Creating my corn bed!

My weed bouquet

Our grass badly needed cut - I've been so busy nurturing seedlings in the greenhouse that the small grassy area of the garden (the rest is currently slabs and a half made raised bed) has been severely neglected.  I went round pinching off all the weed heads (dandelions which had mostly flowered or gone to seed eek), and then pulled up some of the long grass to dry out and use later as mulch.  At least the weeds went to some use and gave me a little weed bouquet pictured above.

Then I instructed hubby to use the scary lawnmower and get rid of the jungle dwelling there.  Well though the lot was very green the lower areas had obviously started to die off a bit, and left the ground looking rather...well, barren.

I decided that the grass has just been a nuisance, and if I want it I can purposely plant it later, where I actually want it!  So I got about digging it up and digging it over...

A few hours later I had a lovely bed of soft, crumbly soil. It's roughly 4 foot by about 5.5 foot.  I chose to grow my corn here up against the shed because it is the only part of the garden where it can get plenty of sun but not block out sun for any other crops.  (The sun hits the shed and the corn won't block out any more light than the shed already does).

My corn varieties have been sitting out for a few days getting accustomed to the harsh Edinburgh winds and I like them to dry out a little as it makes it easier to get them out of the pots and separate them.

They were soon sorted into their varieties (Starting from top left to right then bottom): Popcorn Fiesta, Spring Treat Sweetcorn, Strawberry Popcorn and Minipop.

I then planted them into block of rows to help with germination later in the year.  Many people say not to mix varieties because they can cross pollinate but to be honest, I just want some corn, I don't really care if they mix.  Though hopefully I'll get some gorgeous Strawberry Popcorn cobs, they look so appetising!

 

My very technical sketch to plan my planting...

As you can see from this angle, the "grass" area is really awful, so I'll just HAVE to dig up the rest of it to make more beds...What a shame!

You can also see the raised bed here - I've still got a whole plank depth's worth of filling up to do, but I've have some stuff essentially composting in there (air can still get in at the sides of the cover) so I will see what happens with that.

Please ignore the weeds, I'm still developing a lot of the garden this year, having never had time last year.  So I've let the weeds grow because I know that I'll be overhauling the entire area within a few weeks anyway.  

These are all the stones I found when digging this bed area.  Yes all of these were UNDERNEATH the grass, apart from the longer one, which was edging part of it.  I'm quite surprised by how clean they look!  Foot is added in for size reference - bear in mind my feet are a UK 8 which is quite big!

It may not be the neatest, being a little flimsy, but hey I spent £6 in total buying this bamboo edging in Poundland (6 packs of 1 metre in order to get enough length).  There were some bits where the wiring wouldn't allow it to sit flat, hence the odd overlap area.

After a good watering and mulch with the dry grass, the bed is finished for now!  I'm planning to fertilize them soon with a liquid fertilizer.  I like to let them settle in a bit before feeding them.  Does anyone know if Tomorite is okay for corn or should I use something more general purpose?

Also, I'm trying to decide what to put in the corner area between the raised bed, steps and corn bed.  It's quite triangular, though I had planned to pull up the other steps too so could be larger.  Was thinking either a companion flower for pest reduction (The raised bed will be mainly squashes) or possibly parsnips?  Any recommendations?  I don't want something that will shadow over the squashes too much.

Lettuce and Smoothies

This box contains Lamb's Lettuce "Jade", Amish Deer Tongue, Lobjoits Green lettuce and Red Pak Choi

I've only sewn my lettuces indoors this year so that I can actually get some (the greedy slugs never share).  I have two window boxes along the studio windowsill, so if I want a little break from work I can go and check on these without getting too distracted.

This box contains a Spicy Greens Mix, a Salad Leaf Mix, Sarah Raven's Best Winter Lettuces Mix (Can Can, Green Salad Bowl and Merveille de Quatre Saisons) and Paris Market Atlas Carrots 

Both boxes have a nice quantity of leaves on them now.  I intended for them to be cut and come again boxes rather than grow larger "adult" lettuces.  As you can see in the one above, I also sowed a generous amount of mini globe carrots, which add an adorable look to the box.  I may need to thin them out soon, and I might just eat the thinnings as part of a salad.

