to shove Joe provided enough seed for a complete re-sow a little later or seeds for next year.
The one on the right looks dry because it is, I wanted the different compost to be apparent in the photo, as when watered just after they all look dark and similar when wet.
Now when I hear Basil I normally think of the two icons above, John Cleese who found fame in Monty Python and played Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers and Basil Brush & Mr Derek (Derek Fowlds) who found fame as Basils sidekick between 1969 to 1973 before he went on to star as private secretary Bernard Wolley in Yes , minister and then Yes, Prime Minister and finally appeared in 342 episodes as grumpy Sargent Oscar Blaketon in Heartbeat.
What I don't normally think off is the Herb Basil.
Up until this year, I have not really been into growing Herbs apart from Mint. Historically I have not done a lot of cooking, that changed when my wife Jenny became ill and was unable to continue looking after the house and cooking as her mobility is impaired.
I have really got away lightly on the cooking front, I can warm stuff up and I did get to a point where I could cook a compete roast dinner without worrying too much, but then with Covid-19 and lockdown my daughter Kelly took over most of the cooking duties, and worked from home as my wife has no immune system as such. I could not work as I could not visit peoples properties to undertake inspections.
Now that dynamic is changing again as Kelly is no longer working from home and has finally got some measure of her life back as we are not shielding my wife as intensely as we were because she is vaccinated, had her booster and has just received a letter that she needs a 4th dose.
This year I decided I will grow a number of herbs and learn how to cook with them!
I'm type 2 diabetic and really need to sort out my eating habits and start eating a little smarter and loose some weight.
I already have some basil seeds in my seed box to start off, and joining in on Joes Mills - Grow With me 2022 - I now have a small sweet little bottle of Basil Ganovese.
"Essential for authentic Italian cuisine, this sweet basil is one of the most popular varieties, with a strong scent and distinctive fresh flavour. Try growing Basil on the kitchen windowsill or in convenient containers outside the back door. Height: 45cm (18"). Spread: 30cm (12")."
"The most popular basil, with large, fleshy leaves and classic strong flavour. Prefers a warm, dry spot. Sow 2-3 seeds to a pot in a heated glasshouse in the early season. When hardened off plant out in a sheltered position 20cm apart."
But has a slightly different sowing planting and harvesting chart
Here is Joes Mills - Grow With Me 2022 - video #3 on sowing Basil Ganovese at home.
I have the compost in the seed tray warming up over night and tomorrow I will be sowing some seeds and seeing if I can do a neater job than Joe and Jenny......
Saturday I went into the garden and nearly froze my nuts off trying to sort out my space saver greenhouse, this weekend has been very windy and cold. I didn't think a Sunday visit would be on the cards as it looked like my son-In-Law may have covid. But results from a test on Saturday showed he was clear, so my eldest daughter was able to come and keep my wife and her sister company, releasing me to play on "Avalon" or my two plots 1 and 1A
Photo above is the raspberry beds after cutting back all the winter raspberries down the the ground.
Next job was digging a hole for the grapevine deeper than the 2 litre pot than it was currently in and then filling to a level such that when standing the pot in the hole that the top of the soil in the pot was at a similar level to that at the edges of the hole.
I used the Equigrow Peat Free Organic Green Compost which I have to say looked nice and black and lush, and filled around the 2 litre plastic pot and compacted enough such that when I pulled the pot out of the ground the shape of the pot was left as a hole.
Equigrow February sale is still on! 10% off with code ‘COMPOST10’
As all plants I placed my hand over the top of the plant inverted it (turned it upside down) and eased the plant out of the pot and laid it down in front of the hole so that I might look at the root growth and take this photo.
With the grapevine now planted in line with the vertical wire I added clip to hold the vine in place and watered it in so that the compost at the edges of the hole would be pushed into and make a nice contact with the Equigrow peat Free Organic Green Compos.
A trip to my wood pile and I found a single length of timber more than long enough to go from kerbstone to kerbstone mini bed. I set up a number of square flower buckets and placed the bottoms of mushroom trays on top and skimmed the soil and slate fragments on them as I knew heavy rain was due in the afternoon and I'm hoping that the rain will wash off the slate.
My intention is to use a HD quality weed membrane this time, not the stuff that has degraded under the stones in the last nine years so the bed once again looks neat.
The root to the second old grapevine was dug and pull and as the first had headed out into the path and under the greenhouse and was chopped off.
The apple tree and raspberry cuttings were all cut up and added to the incinerators and they were set alight using my wed burner. Because most of the contents of my incinerators was bone dry it didn't take long for it to all burn away and run clean, there was a little smoke at the start but that cleared quickly. The way the weather is at the moment no many people in the flats behind me would have their windows open.
