Time to start potatoes for a summer harvest

Posted on by Sarah 8 Comments

Who doesn’t love the taste of new potatoes, warm out of the pan, dripping with melted butter?

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Credit: bbcgoodfood.com

There is no doubt that homegrown ones are so much tastier than any shop bought ones and they are so simple to grow and really don’t need that much space.

If you want to guarantee a crop to eat during the summer months, you need to get started now.potato plantcredit: pinterest

I buy my seed potatoes from our local garden centre, I like to buy quality as that will ensure we get a good crop.

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I like to buy first earlys, these are potatoes that can be planted out in March and will be ready to pick by July/Aug

Potato Guide

When you get them home, the first thing you need to do is ‘chit’ the potatoes, what that means is you encourage the potatoes to form sprouting roots. I lay the potatoes on a tray on a sunny windowsill in our utility room.

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They will sit here for the next 4 or 5 weeks until nice healthy shoots appear.

I look forward to getting onto the next stage…………

 

 

Want a colourful garden this summer? – plan now, seeds, plugs or trays of bedding plants 

Posted on by Sarah 9 Comments

It’s that time of year again, if we are going to have lots of colour in the garden this summer we need to make plans.

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In my garden, I have shrubs which provide structure and greenery all your round. Some of them also flower at different times in the season. I also have perennials which come up every year without too much maintenance, they provide lots of lovely colour and some of those have a long flowering season, all throughout the summer.

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But I also have some areas of the garden which just need an injection of colour. This I provide with bedding plants (annuals) Bedding plants are very tender and do not survive frost so are grown and replaced each year. Bedding plants have the big advantage they provide lots of colour and can be placed wherever there is a gap.

I tend to fill pots with bedding which I can move around the garden to the gaps as well as planting others within the border.

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At this time of year we need to make a decision how we are going to get our bedding plants, there are 3 options.

From seed – a pack of seeds costs around £1 and can be sewn in a propagator at this time of year on a windowsill in the house. They will germinate producing lots of seedlings which will need to be pricked out into trays as soon as they get big enough.

From plug plants – you order them now and they will be grown by the merchants until they get big enough to be sent out, normally the end of March

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They still need potting on but the growth success rate is much greater. Each plug plant cost between about 20p to 50p although if you buy in bulk it does bring the price down. This year I would like to grow some Cosmos,

I can get 60 large plugs for £16.99 delivered w/c 14th March

Or ready grown plants which are available in packs of 6 or so available in the garden centres ready to plant out after May. Typically a pack of 6 bedding plants costs £4.99

Of course although they may be pricey all the hard work is done for you and all that is left is to plant these exactly where you would like them to grow anytime after the last risk of frost, normally around middle of the May.

My personal choice is plug plants and I have just placed my order. I look forward to lots of colour in my garden all through the summer….

It might be winter but………

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This has been officially the mildest winter so far and don’t we know it, daffodils are flowering already and it’s still only the 2nd week in January. These delightful daffodils were brought in a flower market over the weekend and are really brightening up my work space at the moment. I remember as a child waiting to see if the daffodils would flower in time for Mothers Day which is in March.

The grass has continued to grow not stop since last summer, ordinarily I would put the lawnmower away in November and not get it back out again until early March. Instead just two weeks ago I was still mowing. It was a little bit too wet for ideal conditions but I always find that if you just leave the grass to grow, it will be so long in February that when you do come to mow it, it becomes a big job and I think causes more moss to grow.

Last Sunday the weather was so lovely with the low spring sunshine I was really itching to get out into the garden and seeing as I needed to lift the last of the leeks I decided it would be good to dig over the whole veg plot whilst I was there.

It is so nice to get out into the fresh air, with some sun on your skin, you suddenly feel human again. I start wearing coat, hat scarf and gloves and after just a little bit of digging I’m casting off layers as you get so warm.

I felt very satisfied with a job well done and retreated indoors to start looking at the plug plants online ready for delivery in early spring.