I may take a few lettuces and plant them out to mature later also, at least one or two of each type hopefully.

My first harvest of just one type of lettuce (Though I did munch some leaves of the other types while I was at it....)

I was a good amount but not enough for a full salad, so I decided to add it one of my smoothies.

First I made a smoothie with 250ml of fresh orange juice, about 30ml of tea (1 teabag green tea with mango & lychee plus a ginger tea bag soaked for a good 30+ minutes and allowed to cool), loads of spinach, a banana, a generous helping of frozen peas and frozen blueberries.

Sometimes I add ice, but I've found lately the frozen peas add the same effect and equally make the smoothie more silky textured.  I always top my smoothies with a tablespoon of linseeds, ground ginger and ground cinnamon.

Blended in my smoothie maker and poured into a tall glass.  This thick "shake" was delicious and filled with veggies and fruit.

I made another smoothie batch to bottle and keep in the fridge, using the remaining ginger/green tea mix (about 300ml), all my fresh lettuce, spinach, peas, blueberries, cranberries and blackberries.

Most of the fruits I bought fresh and froze immediately once home, because I can use a better amount that way, and I find blueberries especially begin to grow mould really quickly if you buy them from the supermarket.  I also added some Chia seeds to my normal topping mix, and they are better for smoothies which you leave in the fridge rather than drink right away, because they swell and become more substantial.

So it was a good use of my lettuce, as this lot stretched two bottles alone!  The other one I got a bottle out of as well as my freshly poured glass.  Now all I need is for it to stay sunny and next time I might get to drink it outside!  

Garden Wildlife

So after reading Sue's recent post I thought I would introduce you to some of my more recently seen wildlife in the garden.

I found this creep inside one of my propagator lids a few weeks ago.  I tried to pull it off but he was having none of it!  Eventually they crawled to the corner and I managed to slide them off.  I'm glad to have found the pest here though, because as it was trapped I was able to catch it and take it out of the garden completely.

I'm always surprised by how fast these little creatures are, considering how they are often associated with being so slow.  If I'd asked this particular snail to deliver my mail it probably would have been a strong rival to Royal Mail!  Let's just hope he doesn't use his speed to return to my garden any time soon.

Okay, so the squirrel isn't really in my garden.  This is Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, where squirrels hang out like inquisitive children or akin to the pigeons in pretty much every town square.  They're bold and fearless and will happily come up and sit on a bench or the grass with you, waiting for you to share your lunch.  I seem to have this affinity with nearly all animals, who think I will be happy to share my lunch with them and they also enjoy coming up for a lick/nibble on my vegetarian flesh (I've decided I must just smell of vegetables or gardens or something).  I'm not as much of a fan of them as they are of me (up close anyway), and prefer to admire from at least a slight distance!!

Apologies for the terrible photo, but this was literally snapped in the middle of the night in the pitch dark, using only the phone camera light.  And the wee thing was on the move.  I discovered it when I went round in the dark to pull the bin around, having remembered moments before heading up to bed that the bins get collected the next morning.  

So in a frantic moment I raced around the back, from the front (the idea being I would come back into the front of the house from the street).  Just as well, as if I'd gone straight out the back I may have mowed this poor thing down with a wheelie bin!  I got to the corner and heard an animal sniffing in retort with great alarm, and as it was on the stones it made quite a noise retracting from my foot which landed directly next to it.  

At first I thought it might be a cat judging by the noises it made, plus there is a local cat who likes to hang around in our garden/on our doorstep waiting for us to come out/come home and on occasion has even sneaked into the house!   But as I passed the corner and looked back, the tiniest illumination from next door's security light showed that whatever was there was entirely too small to be a cat.

