June 2008 – Old diary entries

1st June

Planted out 6 x Sungold tomatoes in the 'tomato greenhouses' in large bottomless pots in 2 x growbags against the plot shed. Planted 4 x Sungold tomatoes and 2 x Tumbling Tom tomatoes in the bean bed. Planted tagetes amongst them. Planted out 4 x courgette 'black forrest' on cane teepee. Planted out 4 x cucumber 'tasty burpless green' on cane teepee. Covered with cut-off squash bottle cloches. Planted another full row of sugarsnap peas. Covered with fine wire mesh this time. Lee sowed 2 x rows of carrot 'chanteray'. Thinned 'nantes' carrots. Planted 13 dahlias in the plot flower bed. Used plenty of horse manure in the dahlia, tomato, cucumber and courgette planting holes. Bought 2 gardman tunnels from Askett Nurseries. A polythene one and a fleece one - £12.99 each. Placed over the existing and newly sown carrots.

3rd June

Planted out 5 x Salvia Patens in the garden

4th June

Planted the following tomatoes in containers in the front garden: 4 x balconi yellow, 5 x balconi red, 3 x tumbling tom.

5th June

Removed runners from the strawberries and took the cloches off the sweetcorn plantlets.

6th June

Planted out Gaillardia Arizona Sun (perennials)  in the back garden and also in the flower bed at the plot. 

7th June

Really warm but randomly cloudy. We were 7hrs up the plot today and got burnt! Lee's Mum and Dad came over. Bought lawnmower! Planted coriander and basil seeds, half a row each where the failed chives had been. Planted half row salad mixed niche (T&M) and half row of oriental salad (T&M). Sowed a pot each of oregano and marjoram (Simpsons Seeds). A few of the peas have germinated. White clematis now smothered in flowers. Clematis 'Pink Fantasy' has 2 or 3 flowers. Sweetpeas have a few flowers each.

8th June

Really hot today!! Planted half row of the following: oriental mustard (T&M), Sky rocket (T&M), Purple Pak Choi (T&M), White Pak Choi (T&M), Radish. Went to Pyrton Nurseries, didn't buy anything. Could possibly have put the pumpkin and squash out today but decided to leave it till next weekend.

9th June

Really hot again today. Watered.

11th June

Watered. Sowed one row of Beetroot 'Red Ace' in the salad bed. It rained tonight.

12th June

Flowers appearing on Cerinthe, Dusty Miller and the red geum. Clematis 'Pink Fantasy' has a few flowers but hasn't climbed very high or done very well this year.

14th June

Planted Tithonia out in the garden.

15th June

Planted out 7 x butternut squash 'Metro' and 4 x Crown Prince - plenty of manure in the planting holes. No cloches used. Bought some plants for hanging baskets, a packet of Tender and True parsnip seeds and 12 off calabrese plants (cv not known). The plants for hanging baskets weren't very good, we'd really left it too late this year. Planted up the baskets and Lee planted 8 x calabrese plants in the brassica cage. Dug up 2 Arran Pilot haulms! 880g of potatoes. Had for tea - delicious! Put sulphate of ammonia around runner beans, courgettes, cucumbers and squash. Sowed some Nantes and Autumn King carrots in Big Whiteys tyres in a mix of compost and sand.

16th June

Visited Mr and Mrs O's plot to give them the remaining 4 x calabrese. It's looking miles more bountiful and ahead of ours. Felt sad. I think it's because our plot is just so darned exposed.

18th June

It was incredibly windy tonight. We worried about the tomato houses up the plot, but they were OK.

19th June

Everything seems to have put on a spurt of growth! Took the chicken wire off from around the runner beans and tied them into the canes. Saw Rowley and he said the beans are probably yellow because of the high winds. Picked 10 lovely strawberries, very yummy!

21st June

Lee finished off the first raspberry cage. We were meant to be going to see Tuung tonight in London but so engrossed in the plot that we didn't go!

23nd June

Lee made the second raspberry cage.

24th June

Dug up more Arran Pilot potatoes and harvested quite a few strawberries.

25th June

Sowed one row of parsnip 'Tender and True' in the squash bed. This is really late to be sowing them, so this is an experiment (turned out to be the best parsnips of the lot!). Sowed another row of beetroot 'Red Ace' in the salad bed. There hasn't been any rain for days, we've been watering most nights.

