Flowers, Eggs & Veg

Its been a long time since I last up dated my blog, mainly due to work pressures and the cold growing season wehave had up here.  That along with a week when we thought that the Sahara Desert had suddenly come to Morayshire its been fairly trying.  On the up side We now have a nice display of spring bulbs and Primulas in the sheltered part of the garden and Mrs M is delighted.

 

 

I had left a couple of bags off Silva Sand out on our stone seat at the front of the house.  They were particularly wet when I picked them up from the garden center and as the seat gets a lot of sun I thought it would help them dry out.  I went to move them on Sunday and a little birf had set up home where the bag had folded over the stone back of the seat.  Bags are now back in place and I'm looking forward to the eggs hatching.

Here is my Star Burst Celery I'm happy with the 15 plants I have. As you can see they are about 14 in high and growing strongly.  They get watered night and morning and have had one spray of Calciunm Nitrate.  I was speaking to an established grower at the weekend and he indicated that provided I keep them as damp as I am there is no need to use Calcium Nitrate at the moment.  I will be potting int 2 ltr pots this week.

Here are my large onions I think I have kept them in these pots a wee bit too long.  This is mainly because I over watered them in the pot size below this and a number of outer leaves died off.  However the best will be potted into final tubs this week and into the other greenhouse.  I am trying some in 25 ltrs pots and some in 10 ltr pots to see if there is much difference.

 And Finally my potatoes in bags I have used a new mix of 50% Peat & 50% Wool & Bracken Compost to this I have added Nutrimate and potato fertiliser.  I have also for the first time trenched my bags in about 4 inches and added potato fert to the bottom of the trench.  Here's hoping that this will be sucessful.  I am growing Amour.Blue Belle,Kestral & Maxine for coloured classes and Harmony & Sherine for the white classes.  The hope is I will have some good enough for the Scottish Branch NVS show at Dundee in September. I will have a total of 120 bags in by the end of this week.  

I also have my stumps in but they are not doing great, I have Caullies sown (2 lots) and have started some peas off for a few early local shows. 

Onions.Leeks & Celery

Well after watching the rugby yesterday I was more than ready to spend the afternoon in the greenhouse today sorting out my onions, leeks  and celery. I've grown Starburst this year and have 24 plants potted into cells and growing nicely.

Here are my large onions they have about 6 true leaves and vary from 22 to 26 inch long.  I have them in 1 ltr pots and still under lights giving them 12 hrs of light per day.  

Here are my second batch of onions that Helen Vincent sent me up in the post.  They have settled in well now and are growing on strongly.  I was delighted with these onions last year as the had a lovely shape to them so here's hoping they grow the same this year.   

This is my first batch of leeks which I received also from Helen.  I have them in 9 inch collars and as you can see they are stretching away nicely. At least 7 inch to the button and at least 2 inch girth.  

 My second batch of leeks also have 9 inch collars and are about 6.5 inches to the button and probably 1.5 inches round (These were from Alistair Gray)

My third batch have 7 inch collars and are about 6 inch to the button and also about 1.5 inch round.  These I got from David Metcalfe the breeder of the Improved Pendle leek. 

The leeks are also still under lights and I am trying to wnsure that the greenhouse does not fall below 10 degrees at any time.

North Regional Bowl Champions

What a Saturday I had.  Played the full 80 mins in the North Regional Bowl Final for Kinloss Eagles against Moray Rugby Football Club.  It was a great game and we were fortunate enough to come out on top.  This puts us into the National Bowl Semi-finals and only one game away from playing at Murryfield. Such a happy chappie.

Celery & Onions

We have had a fairly cold week and the ground is frozen again, so not a lot done on the plot.  Saturday we had snow and I was playing rugby in the North Regional Bowl which we were lucky enough to win.  That along with Scotland winning against Ireland has made it a pretty good weekend.  Anyway to garden matters.

As you can see my celery is at a stage where I will prick it out and pot up in 3 inch pots.  Probably do that tomorrow night.   

This is my exhibition onions that I got from Niall Currie from Rothesay. I got these plants on the 2nd of January and they have not looked back since I got them.  The most of the plants have 5 or 6 main leaves and are about 20 inches tall.  I'm really pleased with them.

I have also put 9 inch collars on my most forward leeks (HV) also 9 inch collars on the leeks from Alistair Grey.  My HV leeks are growing on strongly and have nice broad leaves on them so as soon as my 2 ltr pot arrive I'll get them into them.  I gave all my leeks and onions a drench of epsom salts to day this helps with the up take of nutrients and keep the foliage a good dark green colour. (or so i've been told)

Valentine Onions!!!

