Update and up to date 22nd April 2011

Well, we're experiencing one of the warmest and driest Aprils on record.  Last year was the warmest and driest since 1938 and was followed by one of the wettest May's ever.

It hasn't rained for weeks here in the South of England and there's no sign of any for a couple of weeks.

Radish Rudolph

I decided to take a chance, having looked at the forecast for the next few weeks, and planted out crops that you wouldn't normally dream of risking outside until mid May when the dangers of frosts are all but gone.

The downside was that greenhouse grown crops would get leggy and that would be worse so I'll keep a close eye on the weather and cover everything with fleece if the weather turns.  In the meantime, everything (almost) is growing at alarming rates.

After what was, as always, a long winter, it's great to see things growing almost before your eyes.

So here is where we are in the third week of April.

Last September we planted a variety of brassicas, mainly cabbage and cauliflower.  The cauli's gave small heads which were just about Ok but the cabbages have run to seed.  It seems it really was too late to be planting.  The one cabbage that did well though was Excel which has firmed up nicely and are ready to pick.  We'll try this one again later in the year.

Cabbage 'Excel"

The peas were planted in root trainers and all did pretty well,  germinating 95% successfully.  They're putting on good growth and so far nothing has had a go at them.  Growing in root trainers and then planting out was better than sowing direct and avoided any problems from mice on the look out for their dinner.

Peas 'Douce Provence' 12th April 2011

The peas 10 days later - we'll need to add taller twigs and supports soon.

One of the things I wanted to try was sowing parsnips underneath radish in the same row.  The theory is that the radish will be up and ready for picking about the time the parsnips germinate and show their heads.  I sowed parsnip 'Pixie F1' in the same row as some radish 'Rudolph'.

Parsnip 'Pixie F1' in front of a row of beetroot 'Boltardy; sown from seed

Either the parsnips germinated in patches or I managed to disturb some seeds while thinning the radish.  It basically worked and would prove a great space saver if you're really tight on growing space.  I'll certainly try it again.

Breakfast radish 'Red Top'

I adore radish and sowed a half row of 'Red Top' which germinated and grew in no time, probably about a month.  These were the crunchiest radish ever and a must to grow.  They are a breakfast type radish. The only problem is I eat them as I'm picking them and not many saw the inside of the kitchen.

Another space saving tip is to grow radish in pots so I'm trying a couple of varieties for fun.  They're easy to sow on the surface of your soil or compost or whatever you've decided to use as a growing medium and then cover with a thin layer of compost/soil.  Thinning is easy and you can move the pots around to the sunniest spots as required.  Very easy and also a great way to get kids interested in gardening as they germinate so quickly and aren't that fragile for children to thin out themselves.  Even the smallest balcony can grow them this way.

Radish growing in pots - about 2 weeks from sowing

Radish Red Top 5 to 6 days from sowing

Space is too limited to grow potatoes but the lure of early, home grown new potatoes and main crop varieties was too tempting to resist.

We've used potatoes sacks and planted chitted potatoes (potato seeds left in a cool light area, in our case the greenhouse, to sprout shoots) - 5 to a bag.  We only used certified potatoes from either our local garden centre or bought on-line.  We did buy a small supply of pre chitted potatoes and we'll only know whether this was worth the extra costs once we turn out the bags and see the results.

The potato sacks growing a variety of potatoes 12th April

The basic method is to place about 6 inches of compost in the bag, sit 3 to 5 seed potatoes in the bottom and then cover with compost and a sprinkle of fertiliser.  Once shoots appear you cover these with a layer of compost and a sprinkle of fertiliser and continue this until the bag is full.  From then it's a matter of letting the plants grow on with regular watering.

Harvesting time will vary according to how big you want your potatoes to be but a guide is from when the flowers open to when the tops die back.  I think it will be trial and error.

A lot of people report almost empty sacks when they harvest.  I think this may be a combination of a lack of fertiliser at each topping up of the compost, a lack of water and  a lack of sunshine (our bags in the sunniest spot are doing much, much better than those getting less sun).

This is the first time growing potatoes so I'll have to wait and see what turns out.  We're growing earlies, main crop and late potatoes and will plant up a few bags of summer potatoes in July/August to get our Christmas potatoes.  Fingers crossed!

Same potatoes 10 days later.

I want to talk about fertiliser in a later post and especially potato fertiliser.

The Chinese cabbages 'Wa Wa Sai' are galloping along, the first spring onions finally germinated and are growing at their own chosen pace, the early turnips 'Milan White' managed about 70% germination and are doing well and the beetroots 'Boitardy' are looking good.  We grew some from seed in the greenhouse and sowed some direct and both methods seem reliable.

Taking a big chance, we planted out the runner and French beans - 'Butler' and 'Isabel' respectively.  The runners are just getting their feet and starting to climb, albeit slowly but the French beans look a little timid.  The night temperatures may be a little low around 6-8C but I'm keeping a close eye on them.  We didn't want a glut of runners and so have used half of the growing frame for runners and the other half for French beans.

Runner and French beans 12th April

The beans 10 days later - steady progress

I'm happy for the beans to be a little slow right now as they are out a good month ahead of normal.  They're looking healthy, not at all leggy and so far nothing has attacked them.  I've sprayed with a fungicide and a bug killer as a precaution.

The autumn planting of onions - Autumn Champion, Senshyu Yellow, Radar and Red Cross are doing OK (see the previous post) and are just now starting to bulb up.

First sign of the autumn onions bulbing up

Autumn planted onions from sets

The spring planted garlic and onions are looking really good.  Onion 'Troy' and garlic 'Purple Wight', 'Jolimont' and 'Illico'.
These are quite close planted to see how intensive we can do in raised borders so I don't expect huge sizes which is fine for what we want.

Spring planted onions and garlic

The strawberries are doing really well which we'd expect given the exceptional weather.  Those is the strawberry planter are ahead of those is the raised border so it will be interesting to see what, if any, difference in crops there will be.

Strawberries in flower and straw in place to keep the fruits clean

We'll need to net both the planter and the raised beds once the fruit develop to protect from birds.

The shallots - 'Vigarmor', 'Pikant' and 'Topper', seem to be OK and have split into two bulbs each which apparently is right but as it's all a first we'll see what develops.  The broad beans are coming into flower more and more and being a dwarf variety should be easy to keep.  We've sprayed with a bug spray as I don't want black fly infesting them.  Apparently they don't do a lot, if any, damage but I just don't want them.

I want to pickle and preserve a few things and so have grown from seed some red cabbage and some white cabbage which is now planted out.

A selection of brassica

I grew a varied selection of Brussels, cabbage, brussel sprouts and broccoli which I've planted out together with a few crispy lettuce (Little Gem, Webs Wonderful) - all from seed.

And finally, for now, we've planted up some exhibition onions into pots.  There's no intention of showing but I wanted to see what really good onion plants from first class seed grown in pots will compare to my onions grown in beds from sets.  The pots are much smaller than you would use for exhibition onions but big enough to do the plants justice - it will be really interesting to see their progress.

Medwyns finest! (onions)

i'm scared to mention the carrots - I think I may have sown too early by a couple of weeks as they need a good soil temperature to germinate.  The 'exhibition' carrots in the special planters aren't showing at all after 10 days so I'll give them another week to see if they germinate.  If not I'll resow them.

The carrots sown in beds are eventually showing but this vegetable is one that takes forever to germinate.

Carrots not showing any sign of germination

The carrot boxes protected with carrot fly mesh.