Turning on my phone light I was very pleasantly surprised to see a hedgehog!  I've not seen a wild one for a large number of years, in fact only once before have I encountered one so closely.  Hoping not to repeat the first experience of being bitten on the toes by one (I was about 8 and had orange flowery boots on) I slowly approached it, and tried to take a photo without frightening it.  Of course like all wild creatures, it moved the second I took the photo and proceeded to crawl across the path and into the hedge.  

I'm thrilled to have seen one, and hope to see it again in my garden.  It is welcome to eat all the slugs that plaque my garden and continue making its adorable unimpressed snuffling noises!

Long overdue garden update!

I know I've been away from here for a long time!  Life has just been busy.  Since making the decision to leave my job in January, I had to wait out my gruelling 7.5 week notice period, after which I went directly on holiday to Malta!  It was nothing short of phenomenal and I have several posts to do about the Maltese Islands and their flora.

Reclaiming my social life!  I don't officially endorse Southern Comfort or any of their products, but I personally encourage drinking them! Haha

Since then I've been busy working away on commissions and getting my business started, as well as finally having a social life (Which I literally felt like I haven't had for several years).  If anyone is interested in following my business ventures please keep an eye on thequestisover.co.uk for any developments as they happen.  It's slow going right now, but I've had some bridal commissions and lots of paperwork to do around it before I get fully into the swing of things.

I've taken away the cosmetics sections of the blog, which although I do make don't really warrant their own section as I don't post much here about them.  So I have added new sections on Gardening on a Budget, Indoor & Container Gardening and my Lessons Learned series.  I've also changed the header but not sure if I like it yet!

Yes, I like my Nesquick chocolate milkshake...hey at least I recycle!

 Got all my plants in full swing now, some doing better than others, but definitely a large variety going on!

I apologise for the quality of some photos - I took them all on my phone because it was simpler/both my memory cards are still full of Malta photos I've not backed up yet

Most days are a bit soggy but warm enough, with the greenhouse sitting at roughly 20-25 degrees centigrade most days.  On Friday this reached 32 degrees!!

My star plants right now are absolutely my broad beans, which I planted 19th February and they proceeded to rocket skyward ever since.  They are all absolutely laiden with flowers now!  I am growing Sutton Dwarf, Aquadulce and Masterpiece Green Longpod varieties (5 of each).

So far I've managed to deter the slimy beasts (slugs & snails) from my broad beans (last year they did nothing short of rape them of all their worth - not a leaf, flowerhead or pod was left).  However, this year they look much, much healthier and larger plants, I think particularly the new varieties are really impressing me (previously I've only grown Sutton).  I keep all of them on the metal shelf provided by my Dad when he was cleaning out his office.  Since I've been using it I've not had a single slimer on that side of the greenhouse.  So I'm thinking about either replacing the wooden shelf that came with the greenhouse (and is attached to the greenhouse itself) or coating the entire thing in copper tape.

The slug was actually the second pest to get its teeth into this leaf - the top layer was eaten neatly off by some other creature, exposing all the veins first, and then the slug just came in and had a party with the rest

Unfortunately the non-metal side of the greenhouse has suffered a fair amount of slimy creature damage.  I am unkeen to use slug pellets, being a vegetarian/trying to be an organic gardener, but I am not too concerned as most of the cucurbita are actually pretty advanced, and it only seems to be, in most cases, their first set of leaves being eaten, which would have probably fallen off soon anyway.

A few plants have suffered though - like the above four Aubergines.  Its hard to tell from the rubbish photo but it does actually look like the growing tips are intact on at least 2 of the plants, so provided there's no further attacks in this particular pot they might make it.  I do however have zero cucumbers left, though I know one seed has germinated but is still to surface so it might be my only one!

