Fresh Garden Salad

We have been harvesting fresh leaves from the greenhouse for a few months now. With the small glimpses of sunshine we have had recently and the slightly less arctic temperatures, we now have more salad than ever and I am battling to stop some things bolting. In the picture, going clockwise from top left, we have a mix of mini gem and all the year round lettuce, wild rocket, radishes and right at the front you can just see some coriander (which started to bolt almost before it got any real leaves). In another greenhouse bed I have more rocket, mizuna and corn salad (I think it's corn salad, the label disappeared and I threw the empty packet away). I regularly patrol the beds for slugs and snails, I don't think I've ever seen as many as I have this year. I love taking my trug and a pair of scissors up to the greenhouse and snipping away until I have the right mix of leaves for dinner that night. The mizuna is very spicy with a mustardy flavour, while the rocket is peppery and the little gem leaves are refreshing. I have also been adding fresh garden herbs to my salad mixes. I really like the freshness and lightness of produce seasonal to this time of year. Add my salad mixes and herbs to the broad beans and baby new potatoes we have been harvesting and you have a pretty perfect dinner. Next time it stops raining I must dash out and sow the next lot of salads to keep the supply coming - and to mix up the ingredients of my salads!

Gardening Club

I have recently started up a gardening club at work and it's amazing and brilliant to see people who I totally wouldn't expect to join getting really excited about the prospect of learning about gardening. One colleague in particular really struck me with how amazed she was by the whole growing process. I love being able to pass on the knowledge I have picked up and there are also plenty of more experienced gardeners who I am learning from.
Our corporate goal at work this year is all about sustainability so a gardening club fits really well with that, we are hoping to grow both flowers and edibles and our ethos is keep going until someone tells us to stop!
The club was started at the Spring Fayre and Seed Swap that I also helped to organise and then after lots of unproductive meetings to try to get some money I/we, I decided that we should just get going so last week we planted our first crop - potatoes.
We decided to go down the recycle and reuse route so members have been bringing in pots and grow bags from home to use and another member collected some compost made by the council from all the green waste they collect. We have also earmarked some office furniture no longer needed thanks to a refurb so we should have some slightly unusual methods of growing which I think makes it all the more interesting!
Following on from the 3 grow bags and one tub of potatoes that we planted last week (they were earthed up today), we are planning some carrots, lettuce and beans on the edible front.We also want to grow some pollinating insect attracting flowers that will have the added benefit of making colleagues and passers-by smile with a bit of summer colour.
Once it gets you, there is no stopping the gardening bug, not even work is safe!

First Early Potatoes

I planted out my first early potatoes today in re-useable grow bags. (I'm saving all the space I can on the plot for maincrops varieties). I am growing two varieties of early potato - Pentland Javelin and Rocket and this will be the first year that I have really paid attention to the difference between earlies/mids/mains and lates. Usually I just chuck them all in the ground at the same time and dig them up gradually from one end of the plot to the other. This year I am keen to get more succession going with my crops so I am doing everything I can to have home grown produce for as long as possible.

The seed potatoes have been chitting on a windowsill for several weeks now (you can read about chitting potatoes here) and finally I couldn't wait any longer to get growing.

I put a layer of home made compost (about three quarters rotted) in the bottom of the grow bags, about 10 cm worth. I also added a handful of wood ash and put the seed potatoes in, chits facing upwards, three to a bag. I added more compost and some bagged topsoil that we got from freecycle so that the potatoes were just about covered.

As shoots start to grow, I will keep covering them with more earth until the bags are full. If there is going to be a frost, I will lift the bags off the ground and protect them with some fleece. Hopefully, I will be harvesting my first potatoes of 2012 around May or June time.