Sowing Indoor Veg - The Basics

I thought I would do a small post regarding sowing seeds indoors.  I am very lucky to have an allotment,  but unfortunately I don't have a suitable place to put a greenhouse. Therefore, in order to give certain vegetables the head start they need, I get them started out on my windowsills. This isn't as straightforward as it sounds.  I am far from being an expert, but I will happily pass on methods that have worked for me.  There seems to be hundreds of things that can go wrong but luckily there are only a few things that need to go right.  The main ingredients for success are soil, light, warmth and water all in the right amounts.

Some veg require a long length of time between sowing and harvesting.  Tomatoes, Chilies, Aubergines, and Cucumbers all fall into this category and will greatly benefit from an early sowing indoors.  Since you will have all of your seed sowing gear out, you may as well get a good start on some herbs (Basil, Coriander, Chives etc), Lettuces, and maybe the odd Cauliflower or two.  Leave plants like Sweetcorn, Squash, most Beans and Courgettes for April as they will just get too big before it is safe to put them outside.

I like to sow seeds directly into little degradable pots.  If you are as non-delicate at handling things as I am, then you will find these very useful.  When  your plants are ready for something a bit bigger, you can just plant, pot and all, into their new home.

After you have some suitable pots, you need some seed friendly compost.  Use multi-purpose compost at your peril! Most of the time it is far to rich for seeds and your failure rate will be high.  Seeds are really only interested in light, warmth and a nice sandy or free draining soil.  I use John Innes number 1 for seeds and it seems to do the trick just fine.

I then try to maximize my window space by getting a tray with a lid that will fit the most number of my little pots. The lid ensures that the original moisture from the soil will not evaporate.  It also helps maintain a non drafty, steady temperature.

Then it is just an easy task of making a small indentation into the soil with a pencil or something suitable and dropping in a couple of seeds.

I do like to take a spray bottle of water to get the pots and soil nice and damp.  I then drop 2 seeds in each pot and that seems to guarantee that at least one of them germinates.  You must then be brutal and get rid of the weaker plant if they both germinate.  A good tip here is to actually cut off the weaker one at soil level.  That way you do not damage the good plant's roots by pulling up the one that is not needed. It is a good idea to get your labels marked up before you cover up your seeds.  Make sure you don't use something that will disappear in damp conditions or you will end up like I did one year with a tray of plants with blank labels!

Pop the lid on and come back in a few days to be pleasantly surprised at your new indoor veg garden!  If you don't see anything after 7-10 days, I would start to check the fine print on the seed packets (Expiry Date, Ideal Temperature, Time to Germination etc) but still show a bit of patience. At this early stage, it does not seem to be too important if it is a sunny windowsill.  However, once the plants get established they will be hungry for more light.

Once the little plants emerge and develop their first couple of leaves (called seed leaves), then you can take the lid off.  It is then vital to keep the soil slightly moist but, never let it dry out.  I then usually just tip the remains of my nightly cup of water (how Eco-friendly of me!) into the seed tray and the pots absorb the water from the bottom.

Now is also a great time to start putting together your outdoor coldframe in order to house all of these plants round about April or early May.  But I will leave that until next time.

**Update**

I am going to move the cucumbers to an April sowing.  They are already 2 or 3 inches high and I can imagine them taking over my house by time they can actually go outside!

Major Toms

Things were going so well.  July was hot, I was watering the tomatoes every other day or so.  August started in the same way but then we went on holiday around the 20th of August to the South of France.  While we were sunning ourselves, going our own version of red, back in the UK, the tomatoes were putting the blight in blighty!

Scarcely even a thought for the poor tomatoes here!

Allotments, French style

Partly cloudy, French style

Needless to say, I have been harvesting a lot of green tomatoes this year.  I am trying all sorts of ripening methods: brown paper bag with banana in it, kitchen window seal, and just leaving them on the vine to fend for themselves.  I have found that if they even have a hint of orange in them then the window seal will bring them to a nice shade of red.  I will have to report back about the banana as I am not convinced that the tomatoes would have ripened just as well without it.  Life on the vine is brutal and if there are positive signs of blight, then it is not advisable as it does move very quickly.

All has not been lost however, I have harvested a lot of juicy red tomatoes (about 50 percent of what I should have had!) and have once again made one of my favourite preserves, passata.  It is a great recipe from the River Cottage series.  It is great for pastas, pizzas, curries, and I could almost eat it as a thick soup if that didn't feel so wrong, due to the fact that I am trying to extend the harvest into winter!