28th June

Went to 'The Plant Specialist' nursery in Great Missenden. Bought the following perennials: Mathiasella bupleuroides; Potentilla 'Ron McBeath'; Potentilla 'Helen Jane'; Astrantia Major 'Roma'; Hardy geranium 'Rozanne'.

29th June

Planted all the perennials we bought yesterday in the garden.

30th June

Helenium 'Moorheim Beauty' is coming out nicely this week! Buds are appearing on geranium 'Summer Skies' at last! Flower appeared on hostas.

May 2008 - Old diary entries

L–R: Heucheras Creme Brulée and Chocolate Ruffles and ferns; Seedlings in the sweaty cubicle; First cut of mesclun mix lettuce; The garden; Countess of Lovelace clematis; 1st early spuds; Summer Purple Sprouting Broccoli; Strawberry flowers; The plot  

1st May

Noticed that 1st early spuds (planted 12th April) are showing foliage! No sign of parsnips or chives. Nantes carrots have germinated. During the night, some snails got into the sweaty cubicle and nibbled the rudbeckia cappuccino seeds.

2nd May

Sowed chitted sweetcorn nuggets in root trainers and started off on a windowsill. No sign of the dahlias in the pots. 13 days since planting. Sweetcorn sowing - harvest should take 18 weeks, this takes us up to 5th September.

3rd May

Sowed hardy annual flowers up plot. Cornflower polka dot mixed, cornflower black ball, nigella midnight blue, nigella african queen, black peony poppy, escholzia, calendular, larkspur gentian blue (never germinated). Sowed half row of beetroot boltardy, sowed 1 row of rainbow carrots. Made a seedbed area next to the summer broccoli and sowed 12 'stations' of early purple sprouting brocolli (3/4 seeds in each). Marked out with string. Finished off pea climbing frame.

4th May

Sowed half row of sugar-snap peas. Fed strawberries with Tomorite. Made brassica cage with blue piping and netting.

5th May

Sowed 4 pots of cucumber 'burpless tasty green' (3 seeds to a pot – keep strongest seedling, dump rest). Sowed 4 pots of courgette 'black forrest' ( 1 seed to a pot - need 3 plants, so allowing for 75% germination). Sowed another line of rocket mixed and lettuce mesclun mixed in the wooden troughs.

6th May

Sowed 3 x Romanesco cauliflower, 4 x crown prince pumpkin, 8 x metro butternut squash, 10 x 'white lady' runner beans.

7th May

Sowed 10 x 'wisley magic' runner beans, 15 x 'safari' dwarf french beans, 15 x 'purple queen' dwarf french beans.

8th May

Transferred the corn seedlings in the rootrainers into the sweaty cubicle.

9th May

Noticed the first dahlia sprouting this evening - 'pretty lady'.

10th May

Weather very hot now! More of the dahlia are sprouting. The first earlies are growing away nicely now. 2 peas have germinated! There are some flowers on the strawberries. Finished off the broccoli cage – one of the 'summer purple' sprouting broccoli has little 'edible' bits growing on it. 

11th May

Extremely hot day again. Did the Marlow 5 run!

12th May

All the peas got eaten this week. This is because we hadn't netted them against birds. Planted out 5 x rudbeckia cappuccino, 4 x achillea cassis, 5 x cerinthe in the garden. Remaining rudbeckia and achillea went to Mum and Sally.

17th - 24th May

Holiday in Les Houches, France. While we were away there were frosts on 18th and 19th.

24th May

Return from holiday in evening. All the dahlias have sprouted now except the 3 x 'Karma Naomi' (these never grew - chucked away in the end, they must have been duff tubers). Pumpkin and Butternut Squash have germinated. Most of the beans have germinated although still a few 'no shows'. Courgettes have developed first 'true' leaves. Cukes are starting to develop their 'true' leaves - still very tiny though. Sweetcorn about 5–6 inches high. Toms are all starting to develop tiny flower buds. Some Nantes Carrots are well up, very patchy though. Very few parsnips have germinated, a few beetroot have but they're very tiny.

25th May

Up plot to weed and strim. Weather is rotten, high winds and heavy rain. Summer Purple broccoli doing well – earthed up a bit to stabalise. 1st earlies been hit by frost, some leaves are a bit brown, they should be OK (they were). Early Purple Sprouting seedlings emerged in seedbed - they are looking a bit lame though - sow in pots next year. Picked 3 radish! 'Countess of Lovelace' clematis in the garden is in full flower now and looking stunning. 

