Potatoes Onions

Decided to earth up some of the Potatoes in the bags by just topping them up with the same mix as used when I planted them. I left a small amount of leaf showing so they can still see light.
Also the Onions in the Polly Tunnel have been weeded the largest is now 40" tall and has 10 leaves

Japanese Onion disaster

Most of the Japanese onions Planted last year to over winter had to be pulled up today they had bolted and were going to seed. I can only put this down to the very long winter followed by this weeks heatwave. I will try again for next year in November and see if I fair any better.It is a shame as they were coming on well still the can be used for salads etc. But will not keep.

Potatoes Long Beet

The spuds are now through and doing well, it will soon be time to earth them up. Also the long Beet sown in the 6" Pipes are through, the onions in the tunnel are now 3 foot tall with 9 leaves so i am hoping for a big one if all goes well.

D Day

I finally managed to get most of the plants out today I planted the first of my Dwarf Beans Caulis, Sweede, Marrows, and Courgettes. I also sowed some runner Beans this is the second sowing, the first ones were sown 10 days ago these are now through. The second sowing is to ensure a supply for the show.

Celery Leeks

Decided to plant some of my Celery out this evening, after checking the weather forecast first.
They have a good root structure and crying out to be planted in the bed.I also put some plastic pipe round the leeks to start the lengthening process.

Onions Progress

The large Onions are doing well despite the cold weather most have put on one more leaf they now have 8. Fingers crossed nothing bad happens.

Frost

Been very cold this week here in the Pennines so its been a case of covering up and bringing in to the tunnel every night, it seems to have worked with no casualties.
Planted some broad bean seeds in to one of the beds yesterday they are Bunyards Exibition, but not done much else due to work getting in the way.

Long Beetroot

Today I decided to make use of some lenghths of 6" diameter pipes which I picked up for 99p on Ebay. As it is now a bit late to sow Carrots or Parsips for showing, I decided to plant them up with Long Beetroot. I made a mix with Vermiculite This again was from Ebay I bought the wrong stuff it was quite large so I had to blend it up in the blender it ended up fine nearly like dust. To the Vermiculite I added sieved Compost and sieved Bagged Topsoil to this I added vitax Q4, Super Phosphate, Sulphate of Potash and Calcified Seaweed. Not measured accurately just a handfull of each, it took 20 Litres to fill each tube I then sowed 2 Medwyns Long Beet seeds to each tube its just a case of see what happens.

Potatoes through

All my Spuds are now planted in the Pollypots 4 varieties 6 bags each 3 potatoes in each bag I had to reinforce the decking because of the weight . Some of the earlies that were planted 2 weeks ago are now through

Mini Tunnel for onions

TodayI covered one of the small beds with Polythene left over fron the large tunnel, Creating a small Pollytunnel, I have planted some Ailsa Craig and some Kesae in this micro tunnel hopefully this should help them on their way, keeping the temperatures up and the wind out I may have to remove the Polythene when the weather picks up otherwise it may get too hot inside.

Onions Progress Tomatoes

Onions are flying the tallest are 2foot 6 inches tall. I had to re support them today as they had outgrown the supports I had in place and were falling over I have also potted some Tomatoes in to their final pots. They are Secura, Cedrico, and Sungold all are flowering. I have some more coming on to keep a constant supply and hopefully have some to show, my Tomatoes got wiped out by Blight last year I put too many in too close together.

Celery

Never tried growing Celery before these are Red Star from Medwyns I will be planting these out in a couple of weeks Time in a well manured Bed There is no class for Celery at my Village show but if I get any good ones I can use them in the four veg Distinct kinds class or any other veg not in schedule

Shallots

Tried an experiment with one of the Shallots today It was dividing in to 6. As I had read several articles regarding splitting them I decided to use a radical approach I dug the plant up washed the soil out of the roots then using a sharp stanley knife I cut through the root plate leaving roots on every bulb, they were then replanted in the bed as singles with some support till they get going again. I will see what happens in due course.

Brassicas

Bit the bullet today and planted out some of my kitchen Brassicas to free up some space in the tunnel. The varieties planted were Pixie Greyhound and Pyramid Cabbages, Helenor and Gowrie Sweedes, Aramis and Golden Ball Turnip and Romanesco all are under the netting to protect them from pests so we will see what happens.

Parsnips Onion sets

Here are some photos of how the Parsnips are doing and also my Japanese onion sets Planted in November to over winter theseare coming along niceley.

cabbages

Kilaton

Robinsons Giant

The Cabbages are a selection of Robinsons Giant and Killaton, The latter are supposed to be resistant to club root, which I have in some of the beds.

Cabbage Onions Parsnips

A few photos of the progress of some plants. Onions are now 2 feet tall and have 6 leaves

Mesh

Finally managed to get some of the beds covered with mesh. On the Carrot bed I have used Enviromesh which is supposed to keep out the Carrot fly fingers crossed it works. There have been mixed fortunes with carrot germination with nearly all the long carrots now through but only a third of the stumps have germinated the failures were all re sown before the mesh was fixed its a matter of wait and see what happens.

The other beds have been covered with builders mesh using water pipe to support it. These will be the Brassica beds and the mesh will hopefully keep the butterfly's out, the caterpillars made a mess of the cabbages last year, hopefully this will avoid a repeat performance.