My Inca Berry (aka Cape Gooseberry) plants may look from afar like they are suffering, but in fact they are thriving!  Throughout winter they seemed to have no clue that winter had arrived (much like my goji berry plant) and as soon as it hit March their leaves started to turn more dark and purpley then flowers popped up everywhere.  They also have a lot of new growth.  I haven't pruned any old leaves off yet or any new growth, because though I want all their energy to focus on the fruits, I am concerned that pruning may encourage more new leaf growth instead.  Everything I've looked up on them basically says to leave them alone once they flower, and cut down on watering them/bothering them in any way.  I do have three (well technically 4 since the shortest one appears to be twin plants) so I might experiment with pruning if I get too impatient waiting on my fruits!

Inca Berry flowers and new leaves appearing

Inca Berries have papery pods like Tomatillos which host the berry and protect them as they grow.  These turn a light brown shade and then fall off when ripe.

I've not actually had the pleasure of tasting these yet so I am pretty excited to be getting a harvest soon.  Even the most stunted plant (about 1ft tall, while my tallest is approx 3.5ft) is laiden with pods and new flowers are still appearing.  They appear to be self pollinating too, which is great.

Cucamelons are getting going now!  I've added them to this hanging basket so the mini melon plants can trail over the edges.  Very hopeful and excited for the look of this later this year.  I intend to earth up a bit as they grow.

It may be quite hard to see these plants, since most of them are purple!  These are all different types of chilli.  The ones with the green true leaves starting to come through are calico and black pearl (at the moment they appear to grow much the same).  The fully purple leaved ones are all Purple Flash.  They all appear to be struggling with actually getting growing very fast!

Black Pearl chilli plant

This for example, is an ordinary disposable cup that I'm using as a pot, which cannot be more than an absolute maximum of 5cm diameter.  The roots are tiny and all my chillis still have far to go in these vessels before being potted on.  I had been waiting for them all to get true leaves but decided to pot them into these early from the propagator because they were so slow growing!  I don't know if the propagator they were in has restricted their roots or if its because they're all purple that they're absorbing less chlorophyll?  However my green-leaved chillis are all just mildly larger.  

I planted these 19th February - so I feel they should be much, much larger.  Mark suggested feeding them with Baby Bio plant food, which I will give a try.  It may not seem much because they are still SO tiny, but they have been growing since potting on.  Nearly all of them have started growing their true leaves now, and I planted all of them with the soil right up to the base of the leaves so they've been pushing up a little.  It is quite baffling considering everything else in the greenhouse is doing pretty exceptional (aside from those poor devoured cucumbers, though they were growing well until that instance) so I'll just have to do that awful waiting/patience thing.  

I may try to plant some new seeds of the same chilli types and see what happens - perhaps starting them so early and having a long germination period rather than a shorter one in hotter weather wasn't the best approach?  I'll keep you updated on those.  I am so excited for them to grow up because their foliage is absolutely stunning, not to mention their ornamental (but thankfully also edible) chillis.

French, Borlotti and Soya Beans have all popped up now, and getting some gorgeous, fresh looking leaves on them.

I have 4 varieties of Okra this year (fast become my favourite vegetable to eat, though peas are still at the top for now).  I'm impressed with their growth thus far considering they are more partial to hotter climates.  I will be re-potting them soon once all the seeds have fully emerged.

Green Giant Tomato

The tomatoes are thriving!  I've planted them all so that I can earth up once they are a little larger, to extend the use of their pots.  I'm really pleased with their progress so far, and soon I'll be able to start making decisions on how I intend to prune and shape their growth.  I like these slightly purple leaves of the Green Giant.  

Potatoes are doing great!!  I have four varieties, and need to earth them all up now.  Pleased with how much they seem to be thriving, considering my first time growing them was last year and it was really just a last ditch attempt to not throw away a potato which was chitting on its own in the cupboard haha.  (I did get some absolutely delicious potatoes from it but they were tiny).  This year I bought proper seed potatoes and proper potato grow bags, so looking forward to hopefully a larger crop this year. 

More soon on the variety details of my potatoes, okra, tomatoes etc.  Just wanted to give a larger update overall, but I will soon be building myself a small (not walk in) fruit cage because both my gooseberry and blackcurrant are laiden with these:

Goosebery flowers - Can you see the little green gooseberries above them?