26th May

Bank Holiday. Weather crap again with high winds and heavy rain. Planted out 7 x ipomea 'Grandpa Otts' in the garden. Pricked out the Tithonia into individual pots - they were a bit too big at this stage really, should have done it earlier. Had some cuts of the lettuce mesclun mix (6 weeks old). It was very good! Had some rocket too but it was still quite small and weedy.

27th May

Planted runner beans, 9 of each variety onto a traditional criss-crossed row of bamboo canes. Netted with wire to keep off pigeons at this early stage. Planted dwarf french beans, 12 of each variety. Netted with fruit cage netting to keep off pigeons. Put manure in the trenches/holes before planting.

29th May

Planted out the sweetcorn in a 5 x 5 block (25 plants) and covered with squash bottle cloches.

30th May

Lunch at Barnsley House! Fantastic gardens and potager. The tithonia are fine after being potted on, snail attacked though. Ipomea are looking a bit sad in the garden, 1 has disappeared completely. Countess of Lovelace clematis is still looking great. The white clematis (name?) is coming out too now with lots of buds. Started getting little insects in the sweaty cubicle (whitefly?). Sprayed with bug killer a couple of times – this seemed to work.

Scarecrow in the potager at Barnsley House

The potager at Barnsley House

Lee in the potager at Barnsley House

Lovers in the garden at Barnsley House

April 2008 – Old diary entries

6th April

It snowed fairly heavily today!

Snowy squirrel in Heather's front garden – he can't believe it's April

9th April

The raspberry canes planted the previous Autumn began to sprout

11th April

Took a day's holiday for 'Soil Improvement Day' up at the dump in Wycombe. Took strawberries Darsillette (13 off) and Tavira (13 off) up to the plot in 3 growbags. Housed them on the 'Strawberry Table'.

12th April

Planted 1st early spuds – Arran Pilot x 18, International Kidney x 9, Red Duke of York x 9. Miscalculated and planted the rows too close together. Sowed the following up the plot:

Parsnip Countess (1 row)

Carrot Nantes Early 2 (1 row)

Radish (half a row intercropped between the parsnips and broccoli)

Planted out 5 off Summer Purple Broccoli under 3l bottle cloches

13th April

Sowed 1 row each of mixed Rocket and Simpsons Mesclun mix 2 in wooden troughs at home. They went into the sweaty cubicle while there was still room.

19th April

Potted on achillea, back into the sweaty cube. Planted out some of the sweetpeas into a large pot in the front garden on a cane teepee. Pricked out the gaillardia and salvia patens and put them back on indoor windowsills. Potted up dahlia tubers: 3 x Twilight Time, 3 x Pretty Lady, 3 x Karma Naomi, 3 x Chat Noir, 6 x Bishop of Llandaff.

20th April

The rocket and salad leaves have germinated! Took some cuttings of the old sage plant – used hormone rooting powder.

23rd April

Sowed 15 off Granpa Otts Ipomea seeds individually in modules indoors.

24th April

Sowed Tithonia Fiesta del Sol in a pot indoors.

25th April

Lee was at football today so I planted the rest of the spuds - the maincrops.

29th April

Put sweetcorn in damp kitchen towel in a tupperware in the airing cupboard to chit.

L-R: Butterfly on daffodil; Unknown tulip; Sweetpea seedlings; Hostas; Imperial Fritillary; Dicentra; Pink Daffodil; Little Beauty tulips and euphorbia; Cerinthe seedling

March 2008 – Old diary entries

9th March

Sowed the following, all indoors on various windowsills:

Salvia Patens Oxford Blue

Tomato Tumbler Red

Tomato Balconi Yellow

Tomato Balconi Red

Tomato Sungold

Basil Sweet Gevonese

Meadow Rue (no germination)

Cerinthe Major purpurescens

Foxglove Foxy (failed due to damping off)

Gaillardia Arizona Sun

February 2008 – Old diary entries

February 3rd

Sowed Achillea Cassis, Summer Purple Brocolli and Poppy Hensol Violet in the Sweaty Cubicle. The Poppy perished before germinating when the cubicle blew over. Sowed Antirrhinum Double Madam Butterfly and Rudbekia Cappuccino indoors. The Antirrhinum perished due to damping off.

January 2008 - Old diary entries

12th January 

Sowed sweetpeas various: Cupani, Heirloom Mix, High Scent (Seedaholics via eBay) and Fragrantissima (T&M). Didn't soak or nick seeds, germination erratic. Indoors (kitchen windowsill) in rootrainers then out into sweaty cubicle after germination.