Sowing, Growing, Plot Update and Verticals and Circles part one
What I've been up to in the Germination Station and Propogation Palace at end of March and lottie plot update tour beginning of April. With some of my Verticals and Circles projects I'm starting off for 2022.
Germination Station - AKA my front windowsill. Where you see a double mushroom tray they are my self-watering seed starters (will do a separate blog on them soon). Very handy for the lazy gardener who might forget to water stuff! Also at the end of this vid you will see my bottle self-waterers. I found them brilliant for growing on tomatoes at kind of second pot potting on time as they are guaranteed not to dry out.
Propagation Palace - AKA my plastic house in the garden where the seedlings go to grow on.
Here is the beginning of the month (April) update. When I say sprouts I mean something else - not sprouts - carrots - I meant to say carrots.
Projects
Here is this month's projects.
Vertical Circle - strawberry planter made out of a found vegetable rack. As they produce their runners later in the year I can guide them for starters into the pot underneath and then (as my Dad used to do) into little pots around and pin them in place with hair pins. My Mum was not best pleased at the raid on her hair pin box.
Circles -
The idea here is that you kneel in the circle and sow, weed, tidy, harvest all at the same time. The couple of additions here are I've put some extra fleece over the parsnips to see if that helps them germinate - will let you know one way or the other. The project at the back is just a simple cold frame made (I use the term loosly!) from a found plastic box and a found piece of double glazing. My January sown leeks did so well there they outgrew the box and have had to come back home to the Propagation Palace.
Oh and in the foreground is a trail mini 'Twormary' - where I put the scraps of tidyings and top with some wetted cardboard/ paper to give the worms a happy home so they can then spread their marvellous 'black gold' throughout the bed.
The metal (I think it is some sort of conduit casing) is used as a template to set the dug out circle (as it is a bit stronger than it's plastic replacement). Will let you know how I get on - or if it just becomes a mass slug habitat! The joys of experimentation.
Not quite a vertical but definitely not a circle -The potato experiment.
This is an idea I took from a video by Mothin from My Family Garden. He has successfully grown potatoes in woodchip. The idea being you plant the potatoes on the ground and then they grow in 2ft of woodchip. I'm not quite sure I've got them deep enough to the ground as put all the woodchip in the bed first - so we will see. I then wasn't sure that the water would get down to where it needed to so put the addition of cut off milk bottles with holes in the bottom so I can make sure the potato chits get water.
Here is the video I took my inspiration from.........
And the big reveal for potatoes....... I love the way he gets his kids involved in a fun harvesting game - sounds better than digging them up to me.
Happy lottie plotting and planting people.
love
Auntie G
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