Allotments 4 All

Thought I would stick these up on the board seeing as we are in the depths of winter and things can look a bit bleak around about now. Not in the greenhouse/cold frame though, plenty going on in there!

Broadbeans sown in pots hardening off in unheated greenhouse.



Broadbeans sown a couple of weeks ago in root trainers in a heated green house



Last years chrysanthemums potted up ready to take cuttings from in a few weeks time.



Garlic in cold frame, no sign of shoots on the elephant garlic yet though roots showing at base of pots.



More garlic in cold greenhouse ready to plant out if the soil dries up a bit!



4 varieties of sweet pea in root trainers in heated greenhouse, germiantion rates of three very good, one a bit poor but a second sowing will be made in 3 weeks or so.



Hope you can seem them, I am trying a new site to link my pictures to as the Yahoo site I have used in the past is a bit flaky at times.

Jerry

Inspirational! = Tim

Lovely !  I can't wait for spring!
:)

Amazing Jerry, and it has really gotten me in the mood to get down to my greenhouse, have a sort out and get on with some planting.  I am not doing sweetpeas this year, total failure last year, my broadbeans have been hardened off now and are outside the conservatory close against the house wall, and will be going to the plot on Sunday for planting.  My garlic all went in directly, altho rather late in the day, and is now showing through the ground....better late than never!  Good job too, we are down to our last string of garlics from last years harvest.  You wait.....the kids go back to school on Thursday, so I can finally get back into my routine!  :D

Great stuff there jerry. Cant wait to get the staging for my new (and first) greenhouse, so i can get started on things.

jerry, when did you sow the sweet peas? just interested to know if they are overwintered from autumn or......................
the rest looks great, as Tim said, inspirational.
so you plant the broad beans when? harden off and then plant out as a module? and they are faster than direct sown?
questions, questions................!

Quote from: Kerry on January 04, 2005, 13:03:54
jerry, when did you sow the sweet peas? just interested to know if they are overwintered from autumn or......................
the rest looks great, as Tim said, inspirational.
so you plant the broad beans when? harden off and then plant out as a module? and they are faster than direct sown?
questions, questions................!

Kerry

I planted the sweetpeas at the end of november, same with the older broadbeans. The ones in pots will go to the allotment in February, under net to stop the pigeons. The ones in root trainers will go into my home veg patch about the same time.

I will also set off another batch in Feb, again in pots. This gives me a longer cropping season with the over wintered ones not being too bothered by blackfly I hope.

I do think however that the spring sown have a better flavour.

Jerry

thanks jerry, another question if i may....how much earlier do you reckon on the harvest being from the overwintered ones?

Probably 2 or 3 weeks depending on weather conditions.

Jerry

Wow Jerry ...looking good... I dont grow broadbeans myself(cant stand them) but they look very healthy. :D

Quote from: Mimi on January 04, 2005, 18:57:22
Wow Jerry ...looking good... I dont grow broadbeans myself(cant stand them) but they look very healthy. :D

Try par boiling them and slipping them out of the skins, bit labour intensive but the taste is transformed.

Jerry
(I have to grow loads as my better half loves them, she is most upset if there are not 20 or so bags in the freezer each year!)

I love broadies too, big and old, or young and tender!  They have a metalic hint I always think.  I am growing more this year, because even though I am alone in eating them in this family, I didn't have enough to freeze, scoffed the lot fresh from the plant as soon as they were picked!

Marvellous job you are doing there Jerry!
My other half was a broad bean hater, until I grew my own! Forgot them last year and they were all moaning! (luckily someone on the plot gave me a bagload!)
Love em young, sauteed with a bit of onion and bacon and fresh herbs! YUM!! And same as Jerry, when the skins get a bit tough we squeeze them out.
Which reminds me, I must get some more going!

Trouble i find with Broad Beans is that you have to grow an awfull lot of plants to get a worthwhile crop - and these take up space in the plot. I dont grow them any more - you can get better crops per square foot by growing other things (like runners  ;D).

Instead we get 'job lots' of fresh picked beans from a professional grower. One of the few times it doesnt pay to 'grow your own'.

Ohhhhhh Sanders, your pictures look wonderful.
Don't those broad bean plants look good! It's true, they do take up a lot of space but I love growing them, such a handsome looking plant.

I was wondering Sanders, the broad beans each in their own pot take up so much space in your greenhouse. What I did was fill a couple of those narrow, plastic balcony boxes with soil and sow them in there. The boxes are nice and deep so plenty of space for the roots, they do get a bit tangled but lots of water when you take them out to plant and you can shake them apart easily. Last year I tried toilet paper rolls in the boxes but that was no success, they broke down too slowly, restricting the roots later on. This past fall (aqua dulce) I used newspaper pots, made them deeper than normal and filled the balcony box with them. More work but the planting out was much easier.

Fantastic pictures of your endeavours Jerry. Is it better to plant the broad beans now in the greenhouse or later straight into the soil? I am in the Midlands.

Thanks,
TimJ

Hi,

Depends a bit on your soil and the weather. Heavy wet soil and I would say plant in pots and move later, lighter sandy soil and pop them in now.

One thing though, planting in pots will give you a better germination rate and will stop the mice eating the seeds!

Jerry

Quote from: ina on January 08, 2005, 09:37:37
I was wondering Sanders, the broad beans each in their own pot take up so much space in your greenhouse. What I did was fill a couple of those narrow, plastic balcony boxes with soil and sow them in there. The boxes are nice and deep so plenty of space for the roots, they do get a bit tangled but lots of water when you take them out to plant and you can shake them apart easily. Last year I tried toilet paper rolls in the boxes but that was no success, they broke down too slowly, restricting the roots later on. This past fall (aqua dulce) I used newspaper pots, made them deeper than normal and filled the balcony box with them. More work but the planting out was much easier.

Hi Ina,

I know what you mean, they do take up a fair bit of room but I am lucky that I now have 3 greenhouses plus a couple of cold frames. So space is not a huge issue. PLanting in pots gives them a great start.

Mind you, as you can see in the pictures I am now trying root trainers for the first time, managed to get 4 sets for 75% off. Hope they work as well as people say they do!

Jerry

Sanders, what pure luxury, three greenhouses and extra cold frames. No wonder you are not really concerned with space.
I have one small greenhouse but can't use it in winter because we take the windows out, too many times the glass got broken by vandals coming across the ice in the wintertime.

Here is a picture of some of the 80 aqua dulces. They were started in newspaper pots in balcony boxes in the greenhouse when the windows where still in and planted out in november. I haven't had much success in the past planting them straight into the ground because of mice eating them.