A week of tomato plant growth (and netting for the lettuce seedlings)

I decided last week to take photographs every day of my tomato plants, to record the change and boy am I glad I did it.

They have grown far more than I expected and I think these pictures are very interesting. I will continue doing this I think through the entire process; that blog post will be fun to read now, won't it ;)

Anyway, without further ado:

Day 1: most seedlings only have 2 leaves, some have 4

Day 2: not much change, when are they going to start GROWING?

Day 3: hmmm, most plants now have 4 leaves... here they come...

Day 4: some plants now getting up to 6 leaves and we're seeing some differentiation between the stronger seedlings

Day 5: starting to see plants with 8 leaves... exciting.

Day 6: Again, not much change over this day - are they slowing down?

Day 7: Yeah... they're looking much better than from day 1, but seem to be slowing their growth.

Day 8: oh WOW they appear to have just bust off again - just amazing progress; that is what a bit of sun can do :)

Day 9: yep, these tomatoes are now really going for it. Shortly I'll have to take them out of the propagation trays into proper pots (and then you will be able to ask me for plants if you want some..)

A close up of one of the plants taken about 2 mins ago; looking really strong.

So there you are, our tomatoes are going great guns!

Onto the other little update; I have been seeing pigeons pecking at my vegetable bed which has the cabbage seedlings in it and I started getting worried that they were taking the seedlings so I have put some netting over the whole bed.

Starting to peg the netting out, using the line-markers as supports.

All done and pegged out.

Looking through the netted area.

Now the problem is going to be getting in to weed ;)

I have some plant pots (and a progress update)

I have been freecycling (as I think I've mentioned before) and today I made my second collection of plant pots from the nice lady in central Blackpool.

I now have a nice collection of plant pots ready for filling up and putting my Tomato Plants in.

Well when I say a "nice" collection:

I had to wash each one of those; I got SOAKED to the skin; good thing the sun has come back :)

So I'm going to be filling each of these up with soil and planting tomato plants in them; I will be taking requests from people for tomato plants via this site so please keep an eye on it. When I know how many I have to give away I'll put a blog post for y'all to say how many you want.

Anyway, the rest of the garden is going pretty well; the ONLY things not growing are the parnsips, carrots and mint (though I'm hopeful they will start in the next couple of weeks - I really did expect the parsnips and carrots to have started to show green by now) but everything else looking great so, without any further ado, status photographs below:

Chillis: not as good as Jon's at work are (apparently, though he's refused to take any pictures to prove how impressive his are) but they're still alive and growing, though slowly.

Blossom has all gone from the Apple tree, but it is looking very healthy and happy :)

The Stuttgarter Giant Onions; nicely weeded today

The Karmen Red Onions, again nicely weeded

The Red Sun Shallots. These are looking so bountiful :)

The Casablanca Garlic. I'm starting to consider how I'll know when to harvest these things :)

Just showing; the cabbage :) this is very exciting for me indeed!

The potatoes in the main bed; I've lots count now of the number of plants that are growing.

Potatoes in the old tyres. These are growing great guns, since I put the second tyre on they have accelerated dramatically.

The herb garden; in all seriousness if anyone wants some Parsley (who lives near Blackpool) just ask and you can come get some :)

The Sweetcorn is coming on really well; only 2 days after the first green started showing they are already a good inch and a half long.

The tomatoes. I have SO many of these coming on!!! I've been taking daily photographs of their progress and will post a seven day progress blog tomorrow.

So, there you have it. Things is growing and growing well.

Spiky, slimy and feathery friends

Just now there was GREAT excitement in our house as, while we were watching tv I noticed a hedgehog toddling past the back windows. It wandered around the back yard, going all the way into the back weeds and then disappeared around the house. I got a picture and it made me think "I know I'll do a blog post with the pictures I've taken of wildlife in our back yard".

And this is it.

First of all, a pretty butterfly from last summer.

A pheasant spotted at the bottom of the garden, late last year.

The ducks that visited us a couple of times.

Spotted this while taking the chillis out to the greenhouse one morning last week.

Harry the Hedgehog (named by Jamie)... that was an awesome thing to see wandering around the garden (not least because they love eating slugs and I don't like slugs near my veg).

The MOST AMAZING animal I have had visit (but I didn't get a picture because it was over in such a flash) was when I was clearing the pond and the heron was standing RIGHT behind me, and then took off past my right ear, across the pond, banked and back past me again. I am SUCH a huge fan of herons so this was a pretty awesome experience for me.

So yeah, short update - I hope you like these pictures :)

Building the Whisky Cabinet Part One (mostly not gardening related)

So today's blog isn't actually about gardening, but it is kinda about homesteading because I've been creative and constructive and made the base part to my whisky cabinet :)

I have designed this all myself and over the last 3 days have finally put it together.

