Friday 31st May Stuff going on

Friday 31st May 2013

About time for a picture I thought.  Progress report - all the tomatoes are now out.  I'm going to put runner beans out tonight.  Everything is ticking over nicely.  Composter looks like it's starting to do something!

Metre Squared number two beginning to look a bit healthier, strawbs in good shape.

Metre Squared number one - lettuces ready to come out.  Tomatoes are all outside as well now. 

Thursday 23rd May 2013 - check up

MSquare number two has had some Lily dog trampling hassles.   MSquare number one's tomato has had some frost bite a few days back.  Otherwise, everything going okay.  This weekend am planning to put the runner beans in as it's near as damnit end of may!

Metre Squared number 1 is coming along okay apart from the frost bit tomato plant

Metre Squared number2 is starting to come to life despite the hound trampling the beetroots

Thursday 16th May 2013 first bit of planting

Got home and got busy with metre square garden number two.  Miscalculated a bit as have gone and put 12 beetroot into one square thinking there should be 16 when in fact the number should have been 9!!  Never mind will sort that out later.  Have put 16 onions into one square and 12 more little gem lettuces into three square - still plenty of space for filling - will rejig the beetroots later to sort them out.

Thursday 16th May 2013 - More prep on the second acre (well metre)

Got the string done on the second one - will check forecast tonight and if it no sign of frost will get some of the squares populated.

Our little Jack Russell is well impressed with the second square!

Wednesday 15th May 2013 - a late tumble

Due to cruddy weather yesterday I forgot to tumble the compost.  So after feeding the plants (Wednesday is feed day) I tumbled the Compost for a good minute or so.  The Draper instructions tell you to tumble it every other day but I've seen people say tumble it every day so am going to do a bit more research on that!

Tuesday 14th May 2013 - How green does your garden grow?

Things coming along nicely - I banged another nine beetroot into top right corner but they don't look too happy other than that everything ticking over nicely - 4 runner beans going to go into that back middle square. The carrots are a bit wimpy it has to be said but other than that things are coming through quite nicely now.   Going to be compost tumble night tonight - bosskat wants to have a go - bet the novelty will wear off quickly when she realises it's quate hard work!

Begining to look 'something like' 

Sunday 13th May 2013 - doubled the acreage!

Well, weather today was crud.  Luckily I got my weekend run in before the rain started but the rest of the day was  rubbish.  I got a Tomato plant in the back left corner now and am intending on putting some runner beans in shortly.

More  good news is that I've got a second 3' x 3' square very near to the the first one so need to be getting that going really soon!

Doubled the acreage in one fell swoop - more planning needed!

Friday 10th May 2013 - Loading the Composter

Hopefully I mentioned the purchase of the Draper 180L Compost Tumbler.  It will reportedly return quality compost in two months.  I got three breeze blocks to extend the concrete of the back yard a wee bit and the composter sits nicely on it.

On Friday 10th May I loaded it up with 1 part of green (nitrogen plant waste) to 3 parts brown (carbon waster - shredded cardboard, chopped straw).  I added a shovel full of soil as I've read this is good to start it off and a bit of water.  The idea is to rotate it for a minute every other day so did that for first time on Sunday 12th May.   The chopped straw my lad got for me.  The veg peelings came from the kitchen at work (one day's worth were pretty much all I needed!!).  The cardboard I shredded at work.

2nd May 2013 - Eleven Days In - Onions peeking through

About eleven days in and the onions are peeking through.  The radishes need thinning a little  I reckon although I hate doing that.  Some of the runner beans in pots upstairs are sprouting so hopefully be putting them out soon.

Onions beginning to make an appearance.

26th April 2013 - Lettuces happier - Radishes poking through

26th April 2013 Lettuces Happier, Radhishes poking through, Recycling Coke Bottles!

As you can see from pic below (click on it to zoom bigger) the lettuces are looking a bit happier after a few days outside.  Temperature dropped to about 5 degrees centigrade in the night so am glad I've got the cold frame to go over the top of the front two rows.  Still have the black plastic on the back rows to warm the soil  as much as possible ahead of planting them beans in May.

There's a couple of Marigolds at the back that aren't covered by the cold frame so have used another tip from the internet and cut a couple of 2 litre coke bottles in half to use as bells (few holes drilled in the top for aeration).

In the picture below you can see that after five or six days after planting the radishes are beginning to poke through the soil.  A very fast crop apparently them radishes.  

Last night I planted some Nisturtiums which are supposed to ward off the Aphids and again are another good companion plant.   Will be putting some sweetcorn into little pots tonight to get them set off as well - probably a bit late but can't do everything at once!

24th April 2012 - Wednesday = Feed Day

Need to make feeding stuff a habit so Wednesdays is feed day.  Just using

Westland All Purpose Plant Food once a week but am probably going to mix it up with tomato feed every other week I think.  Half a cap  into 4.5 litre of warmish water (rainwater + warm tap water) should make everything happy I hope.   Don't think the temperature dropped below 6 degrees last night so things are definitely getting warmer. 

