Original post from Gardening Tips ‘n’ Ideas, May 21, 2008

Earlier this year I wrote a post titled 21 Skills Every Gardener Should Have that offered some suggestions for skills each gardener might require in their gardening repertoire. Yet, while skills are important they’re seemingly redundant unless you have the right garden tools at your disposal.

For instance, what’s the purpose of knowing how to till the soil properly if you only have a stick? Or, amending your soil when you have no idea what’s lacking?

Therefore, it seems a little trite to have all these skills under your belt - when you possibly don’t have a gardening belt.

1. Trowel - Arguably the most important tool in the garden. While some gardeners don’t require the use of a spade or shovel, all of us need a garden towel. Their effectiveness in transplanting our new purchases or seedlings is second to none.

2. Secateurs (Garden Shears) -

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Original post from Mas Du Diable, May 20, 2008

Sweet, freshly boiled beetroot, seasoned with a sour, salty and spicy dressing works perfectly and makes a lovely side salad or mezze dish. Our November sown beetroot are at their best now in the polytunnel and there’s plenty left to harvest.

Serves 4 as a side dish

• 4-5 medium size beetroot
• 1 tsp cumin seeds, crushed
• 1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon juice
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic chives or green garlic
• pinch sea salt to taste
• juice of half a lemon
• pinch of ground cayenne chilli

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Original post from Down on the Allotment, May 19, 2008

The only flowers you will see this week in my garden are those which precede tasty vegetables! I’ve just finished watching the opening day of the RHS Chelsea flower show on TV.. not a veggie in sight.. shame on them. Regard my crimson flowered broad beans, flowering their little hearts out at the moment. Small beanlets are starting to appear at the base of each plant.

Looks like it will be a bumper year for strawberries too. This is the third year I have found a permanent home for about a dozen plants. I just peg down the runners each year and try to remember which plants are past their best and whip them out. This week I will give them a feed and lay down some straw for the berries to rest on.. er.. that’s why they call them straw-berries!

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Original post from Compost Bin, May 19, 2008

Spring is a crazy time in the garden. It’s sort of a hurry up and wait situation. Getting the yard cleaned up, starting seeds indoors, growing spring crops outdoors, planting annuals and splitting perennials is a lot of work that needs to be done in a short amount of time. Then the waiting begins. When will last frost arrive, when will the seeds sprout, when will I get that first red tomato?

Today is sort of a catch up post because for all this activity that’s been going on in the garden, The Compost Bin blog has been too quiet. Here’s what I’ve been working on lately.

The homemade compost tumbler is working out nicely. The other day I stuck my hand deep in there and I could feel the heat. I may use the thermometer from my turkey fryer to check the temperature to get a real reading. They say that weed seeds are killed at about 160 degrees. I’m no where near 160 but it’s really doing well since I added some grass clippings.
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Original post from In the Charamon Garden, May 18, 2008

Plant Tally for today:

• Blue Hubbard Squash
• Butternut Squash
• Figs
• Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes)
• Onions (red and white)
• Eggplant (heirlooms)
• Okra
• Green Peppers (Capsicums)
• Jalapeño Peppers
• Potatoes (4 varieties)
• Tomatoes (heirloom)
• Yellow Squash
• Zucchini
• Swiss Chard (Silverbeet)
• Asparagus
• Peaches
• Cucumbers

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Original post from Garden Desk, May 18, 2008

Today I managed to plant out many tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, more potatoes, and peppers. Before I could get the peppers outside to harden off and then to be planted, they were attacked. I got them at the Baker Creek Festival. They were only inside under my lights for a few days when I noticed holes in some of the leaves and other leaves were outright missing.

There was a lot of damage but I couldn’t tell what caused it. These were heirloom sweet bell peppers. I once wrote about pests being more attracted to heirloom tomatoes than hybrids. I guess its also true for heirloom peppers.

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Original post from My Tiny Plot, May 18, 2008

Quite a few of you have been asking me how the garden is looking now after the redesign so I thought I would post a photo of how the garden is shaping up.
The squares on the left hand side of the garden get the most sun and so that’s where most of the vegetables are.

In the square on the left hand side to the top is the following:
Lettuce, Peas, Spinach, Spring Onions, Radish, Salad Leaves, Carrots, Leeks, Onions, Asters, Cosmos, Pears, Blackberry and Red Currant with Sweetcorn to come.

In the square below that is:
Onions, Shallots, Garlic, Potatoes, Raspberries, Strawberries, Blackcurrant, Basil, Lettuce and Spinach Beet.

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Original post from Vegmonkey & the Mrs., May 18, 2008

To all regular readers, apologies for the lack of recent posts, it’s not that i’ve not wanted to, more that we’ve had Ofsted in work and that we haven’t had the internet at home due to B.T being COMPLETELY inept…but that’s a whole other story.

I took loads of pictures at the beginning of the week, but they are all pretty much out of date now as everything has grwon since then. I’m hoping we’ll have the net back up soon, when the pole is replaced, but i think i might be doing a post a day until i’ve caught up!

The onions in the front of the picture are Japanese Senshyu Onions which grow overwinter. We’d never grown these before, and as they were a bit of an experiment, didn’t know what to expect. In my opinion, ground with something growing in it is better than ground that is empty, even overwinter, so they went in. The growth has been quite erractic, so much so, that about 10 are beginning to bulb, but the rest are taking a while to catch up. This might be due to a differing amount of nutrients in the soil or lack of water, but i’m hoping it’s more to do with the size of the set initially planted, and the smaller ones will catch up. On the brightside, i suppose it means we won’t have a glut.

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Original post from The Cheap Vegetable Gardener, May 18, 2008

I definitely can’t complain about the current results of the garlic and potatoes I planted from my original post Harvesting seeds from the grocery store Every clove of garlic I planted has come up and seems to compliment the onions well and is supposed to keep the slugs away which I can always use help on.

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Original post from Skippy’s Vegetable Garden, May 17, 2008

This looks like a good week to transplant my tomato seedlings. Also my squashes, pumpkins and cukes. The temperature is staying sort of warm - about 50 F at night and up near 70 on sunny days. I’ve seen nearby gardens with tomatoes and squash already planted. I think its time to set mine out.

I have some fancy thermal plastic this year. Its from Johnny’s and lets near IR through, but not visible light. This is supposed to warm up the soil well. I’ll try this under my tomatoes in both my community plot and at home.

My plan is to plant half of my tomatoes in my home garden and half in my much sunnier community plot. I’ll see what does better where. It can be an experiment. I have 10 varieties, 24 total plants, both heirlooms and hybrids.

As for squashes, the ornamentals (gourds and pumpkins) will go in my bed along the house and the edibles (summer squash, winter squash and cucumbers) will go to the community plot.

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