Goooood Morning!
I hope every one is safe and well.
Today is the last day of my 20s, tomorrow I’ll be celebrating my 30th birthday in lockdown.
We’ve made our own cake, (plant based of course) and plan to have a little bbq party in the garden to celebrate.
I wanted to share my first edible garden update. These photographs were taken around a week ago before my lovely new wood chip carpet was laid.
If you didn’t know already, woodchip works well in deterring pesky snails and slugs who try and devour our beautiful home grown gardens in the midst of the night. Apparently their slimy bodies don’t like to slither over the dry and shardy parts of the wood.
Over the past week we’ve also been trying to encourage ladybirds inside, installing marigolds and chives around the entrance as an enticement as I read these are some of their go to scents.
Ladybirds work as a natural pest control, dealing with the tiny mites and fly you might ordinarily find on your favourite veg.
Morgan caught a couple of his own ladybirds which we added and left at their free will to stay or go ?, amazingly they seem quite at home and appear to be enjoying the ‘beds’ we made them. Lol.
With regards to my plants, the majority have been grown from seed on our windowsill.
We begun our sowing around the end of March when isolation begun as a way to occupy Morgan. Soon our kitchen garden sprouted much too big for the kitchen window and so we invested in a lovely greenhouse which I picked up for just £45 in Aldi. So far so good and one I’d highly recommend if you’re considering a cheap growing option.
On 25th April my seedlings made their way outside and sat on the very empty shelves of my greenhouse.
I’ve adopted a watering in the morning routine which was discussed on The One Show last week, as again this deters slugs and snails preventing a huge amount of moisture you’d trap inside if you was to water at night.
It’s also when our resident ladybirds are very sleepy and generally high in the eaves of my canopy out of harms way (Also, whilst I come to think of it, we installed a couple of lengths of bamboo across the ceiling as a safe place for the critters to hide).
The plants are thriving so far and will soon provide me with a beautiful – and here’s to hoping weird harvest.
First up is Morgan’s beanstalk. We called it that for months since February when he brought it home from school. We joked it was going to get big enough to climb and eventually we’d find a giant at the top. Preferably a golden harp though!
Last week his class teacher confirmed it was a broad bean, more commonly named a fava bean online.
Since February it’s been re-potted around 5 times as it continues to grow and grow! It roughly now at stands about 1m tall.
It’s currently in flower with no signs of beans but I’m lead by Google to believe they’ll be arriving soon.
These pretty greens are Broccoli. They’ll soon need replanting in their individual grow bags.
Being coffee entrepreneurs, we thought we’d use our old coffee sacks to replant the majority of our veg this year as we have them in abundance.
These plants will require a bag each or planting 30cm (a long rulers length) apart in container or bed.
Our sunflowers!
We have a total of 5 this year. One was gifted from a lovely local lady that re-potted last year’s seeds. She placed them on the end of her drive for local children to take and enjoy over our locked down spring. Another I bought as quite a matured plant in Sainsburys and the others we managed ourselves ?.
Cauliflower, urgently in need of a bigger pot. Out of all of my greenhouse plants, this one sulks the most. Without a huge influx of water it sags to the most depressing wilt. Within a few minutes it’s as right as rain and standing tall again.
Like the broccoi these will require a bag to themselves or planting 30cm apart.
Tomatoes. These are commonly sold in childrens growing kits because of how easy they are to care for. I’ve grown trailing varieties before in a hanging baskets. They’ll grow big and strong and hopefully produce lots of fruit. It’s a favourite in our house!
These I will re-pot as they mature and start screaming at me they’re cramped.
Brussels, you either love them or hate them right? I quite like them. Especially in salad for a little tang. Plus, they’re cool to grow and very pretty. I’m not hugely sure what to expect so I’m just going with the flow and hoping for the best.
Cubunger, or Cucumber. Morgans favourite, so…we thought we’d give ut a go. I actually bought this one from a local lady advertising her allotment growth on Facebook. It cost me just a one pound.
It’s having a very slow growth so far but seems bright and happy, it will need replanting soon and a stake as it matures and the fruits become heavy.
Beetroot and Parsley. Both from the Marks and Spencer Little Garden range, which I do have a separate blog post for here.
They’ve started off very well and thriving more since being placed in bigger pots.
The beetroot I need to soon seperate and give individual pots or more space. Each seedling requires around 10cm of growing space.
Parsley you can commonly buy in the supermarket. Once it’s matured you can cut and use as required, leaving the rest of your plant to grow.
Pansies and Forget-me-nots. Both again from the Marks and Spencer Little Garden range.
Once a little more established I’m going to thin the pansies into their own individual pots or a tray to give them a good chance at making this years summer hanging baskets.
My strawberry seeds ??. Not quite a plant yet, but our fun tutorial on how to grow your own strawberries can be found here.
Our eggcenlent shell planters ??.
We made a fun tutorial about these. The eggshells just act as a seedling pot whilst your little plants mature. Once big enough, the roots will emerge from the bottom and you can plant as you would any other degradable pot.
To find out how we made ours, click here.
Inside our eggs from left to right we have spring onions, carrots and radish.
Soon each will need thinning out and replanting into bigger pots to allow for the best growth.
I hope you enjoyed seeing inside of my greenhouse. Please come and check back in a few weeks to see how we are getting on.
Today we are going back up to the end of our garden to clean our dirty pots, thin some of our veg mentioned above and plant some GIANT pumpkins ready for autumn.
Take care everybody, Emily xxx