In preparation of the beans going in next month I've had three small sheets of black plastic on the back three squares to warm the soil as much as poss in anticipation.  I'm umming and aahing about getting some Growmore fertiliser on the back three as well.  Also beans apparently need at least 8" of soil around them so not sure whether to make a hill in those back three squares - will need to do a bit of research on it.  I reckon

Not for the metre square garden but after work I re-potted the tomato seedlings which are about 8" high and need a bit more space so been looking for extra windowsill space for em.  Also repotted a couple of Azaleas that were getting a bit big - have got a ruck more of em to do later.

23rd April 2013 - Bark at the Moon

Okay, this might sound mad but let's go with it anyway.  You apparently should sow certain things on certain phases of the moon.  Sounds mad but there's a lot of research says it's true.   I've seen in the past it mention the same thing for fishing.  I think it's called a solunar calendar.  Anyway, when I planted the Enorma running bean seeds last night (22nd April 2012) it was a waxxing gibbous phase which apparently is a good time  to sow vegetables that produce internal seed bearing fruits. Tomatoes, beans, peas, peppers, chillis, pumpkins, courgettes.   So have put 10 runner bean seads into pots with the theory that a couple won't germinate.  I need eight for two squares in my cunning plan.

http://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/moon_planting.asp

22nd April 2013 Watering with warm water

Early Days - things beginning settling 

Morning
At the side of the square there is a 1m x 60cm cold frame that I'm putting over the plants at night until any chance of frost is out of the way.  The little gem lettuces are looking a bit under-whelmed by it all but they'll pick up.  I read somewhere that you should use warm water for onions and for plants in general so that's what I'm doing.  I've left half a bucket of rainwater in a black bucket to hopefully warm up through the day.   All good stuff.  I've also put 6 strawberrry plants in two planters near it now but you can't see it yet.

Evening
After first mowing of 2013 and fitting a hinge for a gate Have sewn 8 'Enorma' runner beans in pots ready for planting out probably mid-May they'll go back-left and back-centre when there's no fear of frost.  They'll sit on the windowsill for a few weeks yet.

Have also put a hook front centre and rear-centre to put a biggish bungee over the top of the coldframe so it don't get blown away.

21st April 2013 : First planting

21-03-2013

Companion Planting is an important element - Onions love Tomatoes aparrently so you plant them close together.  Marigolds are there as they attact insects that will kill off Aphids for example.  Have also read that runner beans are great as they'll take nitrogen out of the air and put it back into the soil so they'll be going in once the frost is gone.

21st april 2013 - First go - 3 x 3 footer

This is version one garden.  It's made from a 12 foot piece of 6" x 2" wood cut into four and then the corner bits are 6" sections of 2" x 2" - we could have just fastened the four sections together but I'd have lost 16 square inches then and when it's this small every square inch is important!  The underside of it is a square section of weed-cover material that you use to stop weeds getting in but I'd weeded the area pretty well before putting the square down - it's sitting on some paving slabs outside the living room facing south-south-west pretty much.   A lot of folks sacrifice some lawn to put these sort of raised beds in but again didn't want to lose any more lawn. 

The timber cost under a tenner and there's probably fifty pence worth of screws in total used.   The compost is all sorts of stuff there's some better stuff in there for the onions as they're supposedly fussy buggers we'll see.  There's the soil improver stuff from the recycling centre and compost from Aldi and BM Bargains and all sorts.   I reckon it's cost about £20 so far excluding seeds which were all bought fairly cheaply 

It's divided into square each of which will have a different square of plants in it that are sown either in 16, 9, 4 or 1 of.   You can have 16 onions in a square or 9 beetroots, you can have four lettuces but some things that spread out you can only have one of - tomatoes for example.

This picture is looking at it from the south.  The idea is to put the tall plants in at the back (North side) and the smaller stuff at the front so they all get the sun.  I've sited mine in the best spot I think I can - it gets sun from just 08:00 to about 16:00 in April - hopefully this will be enough - we'll find out!

Metre Square Garden - April 2012

I read about the metre square garden idea in a book by the RHS called "Grow your own crops in pots".  I got some more stuff from the internet and thought we'll give it a go.  The idea is that you cram crops into foot square sections quite densely in anything from,.   Ideally you'd have a four x four foot  box but I'd not got the space to commit to it so I've gone with more of a metre square approach - it's three x three foot!   The disadvantage over the 4ft x 4ft version is I have 7 squares less to play with.

In terms of planting they go in either singly, in fours, nines or 16s per square foot so you could have one tomato plant, four lettuces, 9 raddishes or 16 onions (no joking it apparently works).  I'm almost tempted not to waste a whole square on one plant but I think I'm going to have one tomato plant just to check out the companion planting theories below.

The idea is that as soon as something crops, you harvest, bang in some fresh compost/soil then reseed the square with something new so you're continually refreshing/ renewing the soil.  

Along with all this there's companion planting whereby you plant some things next to each other as they co-exist really well - for example Tomatoes love onions for example.  You plant marigolds as the scent of them attacts insects that feed on Aphids and beans take nitrogen out of the air and put it back into the soil.  Lots of clever stuff like that to learn.

As a green way of doing stuff really I should be composting stuff as well but as I don't do that yet I'm going to have to rely on shop bought compost for the time being.

My intention is to blog it all so I can  save  the details for next year -what worked, what didn't etc.etc.