GONE TO SEED

First major disaster of the year, 2 of the over winter Onion setts that I was pinning my hopes on for a class in my local show have grown lollipops on top, in other words gone to seed. It may be due to the extremes in temperature that they have had to endure, there are 3 varieties in the bed and at the moment the 2 that have bolted are of the same variety but having said that all of the plants look the same so I am expecting to loose more if not all. Still they are fine for salad onions, and I have some setts outside that were planted earlier this year as a backup.

On a better note I managed to not loose anything from the frost it was minus 1 the other night.

I have planted 2 Peter Glazebrook giant Tomato plants in the tunnel today I got the seeds from Dan we are going to see how big we can get one.They are in 25Litre pots.

I have also planted out 2 giant Cornish Heirloom Cabbage plants under netting inside some tyres.This will help to keep the leaves off the ground I have spaced them about 4 foot apart, 6 foot would have been better but i am short of space.

My large Pumpkin has germinated and is now waiting for the threat of frost to pass so it can be planted out.

Aubergeenes and peppers are coming on fine

With a weeks work on the cards next week in Ilkeston. I have been thinking how to get round the problem of watering the Barrels inside the tunnel.The enclosure that has been built round them to stop the dreaded carrot Fly is quite difficult to access and given that Ted is quite accident prone I decided to devise a watering system to save any damage or hospital trips.The system was bought on ebay and is a drip system I have installed it and tested it and all seems ok, there is a dripper for every plant and all you have to do is connect the hosepipe and turn the tap on simples.

 I also thinned the second sowing of Sweet Candle this evening, and gave them a spray with Garlic Barrier although according to an article in Simply veg by Dave Thornton it does not work, but I've spent money on it so ill give it a try.

I have the makings of some Grapes on the Vine for the first time

The smallest of my Celery plants are ready for potting on and have a great root system

I sowed some Mediterranean salad mix that came from B&M bargains for £1 a packet, the seed was mixed with Vermiculite and you just sprinkle the lot on the surface of the compost.The packet claims you can pick the leaves 2 weeks after sowing, which is not totally true but as the picture shows at 3 weeks it is not far off.

The Lettuce seeds that came free in Gardner's News are nearly fully grown