Propagating Leeks from Bulbils

This year we are trying our hand at propagating leeks from bulbils or pips. Each flower head from last years leeks has produced dozens of little leeklets which can be carefully removed in the autumn and potted up to overwinter under heat. I have heard that it is quite tricky to get good results, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

These flower heads are from last years King Richard. This year we are growing Musselburgh leeks that were sown in March in pots and only recently transplanted in the allotment. They are still a little spindly but I hope they will catch up. Almost everything we have done this year has been later than it should be. There is a reason for this which will be explained in a future blog.

Here you can see the spindly leeks waiting for Vicky to weed them and bordered by a few stray rows of parsnip and swede.

The Fox

Tonights dinner.

This time last year I would have said everything on this plate had come from my garden. I can't say this now because I had to buy the eggs. Everything else I grew.

I had to buy the eggs because last summer a fox ripped the throat from every one of my chickens. He burrowed under their run, tore out their throats and made off, leaving me to clear up the carnage.

The fox does this simply because he can. He has no natural predator and can do whatever he likes. And he likes to kill, just for the hell of it.

My brave little cat does his best. I often wake up to the noise of the fight in the catflap, come downstairs and find my cat proudly licking his wounds. Bowed but unbeaten.

Sandal wearing townies should know that a fox will happily tear the throat from any creature that is small, warm, defenceless, and smells of food.

Does that description sound familiar?

It should.

And I hope you're worried enough to do something about it.

Early Potatoes

This year I decided to change from Rocket which I have grown for the past two years and try Pentland Javelin and I have just cleared the last of the five potato planters I have kept on the patio since I brought them out of the greenhouse in May.

I am pleased with the results which are probably more due to the weather than anything I have done, although I did feed them with potato fertiliser which I have never done before. The potatoes are bigger and taste delicious boiled in fresh mint and drenched in butter.

Update : In the last potato planter there was 3.25lb of potatoes from 4 Pentland Javelin tubers.

Gardeners Delight - The Tomato

This year I am growing 3 varieties of tomatoes, Gardeners Delight (cherry), Roma (plum) and Tomatillo (miniature), that's apart from a few unknown varieties growing around my compost bin. I decided to try growing in Grow Pots this year to avoid the perennial problem of blossom end rot, which is difficult to avoid when growing directly in grow bags.

I have been harvesting them for a couple of weeks now and made some tomato sauce for the freezer. As I harvest the plum tomatoes I put them straight into the freezer until I have a large enough batch to cook down into sauce, plum tomatoes are better for cooking as they have less water in them. The cherries and tomatillos go straight onto my plate (if they get as far as the kitchen).

Peppers

This is the current state of play with my peppers which I sowed under heat in February along with my tomatoes. I have already harvested a crop of Cayenne peppers and have them drying on top of the boiler. When completely dry they will go into my blender to be flaked, a useful addition to my curries (I like them hot).

I also have a few pots of Demon Red which are smaller than Cayenne and much hotter but I had a succession of poor germination with these and this consequently proved quite expensive. As Demon Reds are F1 you get a packet of 6 seeds for £5. It took 3 packets before any germinated ! I think they were just duff seeds (B&Q), so by the time they got going we were well into March/April. They are flowering now so I should get a good crop and I can prolong the growing season by a few more weeks by popping them into the Vitopod when it gets chilly (pun).

The sweet peppers are just beginning to redden so I look forward to harvesting those soon.

A Sorry Looking Victoria

I'm a little worried about my Victoria plum at the moment. As you can see the leaves are browning and curling.

I bought the plum 2 years ago as a feathered maiden and this is the first year it has flowered and fruited. It is in an 18 inch pot, in a mix of topsoil and John Innes No.3 and really needs to move up a size, which I shall do this Autumn, but I don't believe that is the problem. Keeping fruit trees in pots is a precarious business. Constant attention needs to be paid to watering and feeding and I think this is either a vitamin/nutrient deficiency or possibly wind blast.

Anyway, I have given it a feed of Tomorite and will mix some chicken pellets into the soil in the hope that it will recover and not drop the fruit.

Scented Geraniums

I took delivery of 12 scented Geranium cuttings yesterday and potted them up in the greenhouse. Most had rooted but one in particular (front right) looked a bit dodgy rootwise but I'm hoping for the best. Among the various scents are rose, lemon, cinnamon, lime and orange. I shall mist them daily until the roots have established and hopefully they will provide some nice aromas in the greenhouse throughout the winter.