A collection of San Marzano and Roma Tomatoes

Passata Ingredients in a roasting Tray

A few jars of passata for winter!

Colourful Morning

I popped down to the veg patch early Tuesday morning with Kai (age 2) and we gathered what must be my most colourful collection of fruit and veg ever.  The plum tree is full of ripe plums, the autumn fruiting raspberries are just beginning, the yellow courgettes are still on the go, the golden beetroots are bulging out of the ground and even the Chillies contributed with a touch of green.  They say it is a healthy habit to eat your way through the rainbow, well it won't be hard with this basket!  Happy pickings!!

Garlic

It has been a great year for Garlic, however that may be only because I really tried to cover all bases by planting different types at a lot of different times.  I am also trying to get better at plaiting them up once they have been harvested in order to let them dry in the kitchen and give that rustic French farmhouse look!

My Garlic was planted in about 4 different stages.  The first one was way back in Sept09 and from there I also planted in Oct, Nov and Feb10.  This is quite a good picture of the progress they were making as of May.

Garlic May10

There is a few rows of shallots in the front of the photo, then comes the garlic I planted in November, and then the Garlic that I planted at the end of Sept last year.  The September garlic (I need to double check the variety) did the best by far but that may have been down to the fact that they were so well established before our snowy winter.

Hopefully 40 is the new 30

The Setting!


There was no doubt in my mind where I wanted to have my 40th Birthday Party.  I could only think of one place where we could celebrate, away from the summers crowds, with our closest friends and still enjoy our favourite pastimes of cooking, eating and playing with fire!  Since this is the allotment blog, I suppose I don't need to keep you guessing as to where the event was held!  We are lucky to have such an idyllic venue and hopefully we can make use of it again very soon!

The Allotment...

...with people.

The Menu!


1 Bone In Shoulder of Pork for Smoking
1 Butterflied Leg of Lamb for Direct Cooking over the flame.
A couple filets of Salmon, Mackerel, and Plaice
Lots of sliced Courgettes, Potatoes, Peppers, Garlic, Onions for grilling
Pita Bread
Raita (Cucumber and Yogurt Dip)
Clive's Homemade Bread
Leafy Salad

I tried to stick to Mediterranean flavours as much as possible, mainly because that is what I have grown this year and also they are so simple and very tasty!  So lots of garlic and olive oil, mixed with plenty of fresh herbs, such as rosemary, oregano, mint and basil.  Throw in the a few chillies for good measure and that was the base of all of the dishes that were made.  I will try and post the recipes in a later post.

Lots of Olive Oil, Oregano, Garlic, Mint and Chillies!

Having the BBQ at the allotment at this time of the year is like having a BBQ next to a free fruit and veg market.  We had all the courgettes, garlic, onions, chillies and potatoes that we could eat. In fact, midway through the preparation, we decided it would be nice to have a green salad, so we grabbed handfuls of lettuce (thanks Chris), some red spring onions, basil and coriander and mixed up a very tasty, leafy dish to go with all of the grilled options.

Lee putting out the wares 

The guests of honour

The Friends!

The weather managed to hold out and we ended up with an excellent day for a BBQ!  There was plenty of sun and of course while the boys slaved over the hot BBQ's the girls manage to do what the girls do best, sit around in sunglasses waiting to be fed!

The Girls looking very glam!

The boys discussing how nuclear fusion is possible

Speaking of fusion...

Richard does some last minute Raita

I cook....Clive prays

I am worried some of those eyes might be shut Clare!

Birthday Boy and a hot little number he picked up at the BBQ!

Lee winds down after hot day as co-grill jockey!

Thank you to all of our great friends for making it an absolutely fantastic day.  We appreciated all of your help with transport, equipment, furniture, photography, food and drink.  However most of all we enjoy your excellent company!

Mid July Update - Harvest in Full Swing

I feel like I am gardening in the Med this year!  My rosemary, thyme, lavender and basil have all enjoyed bathing in the sun everyday for at least the last 3 weeks or so.  The chiles, tomatoes and even the aubergine are all displaying their fruits proudly.  Even I begrudgingly don't mind the endless trips back and forth between tap and plant with the watering can, as I would exchange that exercise any day for a boring treadmill.  However I do allow my helpers use of the communal hose on occasion.

Since the beginning of July, there hasn't been too many meals that haven't had at least one portion of veg from the allotment.  Onions, garlic, broccoli, beetroot, Swiss chard, and courgettes have all been enjoyed on a regular basis.  This coupled with the earlier harvest of Asparagus, a few carrots, peas and an abundance of lettuce it has been a good year already and hopefully the best is yet to come!