This green gooseberry in particular is thriving with a ton of new growth and flowers appearing.  I'm very excited because I got all my fruit bushes last year and they grew and went dormant, and this is the first year they are flowering/fruiting!!

Potatoes!

I may have forgotten in all my recent issues, about my "Christmas" potatoes.  Well on a rare dry day in the last few months I managed to nip out to finally empty the waterlogged potato bags.  I'd just started them from supermarket potatoes, which had started to chit on their own.  So I wasn't expecting a huge harvest, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I did have one!!

As you can see by my hand for size reference they are pretty tiny potatoes.  Despite that, after they were washed and dried (above) I cooked them along with sweet potato in a quinoa dish and they were absolutely delicious.

I thought considering I planted these in Autumn (literally because they had started to chit on their own) that this February harvest was impressive to get at all.  However, since this was my first time growing potatoes, I'm looking for recommendations for good varieties to order now for chitting, in hopes of getting a more decent crop later this year.  We typically prefer them for baking potatoes and mash rather than any other use.  What would you more seasoned potato growers recommend?

Cold & Wet

Apologies for the extreme lack of updates!!  There are several reasons for this, one being that when I'm at work its always a 10-hour shift, plus commute, and I've had to pick up some extra shifts because the boss has been ill and I'm basically management when he's not there.  Another has been that its super soaking and cold right now, and really too wet to do anything in the garden right now.  But now that our first frost has finally happened (over a month later than predicted on the weather website I checked it out on in August) the rain has gone off but its extremely windy!

I fleeced a few of my plants, my almond, who went into autumn mode before any other plants, my goji berry (who still thinks its the height of summer and is producing new branches and is filled with greener than green leaves) and my blackcurrant, which is just realising autumn has appeared.  I noticed some white fungal symptoms on some of the leaves of my goji berry, and trimmed some of the branches which seemed worst effected, but I'll have to look into what it might be to stop it getting any worse.  So far the fleecing has proved to be problematic and helps the plants catch the wind and causes their pots to fall over, but thankfully the goji berry has a massive heavy pot, otherwise I would be quite worried, because its a huge plant!  Should I be fleecing my other fruit bushes?  They seem quite acclimatised, particularly the blueberry who is a gorgeous shades of red and orange.  I wouldn't have bothered with my almond, since its already pretty barky, but its still very small and having never grown one before I thought it best to be safe.

My tomatoes are STILL producing new tomatoes, but I picked the massive giants I was waiting on to ripen indoors, but they're being pretty stubborn! Much of my greenhouse doesn't seem to know its nearing winter...

Check out these triplets:

My strawberries also seem to think its perfect fruiting time...though I've heard that sometimes these are planted for a November harvest before, so maybe its normal?  They were planted late, I was hoping to try to overwinter some.

Got my new fruit bush canes planted, potted and out.  (Loganberry, Raspberry, Gooseberry, Blackberry and a new variety of Blueberry) I still have a lot of weeding to make new beds to do, and planning the beds as well as finally getting my garlic and onions out.  So hopefully lots of updates to come now its drier!

Cucamelons

These adorable little plants grow like mad but they're like miniature watermelons, and their little leaves and flowers are itty bitty!

They've really grown fast and kind of everywhere, I love trailing plants!  I re-potted them about a month ago, thinking there were only 2 which had germinated.  Turns out there were actually 6, but each "one" had been three interwoven together.  So there are actually some which are much smaller and less developed, so glad that I re-potted them to give them a bit more space.  I'm impressed how long they got to in their tiny 9cm germination pot.

Teeny Tiny Cucamelon

I've put them up against a trellis to trail up, and they've had a few flowers going so hoping to get some lovely cucamelons soon.  I've not tried them before.  Though the trellis will work and look lovely, I think these would work equally well as an adorable hanging basket.  Think I'll try that out next season.

They also were germinated really late, so not really expecting much from them, just wanted to see what they grew like really!