2009 Growlist update
Thought some of you may be interested to know what im actually growing this year, i know i posted a list earlier in the year but its changed quite a bit during the planning and germinating stage so here is the latest list:
Chillis and peppers:
- Peter Pecker
- Violet cayenne
- golden cayenne
- Mystery chilli
- chilil fuego
- Bell pepper
- Dorset Naga
- Hidalgo
- Hot portugal
- Sweet Pepper
Tomato:
- Hawian Currant
- Black Tomato
- Choc Cherry
- Beams Yellow Pear
- Eva Purple Ball
Other Veg:
- Peas Early and meteor
- Sweetcorn
- Potato – Nicola,charlotte, kestrel and maris piper
- red onion
- leek
- parsnip – gladiator and white gem
- golden cabbage
- romanesco broccoli
- mangetout
- sugarsnap peas
- purple climbing beans
- french beans
- Cucumber – telegraph, telapathy and crystal lemon
- courgette – taxi f1
- melon
- butternut squash
Everything is still quite small due to the poor weather but they will hopefully shoot up soon.
Parsnips and Peas are out.
The sunny weather over the weekend lured me into planting my peas and parsnips out, i have about 30 of each, the parsnips are a mix of 2 varieties…gladiator and white gem, but i got them mixed up so ive not got any idea which are which.
To protect the parsnips iv cut a load of plastic bottles up to shield them and then covered them with netting, this stops the birds and next doors cats getting to them.
The peas are a mixture of early and meteor, the early ive grown round one of my bargain teepee and the meteor in my usual bucket o peas (A big bucket with lots of pea plants in). Ive again protected them with netting.
ive also just recieved some peas and mangetout from bbc gardeners world so ill be planting them somewhere at some point as its part of a trial.
Upside down Tomato Planter
I’ve seen upside down tomato planters kicking around in shops and online but they were quite expenisve so i decided to try and make my own.
I guess it will work for chillis to and as i am probably going to run out of space on the greenhouse floor i think ill try it with them…and when i do ill post more pictures on how to make one.
To make an upside down planter all you need is:
- 2 litre plastic drinks bottle
- Compost
- Stanley knife
- String
- Sharp needle or nail
- some fine gauze or fleece
- Tomato plant
To make the planter:
- Carefully cut the bottom off the bottle, and put 4 holes in the bottle near the cut you have just made, the holes need to be opposite each other so that it spreads the weight evenly.
- Cut a small hole in the fleece and feed the seedling thoughso it looks like its wearing a dress,
- Carefully feed your seedling into the bottle and through the hole,
- Make sure the fleece is lining the inside of the bottle and carefully top the bottle up with compost, you could add some stones before adding the compost if you want to help aid drainage, but i didn’t bother.
- Feed some string though each of the holes and tie it off at the top, this allows you to hang the planter.
- Water the plant and leave somewhere to grow.
If you dont want to see the plastic bottle you could always paint it or cover it in material!
Result:
(Note: the seedling may go droopy for a while as it will be getting used to its new surroundings)
