COURGETTES

Courgettes... Oh how excited I am about growing my own. Perhaps this is ore exciting because the courgettes were the first of my seedlings to sprout up and looked good and strong and healthy.

From the first leaves, I have watched them progress. Seeing them growing so quickly I dream of Mediterranean baked tomato and courgette with chili and garlic, and all grown with our fair hands. Now that can't be bad can it?

Square Foot Gardening

Chris's research on vegetable growing lead him to an interesting technique called Square Foot Gardening. This is an easy to follow system using raised beds and planting in Square feet of a perfect soil mix. The mix is one third compost with one third peat moss and one third vermiculite. I could tell you all the benefits but Mel Bartholomew's does it much more justice than me, so here is a link to his site if you want to read more.

The Greenhouse and Garden

Well we finally have our Greenhouse up and ready to go. We were given this wonderful greenhouse by a kind Histon resident who wanted to give it away on www.freecycle.co.uk.

Putting it up was a long process taking several days. (weeks!) It was quite tricky to get the glass in and we had to replace 6 panes of glass with new ones because they broke. But finally here it is in all its glory.  

Chris has worked really hard to get the garden looking so lovely. When we first decided that it would be nice to try and grow our own veggies, my thoughts were of a tiny little plot hidden behind the back wall of my office. True to form, Chris took to the books and researched the best way of growing vegetables and soon suggested my 'small plot' would actually be much better if it was a much bigger space so we could grow many things! My fears were that we would loose our garden and end up with a big area of dirt with nowhere to sit and enjoy the summer. Aesthetics are always important to me and when Chris showed me a plan that would mean nice neat and tidy raised beds next to the patio area, I was delighted.

Chris built the raised beds using reclaimed roof timbers from our friends and neighbours (Thank you Carl and Jo!).

Tami has spent a long time just sitting inside and dreaming of bumper crops of tomatoes and peppers.  The little wind up radio has kept me company while setting out my seeds and organising the space.

New Life! (March 2009)

I just cannot describe my feelings of sheer delight and excitement at seeing the first seedlings appear though the potting compost!

Tiny little loops of green which appear so fragile will eventually become Leeks.

The Marigolds have their first leaves which are tiny and elongated compared to the chunky first signs of the courgette leaf.

First Seedlings (March 2009)

And so into our greenhouse go the first of our vegetables! Its been so difficult to know what to plant first, in what quantities and how best to get them to germinate successfully.

Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact date we planted these seeds so I'm going to guess it was around the first 2 weeks of March. Here is what we have planted so far:

• Early leeks (Porvite)
  
• Summer Cabbage (Elisa)
  
• Courgette (Black Forest F1 Hybrid)
  
• French Marigolds
  
• Butternut Squash
  
• Garden Peas
  
• Brussel Sprouts (Cavalier)

3rd April 2009

Have now thinned out the leek seedlings and tomato seedlings and they are looking great. We have 9 healthy looking tomato plants which should give us a monster crop late summer!

Evie's flowers are doing well with only one set of seedlings yet to show. She is really excited about growing her own pretty flowers.

Off to the Isle of Wight today for almost a week and have asked a neighbour to keep an eye on the greenhouse and water the seedlings for us. Fingers crossed they will be OK. It's strange to feel like a first time parent once again, entrusting our beloved babies to the care of someone else.

March 28th 2009

Sowed some Savoy Cabbage seeds, some Spring Onion seeds, Runner Beans Celebration & Apollo seeds all in the greenhouse.

I also sowed 6 more Garden Pea seeds in the greenhouse to replace bird damaged ones and another Butternut Squash seed to replace the failed one. Tom planted a pumpkin seed today and this will now be Toms Pumpkin!

April 10th 2009

We've just returned from a week away on the Isle of Wight. It was a mixture of delight and disappointment to return to the seedlings. The weather had been warm while we were away and while some plants thrived, for others it was just to hot and we lost half of our tomato and Basil seedlings. The Summer Cauliflower's had also died in the heat and with lack of water.  The The courgettes continued in their usual manner and looked very healthy and now have X true leaves.

The Sugar Snap Peas have not only started to sprout but have amazed me with how healthy and happy they look. Out of the 18 seeds I set just 2 weeks ago, we now have 17 seedlings. I replaced the one failed seedling with a greenhouse grown seedling and the remaining with go to a friend for her garden.

After our bird attack on the garden peas, I replaced the 6 missing seedlings today and we now have to set up some temporary supports for them to grow up against.

The Garlic has also sprouted in our absence and we now have three shoots clearly above the soil.