Chili Weather is Here!

     Autumn arrived this year on the allotment at a nice gentle pace. There was a pleasant overlap as summer held on well into October. The food from the allotment follows this slow transition in a lovely natural way. Basil mixes with the first tomatoes in late summer, chillies show up just as the nights get cooler to add some heat to your dishes, and then the squashes slowly replace the tomatoes in your soups and sauces as Autumn settles in.


     This year tomatoes were in danger of losing a guaranteed 
spot on the allotment. But after finding a few varieties that seemed to tolerate outside conditions, I have decided to double my effort next year to ensure I have a steady supply for the kitchen.  Super Marmande, Tumbling Tom, and Roma varieties will feature heavily in next years plans.
      I planted approximately 5 different varieties of chili and about 5 plants of each one.  Being still a bit of a novice at documenting however, I mistakenly wrote the variety and date in pencil on my biodegradable pots, which vanished very quickly after repeated waterings!  All of the chilies that were harvested were delicious and provided some nice warmth in pastas, curries, and even a homemade chutney!
     Squashes can really make you feel like a professional gardener.  The picture to the left is the result of about 1 or 2 plants that I had scrambling about underneath my corn this year.  There is both a Barbara Butternut and an Avalon variety.  Other than clearing a few weeds, they were virtually effortless.  They are the best case for the idea that vegetables want to grow, your primary role is to let them!  I have put them to good use in an absolutely delicious soup recipe from Jamie Oliver.  Anyway I have quite a few posts coming up on how to use all this great food we are getting from the ground! 


PS I found a great blog for Chili lovers in the UK http://blog.chilliupnorth.co.uk/ .

The Best of Both Worlds

Late September has got to be the best time of year for Veg gardeners! Fresh food still pours into our house daily; potatoes, tomatoes, chilies, courgettes, lettuce, rasberries, etc. all being enjoyed in some form at almost every meal.

However it may seem strange, but my favourite pastime in the veg garden is clearing out last years crops and starting again with a gorgeous new, freshly overturned vegetable bed full of freshly turned crumbly brown earth. I can finally get rid of all those tired looking leaves or those annoying weeds that escaped my much too infrequent attempts to clear them . Yep, no more delicate and careful hoeing, just indiscriminate ground clearance with my biggest fork!

A topping of well rotted manure and some leaf mulch (my other autumn obsession), and this old potato bed (see previous post) will transform nicely into my experimental companion planting next year. Reservations are yet to be confirmed, but I am thinking this full bed will be for what can be known as the three sisters; sweetcorn, beans and squash. Unlike most humanly sisters they get along wonderfully! The thick leaves of the squash (could use courgettes as well) keeps the weeds to minimum, the sweetcorn doesn't cast much of a shadow over them and provides support for the beans, whose roots, in turn provide much needed nitrogen to their companions.

The added benefit of planting three crops in one space ticks all my boxes for efficiency, harmony and balance.

When do we Start?

It is hard to define a new season on the vegetable patch. Ideally there are always times when something is growing or needs harvesting or clearing. For me, the start of the new season is always kicked off by the planting of my autumn garlic, shallots and onions. There are still plenty of things growing and indeed plenty of plants that have just been planted out recently, broccoli, Chinese leaves, cabbages etc but all of them will always play second fiddle to my allium family! Spring (green) garlic is one of the reasons I wanted a vegetable patch in the first place. It is rarely in the grocery store but it is truly a garlic lover's treat. Roasted whole with a bit of nice extra virgin olive oil and sea salt and crushed onto some rustic bread or mixed, finely chopped with chilies, into pasta or crammed into some little slits, with some rosemary, into a leg of lamb (sorry but I cant seem to stop this sentence!) ....

I planted my first cloves of garlic this year on the 20th of September. I felt like this was a little bit early but a few reliable sources advised that it is best to get it in the ground and established before the really wet weather sets it giving it a great potential to rot in the ground. I chose a variety call Early Purple Wight. It had very large cloves in a nice big bulb. This year I will also make my first attempt at planting a crop from cloves from last years crop. I had a very nice batch of garlic (see photo) from last year and so I will begrudgingly set aside two of the bigger bulbs for planting. If anyone has a better method for plaiting garlic point me to it! The best I could manage was plaiting three stems together then plaiting three plaits together. It all got rather bulky and so I just stuck it on a nail in the wall right above my chopping board where it is within very easy reach! I can already predict that my winter's supply of garlic will last me until about the end of October. This year I am not going to be shy about quantity. I will probably add to my autumn planting with another planting mid February. This should also allow me to indulge in taking lots of spring garlic (May/June) while still having plenty for July main harvest.

