Welcome back to Reads Allotment Retreat. Sadly, there's not a great deal of plot activity to report. I'm due back at work this Friday after my illness, and don't want to risk anything before then. I have; however, been perusing the seed catalogues, and have found these climbing French Beans (v.Golden Gate) in the Dobies lists. We grew a dwarf variety of these this year on our home plot, and they were great, not least because due to their colour they are easy to spot on the plants! I have been tempted to grow v.Cobra too, but we have so many seeds saved from our Blue Lake crop that we will probably grow these again next year, and see how we get on!The other option that has sprung to mind recently concerns Sweetcorn. This year at Reads Retreat we really struggled with germination of sweetcorn seed, although we did manage a small crop eventually! One of my favourite nurseries - Victoriana - are selling Sweetcorn(v.Swift Early) as plug plants, so we might buy from there instead, or as well as growing our own. Postage costs are too much for me, I'd rather go and visit the nursery, and say hi to Stephen and his family while we are there. Seriously, if you are close enough to visit, then I suggest you do! It really is a worthwhile trek!
Thanks too, to Fiona at The Cottage Smallholder blog, for pointing me in the direction of The Tree House Diaries, a great site and a good read - luv it!
Thats about it for now, but pop back soon for more news from Reads Allotment Retreat.
Enjoy your gardening!
TTFN
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9 comments:
We always struggle with our corn as well and finally found a variety "Painted Mountain" that is hardy enough to grow well for us. putting in dug plants sounds like a great idea and should give you a jump on the season I would think.
Those climbing french beans look very interesting, I will keep them in mind when we start looking through the seed catalogues. One of our best performing beans has been the fava (broad) bean. They thrive in our cooler spring conditions and make up more and more of our bean crop every year. We use them as a dry bean though and they are much different then a regular green bean. Perhaps you have grown them?
I had troubles with my sweetcorn germination this year too...I didn't have any grow but I will not be deterred and I fully intend to try again next year!!
The germination of my sweet corn was ok, it was once they were planted out when they let me down. They only grew a copule of feet (if that) and didn't produce any decent cobs. I think it was down to the state of the soil so I'll have another go next year and hope for better results. I grew Blue Lake beans too this year, I thought they were very tasty and they gave a great crop.
I find that mice and voles are a major problem with many of my seeds, and I've resorted to wrapping up my seed trays in plastic to keep them at bay, they seem to especially love peas and sweet corn, but once they're through I can unwrap them and there's no more trouble. I've grown Lark for the last few years and always had a good crop. Kathy
Hi Mr H,
Thanks for your comments. The Variety "Painted Mountain" is new to me, but i think our real bone of contention is the soil. We need to make improvements to it before we can expect greater success, which is why we plan to steal a march on our plot by planting plants vs. seed this coming season. I still have some seed left which we will interplant. You never know, we may get lucky?
ttfn
Hi Tanya,
Thanks for your comments.
I don't blame you. If at first you don't succeed and all that. We just found it a tad disappointing to not get many harvestable corns, and this sounds like a fairly cheap option.
ttfn
Hi Jo,
your plot sounds the same as ours !
The Blue lake are a good bet, we save our own seed year on year, and occasionally add some fresh seed!
TTFN
Hi there "Cottage Garden Farmer",
Thanks for your comments.
I have read that seed can be soaked in paraffin prior to planting, to deter the mice, but as yet have not tried this approach. The seed we planted remained in the ground and went mouldy - it never germinated. We're not sure why, we used fresh seed from 2 different suppliers, but still no joy!
TTFN
Thanks for sharing the information on growing plants next year. I would prefer to grow tulips next year. Enjoyed your blog very much. Iflorist.co.uk
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