Warm Fragrant Air of Spring

Well it has been raining in the north west of England. The earth is soaked and although there's still a chill in the air it is warming up under foot.

Fruit trees are blossoming and gorgeous scent is filling the air. The atmosphere seems to stir distant childhood memories of care-free years sitting in a paddling pool.

Indeed the moist air is a stroke of luck for my garden. It will help ensure good pollination of fruit trees. They have cropped for me year after year and now I'm hopeful that this year will be a big fruiting year yet again.

But I expect some fruiting problems to result from those many strawberry plants that have to take their turn this year to be moved. I should have done this in the autumn. There's still lots stored in the deep freeze.

More later... I hope...

To find more expert advice on organic gardening why not visit my page on gardening books where the best in the bunch have been classified.

Plans For Fruit and Vegetable Garden 2012

What's Growing at The Home of The Organic Gardener in 2012

Here's a quick list to outline my plans for this year.

Potatoes - 4 varieties - 17 Elizabeth, 10 Sarpo Mira, 10 Salad Blue, 5 Swift.

Onions - 60+ Hitech F1, 60+ Hired plus 

multi-sow 16 modules minimum, each with 5 seeds of Bedforshire Champion.

6 - 10 Shallots left over from last year to plant,

At least 20 Garlic left over from last year to plant.

Spring Onions White Lisbon for use until Christmas, and from Summer I'll be sowing Winter Hardy White Lisbon to pick later.

Leeks Musselburgh a late variety, I'll find room for 2 rows squeezed in somewhere.

Carrots, many rows I need a lot - including Chantanay Red Core, Autumn King,

Beet Root more more - pick young and even more larger roots for storage, 

Lettuce, Radicchio, crisp texture and coloured leaves,

Pak Choi 'ruby' is a dark red leaved variety for good health,

Courgettes,

Runner Beans,

Brussels Sprouts - I only need 3 or 4 plants,

Cauliflower 'Iglo' and 'Romansco',

Celery will grow with the Brussels Sprouts or Cauliflower,

French beans row after row, continue picking for a big crop,

Outdoor Tomatoes in the garden,

 

In the Greenhouse,

Sweet Peppers, I'm leaving tomatoes out of house beds this year,

Melons - 'Sweetheart' - hard to get the seed this year but I hope to grow 4 or five plants with lots of fruit,

Tomatoes in a hanging basket,

Cucumber - must give them a go again,

Garlic in the greenhouse, and 

I'll try several crops normally grown outside such as Radicchio, Carrots, Alpine Strawberries and 2 other strawberry varieties.

And there's more...

Permanent fruit fixtures include: 

4 varieties of Gooseberry,

2 Blackcurrant bushes,

1 Jostaberry,

1 Blackberry,

1 Tayberry,

A plum tree,

3 varieties of Raspberries: including a summer variety plus 'Autumn Bliss' and 'All Gold,

3+ varieties of Strawberries including 'Alice', 'Elsanta' 'Flemenco',

3 varieties of Apples in cordons.

There's always something to look forward to.

All that plus lots of tasty herbs to flavour my meals and keep me healthy. Young fresh shoots of Fennel are growing strong even now, but all that's another story.

It's all happening at The Home of The Organic Gardener.

All Year Gardening With Onions

All Year Gardening With Onions

Last weekend I planted about 60 onion sets of 'Hitech' F1 variety. The earth was ideally soft after recent showers. My onion bed is fairly open textured so a good firming with my fist around each set should prevent the birds from pulling them out - I hope.

Just when I thought I was done - another packet of onion sets arrived on my door mat. 'Hired' is the sister to 'Hitech'. 

My aim is to have onions available for cooking nearly every day of the year. So far I hope to have at least 2 per bulbs per week and more... 

But the problem is not the quantity. It is the keeping qualities of the onions. My choice are good keepers. Even so there will be gaps in the season. The answer...

Grow a range of onion types to fill the whole season. First up...

• Late season Leeks are being picked now and they can fill the gap from the last stored onions to the the first shallots,
• Shallots are planted in autumn and spring, and beat the late summer onions to your dinner plate. 
• Japanese onions are sown in late summer to overwinter and can be picked from around mid summer,
• Maincrop onions come in early and late varieties, but the late ones are usually good keepers,
• Winter hardy spring onions are sown from summer. They will fill in gaps when fresh onion flavour is needed,
• And of course summer spring onions sown in succession should always be available for salads and soups.

Add to that multi-sown onions in modules to build up the numbers. And nowadays there are varieties of onions to sow in succession that can grow either larger or be picked as salad onions. 

For more on gardening with seeds see my pages on garden seeds and starting seeds.

My onions have been heat treated to help prevent running to seed. But as a result the sets are dryer and take a little longer to grow. It's probably too late to order them now. But there's lots more for you to do...
See the-organic-gardener.com for help.

The Fever Season For Gardening

In Britain some reporters are describing the date clocks go forward (from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time) as the beginning of Summer. 

But I think most gardeners would agree that Winter lasts 3 months from November to February; while Spring goes from February to May. So my summer begins in May.

Now Gardening is Hasty Work

However, the change in day length from from one weekend's gardening to the next always impresses me at this time of year. The season is advancing rapidly. Every day is noticeably longer. The difference over a week seems huge.

For gardeners the pressure is on to complete tasks in time. And as usual I'm in a frantic hurry to complete. Plants need tidying up, earth needs to be prepared for seed and plants, and seeds need to be sown in time. 

Give Your Plants A Head Start

I sow lots of seeds in trays or modules and I can recommend this page on seed starting methods. Modules get the edge on seed sown direct in the earth for several reasons. One is that most seed beds are ideal for germinating weed seeds. But if you clean out the weeds before planting from modules your plants will be able to compete with any further growth of weed seedlings.

Another issue is the weather. In the UK the soil is drying out fast. But if we have rain on a seed bed the weeds will come up.

There's more on garden seeds and there's more information about organic weed control on the same web site.