Raw Materials

My number one priority in having an allotment is about supplying my other passion (cooking!) with high quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients that are either too expensive, bland or very limited in variety at the grocery store. Here are a few results from my first two seasons of vegetable gardening.

This (above) was my first real harvest from the allotment in year one. Around mid July I started getting about 1 or 2 yellow courgettes a day. Onions, garlic, carrots, beans (from my plot neighbor) and throw in a few herbs, hmmm I think a stir fry is in order! Recipe posts coming soon.

Potatoes, strawberries, lettuces and more herbs (below), all low maintenance must haves. They are easy to grow and very versatile in the kitchen.

Some more yellow courgettes (pasta, stir-fries, on toast etc) with my first successfully formed red cabbage. The shredded cabbage mixed with carrots, apples and shallots kept me in fresh coleslaw all summer! Recipe posts to follow soon.

All of this looking at food has made me want to cook something for lunch!

Digging

Digging

I have basically stuck to the same method of digging throughout my time on the allotment with a few minor adjustments. In the beginning, I would take the top layer of turf off and stack it up, grass part down, in a pile. I would then use the resulting pile (loam) to top up the beds in the following year. This worked well, however it is a lot of work moving the earth around. Since then I have adopted a new approach, I call it, Let Potatoes do the Hard Work approach! Each year when I want a new bed, I begin late autumn or early winter and literally just turn the turf over, a spade full at a time. This has the good effect of exposing weed roots (I take them out when I can). I then cover the overturned earth with either some cardboard or newspapers (a half inch thick or so) remembering to put some earth on top to prevent it from blowing away. In my case, I mainly stick to blank cardboard as it rots into the ground nicely after 8 months or so. It also has the added benefit of adding some fiberous material to my very clay soil. But you could use anything that will block out the light for a few months to kill the rest of the weeds. When Febuary/March comes around and it is time to plant the first potatoes, I cut/dig a hole in whatever material I have layed on top and plant a potato in it. Many hands make small work. Well so do many potatoes! By time August or September rolls around and I start to harvest potatoes, they have done a very nice job of breaking up the soil. The process of earthing up your potatoes and then actually getting them out of the ground improves the texture of the soil for the new bed as well. Once I have harvested all the potatoes, I then pound 4 posts in the corners of the bed, nail some boards to the posts and top up the soil for a shiny new raised bed! If you want to go the extra mile, then at some point add a little more depth to the bed by digging a bit deeper when you are digging up the potatoes. Once the pototo harvest is complete, it is a good idea to add some well rotted manure, some leaf mulch or some compost to make a nice fertile bed for the next resident crop. It should now be October/November and time to put some new potatoes to work!

Taking Shape

The allotment gradually took shape over the next couple of years. To be honest I found the process of digging the beds and planning the layout as enjoyable (if not more so!) than sowing and planting. It probably has something to do with the instant result. I want a new bed here, I dig it. Whereas if i want some corn, then I need to sow the seed, plant out the new little plants, water, hope for sun, and finally if all went to plan, 8 months later I am eating some corn! There is a great saying I heard recently regarding gardening that couldn't be more true,

"Live like there is no tomorrow, garden like you will live forever!"

In the first year, my main ambition was to get in some fruit and veg that would be fairly low maintenence so that I could get on with completing the rest of the plot. I put in a long row of autumn fruiting rasberries and a big bed of strawberries, kindly given to me by Tony and Pat in plot opposite to me. They gave me runners from their strawberries and a few rasberries canes that were popping up where they weren't wanted. I also dug a third bed with the hopes of getting some corn (more on that later).

Even Later and Better!

Humble Beginnings

Well two years have passed now since my last post and that may be a personal record for my procrastination! Anyway just because the blog was neglected The Good Life wasn't. The allotment has been an absolute pleasure to have. As you can see above, it was very humble beginnings. The plot is approximately 25 x 125 feet, so there never was going to be a shortage of space. I feel very fortunate to have gotten a plot now. Right after I got my plot, the Grow Your Own wave really swept, and continues to sweep, the country. Fueled by celebrity chefs such as, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fernley Wittingstall, with their back to basics rustic style of cooking, allotment plots have been in very fierce demand. Some waiting lists are actually around 4-5 years long!