This week has been variable with sunshine at the start of the week and then snow and frost mid week and sunshine at the weekend. I also received a Valentine's gift from a fellow grower.  I must admit its the first time I've ever received onions on Valentines day.  Helen Vincent my very good fellow grower sent me 24 onions via the postal system.  I potted them up straight away and they are starting to settle in nicely.  If I manage to grow them half as good as last year I'll be delighted.  They are a very nice high necked variety so here's hoping.  I'll post a picture next week once they have settle.

Below is the onions I got on the 2nd January they are growing on strongly, with most now having 5 or 6 true leaves and standing about 16 to 18 inches tall.

Here are Red Barron onions I sowed my self they are coming along nicely and I hope that I'll get a set of three and a set of 5 as one of our shows looks for five large five red and five from set.  This is the first time I've attempted to grow for this class.

Here is some of my BC20 Stur onions from set.  Asyou can see I've started them away in fibre pots.  They are in Levingtons M3 and I the roots are already coming out the sides of the pots. 

 Below are my Hercules onions from set.  They are also coming on nicely with good root structure within the pots.  I've never tried starting sets off in pots before so it will be interesting to find out which one do best between the fibre pots or the actual pots.

Below is one of my most furthest on Leeks.  They are in 1 ltr pots and have 7 inch collars.  At present they are about 6 inch to the button and about 45- 50 mm in circumference.  I'm planning to pot on into 2 ltr pots next week and by that time I'll have 9 inch collars on them.  All my leeks have really started to stretch recently. I have added 7 inch collars to my other two batches as well, however the first batch that I received from Helen are looking really good just now.

Leeks & Rugby

It's been a wee while since I last posted.  we have had some very poor weather and I still have not managed a lot of ground preparation.  Saturday was a decent day but I was away playing rugby in the Regional Bowl semi-final in Aberdeen where we managed a 19-15 away win and now face Moray in a local derby final.  This has added spice for me as I played for them lasst season.

Anyway a quick up date. My onions from sets are starting to sprout and as you can see the Hercules are looking ok and the 20 BC Stur are similar.  I hope to plant out mid to late March depending on the weather.   

 As you can see the celery has germinated.  Not as strong a germination as I would have liked but there will be enough plants for me to get 12 strong ones to plant out for my late July show.

Here are my onions.  These I got as seedling on the 2nd of January. As you can see they are growing on strongly and will soon need potting up to 1 litre pots.  

I re collared my most forward leeks last weekend with 7 inch collars.  The lagging I had was 15 mm which I felt was a wee bit tight round the leaves so put 7 inch 22 mm lagging on today.  The most of these leeks are at least 5 inch to the button and between 40 to 45 mm in circumference round the barrel.  So really pleased with them.  They will be getting potted on into 2 litre pots next week or the week after. 

Celery & Parsley Sown

The weather was a bit better today but we have suffered from snow and hard frost for the last week or so.  Today was spent in the greenhouse re arranging my leeks & onions and sowing my first lot of Celery, I've elected to try Star Burst this year and I'm hoping to have some ready to show On the 31st of July at The Black Isle show, hence why I'm starting so early.  I also sowed my Parsley today in the hope that I'll get some plants for our local shows.  I've sieved my Levingtoms F2 compost then placed the seed trays in water for 5 mins to allow the compost to soak up the water.  Then I sowed the seeds and covered them with fine Vermerculite and placed into my propagator.  

Here are the two seed trays with Globo seedlings and "Matador" a shallot which I hope to grow for the local shallot from seed classes. The Matador has only been sown 10 days so I'm fairly pleased with the germination.

I've always struggled with my onion seedlings and getting them to stand up straight.  Here is a "Red Barron" seedling with a home made support. These I have just made this year and seem to be doing a job.  

This is an update of my earliest batch of leeks. They have 5 inch collars on them and as you can see they are starting to stretch quite nicely.  I am slightly worried that they have "stalled" a bit this last week but I've re arranged the growing area for them and they now have a tube heater underneath them which I hope will encourage them t continue growing.

This is my second batch of leeks which I have just added 5 inch collars to, They were only recently poted into their 2 ltr pots and I'm hoping they will now grow on. 

I now have all my leeks under the same light with the youngest batch at the front.  These were leeks I got from Dave Metcalfe and appear to have broader leaves than my other ones.  I will pot them up next week.

This is the my onions that I got in plugs on the 2nd of January I'm potting them up into 1 ltrs pots of M3 compost with perlite. They are growing on nicely and the best have 4 or 5 true leaves and 14 inches tall.