Thursday, May 14, 2009

The cycle has begun- Trying new things

Toms undercover for protection:

Seedlings

Luis here:
This year´s vegetable growing season started during the Winter months with the ordering of organic seeds and the sowing of some seeds that we collected last season from a nice sweet pepper called "Isla" and a medium hit chilly pepper. We have started gathering salad leaves from the seedlings we grew. Others have been planted in pots and are awaiting to be planted in the ground over the next few days. Over all we are pleased with the results - the peppers and chillies are still a bit behind but the tomatoes that we raised from seed already show some flower buds. This year we are trying two different varieties of tomatoes one is called Alicante and the other Brandywine which is supposed to be an old variety and the tastiest of tomatoes from the 1800's. This season we are also experimenting with sowing some seeds of carrots and beetroot in PVCu pipes cut in half, once the seedlings get to a certain size, you open a shallow trench in the ground and slide down the compost containing the seedlings into position. Hopefully this will prevent decimation by a grub called a Leather Jacket. We will let you know if this technique works. We have also experimented with chitting certain seeds and this has worked well with the butternut squash, cucumber, marrow, sweet corn and french beans. We also buy seedlings from a local market: onions; leeks; cauliflower; aubergines.

Drain pipes make a handy seed drill:

1 comment:

  1. Lynn and Peter5:45 pm

    Hi Ian and Luis

    It was lovely to meet you both last week at the open day. We love your blog and your beautiful cats. There is such a lot of information on your blog and very useful tips for veggie growing. We look forward to visiting your garden one day and you are always welcome to visit ours in Mones if you are passing any time.

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