On getting home I found that Joe Mills had uploaded a short video and had many kind words to say about my blog and my write up on his first "Grow With Me 2022" video in the series.
Joe has released Part #2 of his Grow With Me 2022, and this time he is sowing the Vilma tomato seeds. I'm a little busy at the moment to follow his lead straight away, but I will be growing with him as soon as I get a moment to find a similar container to grow in.
There are people who are just at ease in front of a camera which Joe is, and there are people that are really not and have a face for radio and that kinda describes me!
I have done a few videos in the past, but I'm just not at ease or comfortable with presenting to a camera as any visit to my YouTube Channel will prove.
Take 1 and Take 2 of how I cut the 2.4m x 1.2m weed membrane sheets to make planting membrane and form the planting holes, to stop it fraying. This video shows why you should not use your smart phone to make videos. Behind and dong the camerawork my daughter Kelly.
As Joe Mill has released the first video in his Grow With Me 2022 I though this lunch time I would sow some of my Aztek seeds so I'm in sync with Joes growing and can really grow in time with him.
Now Joe in true Blue Peter style had Jenny and Thomas sowing seeds a couple of different ways two and three weeks ago so he can show those growing along with him what their seeds should look like in a couple of weeks.
Joe talked about using Seed Compost and or Multipurpose Compost. Normally I go for Westlands Seed Compost but TESCO have not had it in yet, (well it is a little early) but what they did have in was Miracle-Gro Multipurpose Compost so I spent some time yesterday sieving the lumps and friable dross out of it to get something more akin to seed compost.
I like a bit of an experiment every now and then and I have tried growing tomatoes of the same variety in different compost see Dalefoots V Westland MPC after they have got big enough to be potted on, however I have never tried it with seedlings! Until NOW.
In 1 we have Dalefoots Compost for Seeds
In 2 we have sieved Miracle-Gro Multipurpose Compost
in 3 we have Carbon Gold Biochar Seed Compost
Game on .........
For the moment the propagator in sitting on a West facing window and it's overcast but at least they are inside and warm. Once the little fellows are showing they will more than likely go into my waiting portable grow stations so they receive a good amount of light.
Can't wait for the next Grow With Me video, as I want to follow along with Joe and not do what I normally do. But what I'm really interested in is if there is any major difference in the three sowings.
Now I have to say I have been following Joe Mills & digging for dinner, for a number of years on YouTube, and I have always enjoyed his videos. Joe is very honest about how gardening and growing vegetables is good for his mental health, which I really get.
If you are a regular visitor to this blog then you know how valuable my plot is to me for my mental wellbeing, and I have written about Gardening For Health in the past.
Joe has kicked off his Grow With Me 2022 series and I have jumped on board and have just received my seeds and merchandise in the form of two varieties of tomatoes one which is Aztek a micro-dwarf and the other Vilma which is a dwarf.
Looking on line I have found the following:-
Aztek patio and balcony cherry tomato, grow inside or outside is a gorgeous micro-dwarf variety, a pale milky jade when unripe and a bright canary yellow when ripe. The fruits are very large for a cherry, and look like small peaches with a pointed end. Aztek was very early and a robust fruit setter; the plant stayed small, under 250mm 10″ tall, but at least 200mm 8″ wide.
Vilma is an excellent variety for all types of container. Determinate.Cherry sized fruits with excellent flavour are produced abundantly on compact, bushy plants.
Sow indoors: March - April Season: Annual Harvest: July - October Height: 24 inches / 60cm Temperature: 20 - 22 C Plant Spacing: 24" /60cm Depth: 1/8" (0.3 cm)
Although I have a collection of over 145 varieties of tomato seeds in my tomato seed bank, and have done a lot of research into mini micros and dwarf tomatoes, and grown these as at home I have a Norfolk Space Saver greenhouse these are actually two varieties of tomatoes that I have not grown before!
The pack also included a sweet little bottle of Genovese Basil which we will be growing with Joe, a timber Grow With Me 2022 cutting board and a Joe Mills - YouTube Mental Health Awareness #flourish key ring.
Joe places his thumb over the small pop bottle in the video but of you take a mapping pin to the screw cap of a small pop bottle you can make a very fine mini watering can for watering your seedings.
I did buy a 1mm diameter drill bit to make larger holes when I was making the self watering pop bottle propagators for the greenhouses on the allotment.
Joe no longer has the cutting boards, but if you want to grow along with him at the time of posting this blog he still has the seeds he is using, and you can buy from him for £6