I have learned a lot about wood work over this period; mainly "don't be stupid!" as in, I left a piece of the wood standing on it's narrow end by accident and it fell, and broke.

So, without further ado, here follows the picture diary of my whisky cabinet building experience.

So, lesson 1: measure twice, cut once. I made a mistake with the left hand cut out, but discovered this when checking my measurements again.

I used my old Black n Decker jigsaw to cut out each shape. In this picture I'm carefully shaving across a small amount at a time.

The finished cut out. During this I learned another lesson; cut from the outside in. My next attempt caused me to ruin this section as I cut the inside line, then went to cut the outside and hadn't secured it so it vibrated and split the wood. Idiot that I am.

Me wielding my tool (as it were)

More tool wielding :)

At the end of day one; I have cut each required piece and it all fits together.

Prior to staining the wood I am drilling and counter sinking holes for screwing the unit together. These were measured (twice) and marked onto the wood before any holes were drilled.

Staining the wood; before with Ronseal (tm)

And after. Lovely colour, I think you'll agree.

Mid stain :) Though it didn't say on the label that it was "wood and hand stain".

Screwing the whole thing together... I found out that the manual screwdriver was actually easier to use and gave up with the electric driver after the picture was taken.

The finished product! edit: those are not undrunk bottles of whisky; I just keep them in the boxes. Most of those have been opened apart from the miniatures which are Kilchoman Inaugural Release and will maybe be opened just before the sky falls down.

Well, not quite finished; this is only half of it. There is an upright section yet to be built which is next on my list.

And in other (gardening) news; I now have more than 100 tomatoes, the chillis are looking good, potatoes going insane but nothing from carrots, parsnips, cabbage or spring onions (or mint) ((or peppers)).

So yeah; bad weather forces internal work to be done.

How I Weed

So I have been promising to do more "how to" type posts and this is one them; my "how I weed".

I am not saying that you have to do it this way, but I find this to be a therapeutic but fast method which allows me to get my hands dirty (part of the pleasure of growing your own) and feel close to the soil, while removing a very large proportion of weeds, including very tiny ones before they start to take over.

So, without any more preamble, follows the pictures:

1. Identify the weed; there it is, that little splash of green...

2. Push your finger in next to the plant, very gently, to break the earth up without breaking the roots.

3. Again very gently, push the soil against the weed to continue breaking up it's supporting earth. You can do this RIGHT next to a plant that you want to keep if you are gentle as the weed will extract itself very cleanly.

With the earth around the weed loosened carefully grasp it as low down as possible and very very gently pull.

If you have loosened the soil correctly then the weed will just come free really easily. If you haven't, and the root breaks, you will feel (and almost certainly hear) it do so and will be able to go in again to find it.


So there you have it.

How I Weed.

Aren't you glad you read that blog.

On other matters, my potatoes are up to about 25 plants in the main bed, the tomatoes are going NUTS (I am taking pictures every day for a week and will post a set of those pictures up a week today.  The chillis had a day in the greenhouse (on the day the sun put it's hat on) and are looking ok. Still no sign of carrots, parsnips, cabbage or spring onions, and I've started some pots with Sweetcorn in (and started digging the bed for them; hard work with MASSIVE tree roots across the plot :(..)

So, onwards and upwards :) thanks for reading, please follow and comment if you want to.

First Advice Post

Every now and then I am going to post advice for you that I wish I'd known (or at least had explained to me) before I started.

Today: always plant things in regular rows (or defined spaces if the plant is recommended to be planted in blocks).

This helps with weeding for two reasons. Firstly if your seeds are in a defined area you know where to keep totally clear of green and second leaving gaps allows you access.

Anyway, back with a proper post later :)

A small post with a progress update

This is just a quick update with some pictures and things about the progress I am seeing:

We are seeing the start of the second leaves from the tomato plants (pictured) and the remaining chili plants. Two of them have now died sadly :(

The apple tree is looking awesome now!

I also went round and weeded every bed; it took me about 45 mins in total to do it in detail with bare hands and by the end of it I had a very small volume of weeds, but now I know there are none of the little blighters waiting to take over the space and crowd out my crops.

Finally, I counted my potato plants and I have 17 plants coming through in the main bed,and five growing in the old car tire. Pretty excited by that.

I have planted some mint in a plant pot too, so we will see what happens with that over the next few days.

And I have been recommended to try and grow some sweetcorn so that will be my next crop to work out (thanks @andyfereday67 for the recommends)

*******************

I do also want to thank everyone who reads this blog, and invite you all to comment and discuss and advise and criticise in any way you think would help me - I really am a beginner at this so all advice gratefully received.