Ruby red potatoes with Blue and Yellow Leeks.

Mixed salad leaves and the glorious red of the Duke of York potatoes

Slowly but surely, the fruits of my labours in the garden are starting to pay dividends. Mangetout are becoming more plentiful with each passing day, much to the delight of the Mudlets, as they enjoy the crunch of the flat pods as a snack and are happy to find a handful in their pack ups. Thinning out continues in the first of the carrot beds and I can see from the size of the occasional exposed root top (which is then earthed up), that they love the bed they’re in this year and between the first two rows of carrots, the turnips are through – I need sow another row of those this weekend. The thinned out roots are still a decent baby carrot size and can be used as a much appreciated addition to our dinner plates.

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Salads and roots

A surprise was hiding in the growhouse

Most mornings during spring and summer, I wonder down to the vegetable patch to check on my seedlings and plants. I peer into the raised beds through the netting, glance around at the normal beds and the planters and then open up the greenhouses, checking that all is well. One morning earlier this week, as I surveyed my newly emerged seedlings through the netting on the raised beds, I realised that whilst there were a goodly number of lettuce, carrots, beetroots and parsnips through, there were still some gaps in the rows where germination had not occurred.

Salad days

It’s hot! Very hot! Not to mention humid and as such the thought of a hot dinner was not in the least appealing and so it is probably a good thing that we were able to have a home grown salad for tea tonight ….. well a home grown and school vegetable garden salad to be precise but it amounts to the same thing really, when you think about it.

Lettuce, Lollo Rosso

This is a record of how long this particular set of seeds took to germinate and how they looked at various stages from first appearance to the development of the first set of true leaves and beyond. I hope this will prove useful.

Variety: Lollo Rosso
Sown Indoor 21st April 2013
First Seedling: 24th April 2013
Germination: 3 days

3 days old

Lettuce, Moretons Secret Mix

This is a record of how long this particular set of seeds took to germinate and how they looked at various stages from first appearance to the development of the first set of true leaves and beyond. I hope this will prove useful.

 Variety: Moretons Secret Mix (Real Seed Catalogue)
Sown indoors: 2nd April 2013
First Seedling: 6th April 2013
Germination: 4 days

The first few seedlings appear – interesting to see what type of lettuces these grow into (I love a surprise)

Lettuce, Salad Bowl and Webbs Wonderful

This is a record of how long this particular set of seeds took to germinate and how they looked at various stages from first appearance to the development of the first set of true leaves and beyond. I hope this will prove useful.

Variety: Salad Bowl and Webbs Wonderful
Sown indoors: 4th March 2013
First Seedling: 8th March 2013
Germination: 4 days

Emerging and newly emerged lettuce seedlings