Onions and Radish - Mid March 2013

Radish Seedlings

I noticed that my Radish seedlings are starting to come up. I planted them at the beginning of March and they are now just popping up. I have put them underneath a cloche for now, as our British weather is drunk and doesn't know what it is doing.

I have been checking Metcheck.com  quite a lot recently, I love this site as it is one of the most accurate that I have found so far, that actually updates roughly hourly using local weather stations, it's awesome.

Metcheck is good as it gives you a good idea for the night-time temperatures for your area and just looking at mine, I can see that it's still pretty cold at night.

My beautiful pumpkin starts were hit really bad by the hard frost we had the other week, and even though they were under cover in a mini greenhouse, they have still died, so I think I will have to plant the seed direct into the SFG ( Square Foot Garden). I have had a look at the seed packet and it said to plant out in March, but I think I'll leave it till the end of March as the weather is still taking tequila shots.

The onion sets have survived, although they haven't grown much the past couple of weeks. (By the way, the grid you can see, it's to stop the cats digging in the garden)

You can see them all bending to the light which tells me that there aint much of it at the moment.

I'm probably going to plant out at the end of march, everything that needs to go out. I reckon that with the way everything is going, the seeds will no doubt take a while to send up shoots but the bed should be warm and well-drained enough to keep the seeds viable.

Related articles

• Seed starting (notdabblinginnormal.wordpress.com)
• Gardeners' Dirt: Get more yield in less space (victoriaadvocate.com)
• This Month in the Garden: March (sjcmastergardeners.wordpress.com)

Square Foot Garden Update

My SFG (Square Foot Garden) is coming along really well. Last weekend I popped down to Aldi and bought 6 grow-bags to fill up the SFG. It is just about enough but I think I need a few more to bring the level of the soil up to within an inch of the top. As you can see, I'll probably need another 3-4 bags of compost to make it work.

More Compost

I am going to go to a garden centre and buy some decent compost, probably a John Innes mix or something. In his book, All New Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholomew  recommends that we use a mix of at least 5 different composts from 5 different sources. That gets pretty expensive. I don't have a good £100 hanging around so it'll have to be a mix of three for now. 

Also in the book, Mel talks about how to add a trowel-full of compost to the bed once you harvest a crop, so I was thinking that if I spend a bit on money on some good compost, and add that, by the year is out then it will have a recommended mix.

Vermiculite

I've also bought some coarse vermiculite and at £7.45 per bag I wont be buying any more any time soon, it's bloody expensive for such a small bag!

Sowing the Seeds

I've been sowing seed like crazy and have a mini three tier green house that the more hardy sowings can go in, my kitchen windowsill is getting pretty packed and DB is getting pissed at the amount of pots and propagators that are everywhere in the kitchen.

Related articles

• Square Foot Gardening Answer Book (thegardenerspot.com)
• Square Foot Gardening (connecthomeandyard.com)

Seedlings TimeLapse

Audio of what's happening in the kitchen as of today, the 28th Feb 2013.

Related articles

• Time Lapse Experiment #3 - the Blooming Hyacinth (thebluebrick.ca)

The Fridge Top is Getting Full!

Well another day another round of seed starting.

After last year I'm really, really in the mood to start seeds off as early as possible. The tomato and potato crops were devastated by the weather last year, so I'm giving all my plants a head start this year. This does mean that the warmest part of the kitchen (the top of the fridge freezer) is getting pretty darn full of seed pots!

My BF is grudgingly moving about the kitchen with care and is so patient with random pots and tins appearing, and with the seed starting compost covering the work surfaces on an evening.

I love planting at night, there is something really satisfying about being in the kitchen, washing up all done and draining on the side, then grabbing the tin that held the spaghetti  washing it out, punching holes in it with an awl and filling it with compost for a couple of Pumpkin seeds to go in.

I have the square foot garden all ready and waiting for compost, then the transplants and seeds to go out.

Related articles

• Square Foot Gardening on the Cheap! (shropshiregarden.wordpress.com)
  

Square Foot Gardening on the Cheap – Part III

So my cat had to come and watch all the hard work!

I filled the wheelbarrow twice with my home-made compost and if I hadn't of had two Aldi raised bed frames, it would have been plenty.

My back was pretty knackered by the second barrow load, and it wasn't very fast work to be fair. The shovel I was using was a ladies border shovel I borrowed off my mum years ago, and while it is good for digging holes, it's pretty poor at moving a lot of dirt. I need to get to a car-boot and buy a bigger one!

 

I also used perlite instead of vermiculite which is a bit of an experiment, but I had perlite on hand so in it went!

I also bought some Blood, Fish and Bone from Aldi when I got the raised bed frames. I also mixed a bit in as well, I'm guessing you can't have too much natural fertiliser. I figure that it's going to be a pretty intensive farming bed so the plants will need a bit of goodness.



It feels as if I have put too much in, but to be honest, I still need some bagged compost to fill it up the rest of the way, so all in all the good stuff will be at the bottom, where the roots need it the most.

Related articles

• Square Foot Gardening on the Cheap - Part II (shropshiregarden.wordpress.com)


• Square Foot Gardening on the Cheap! (shropshiregarden.wordpress.com)

Square Foot Gardening on the Cheap!

So after work yesterday (boy was I knackered!) I went down to the local Aldi's and bought myself two of these raised bed kits. I am planning on starting a 'Square foot Garden' this year to try and cut down on our food bills.

How much on Food?!

Last year we spent £2,700 on food; that is £225 a month! That's a lot of money when you consider we stretch our meals out and re-use leftovers religiously. Like I have mentioned in a previous post, although my and my BF are both working, we don't really have money to waste and so, looking at the bills and things each month, I try to scrimp and save where ever I can and one of the biggest outlays we have is the food we buy.



We won't become tight arses but we do want to be able to spend on the things we want and to save a it for the future and with out current spending, this isn't going to happen any time soon. We have both agreed to set aside a bit of money (£50) each month to invest in things that will save us money in the future. This is where the raised beds come in.

I am a pretty frugal person by nature, I re-purpose, up-cycle and bargain like a demon, so obviously I want to do this on the cheap.

Aldi to the Rescue.

I love Aldi, they generally have plenty of gardening stuff in at this time of year, a lot of it is awful or aimed at the novice (plastic pots filled with flowers for the patio ect ect...) but there are a few gems to be had.

I found these raised border/planters yesterday for only £6.99 each and they are perfect for a quick/instant veggie Square foot Garden. I already have the ingredients necessary to make the soil mix, (click here to see the ingredients) so that has already been paid for. I won't be buying weed-proof barrier cloth, I'll be putting the garden on top of slabs, so a thick layer of newspaper will suffice.

What Happens Next?

As I haven't even started building this all up, I think I'll keep this project an on going update thing so you can see what I do and how it progresses over time.

You have already seen the post about the seeds on the windowsill/ I'll be planting those into this bed once they are ready to go out.

I am really looking forward to this taking shape and I hope it inspires you to get out there and get gardening, just don't buy a shitload of expensive stuff, hell you could even make one of these beds if you nip down the lumber yard!