Strawberry Runners into Plants

Not wanting to buy any new Strawberry plants this year, last year I decided to pot up some Runners from the 'Alice' Strawberry plants I bought. Luckily all four plants grew really well and were eventually individually potted up for over wintering, during our colder months in my little greenhouse.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 15 April 2012

Winter is now over and the runners have established into great new plants with health leaves, so a couple of weeks ago (late April) these were potted up into their final growing places, two hanging baskets with two plants in each. The baskets were lined with new moss and new vegetables compost was added, with a few water crystals to help with watering.

                                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 15 April 2012

These already a few flowers showing, so hopefully I'll have some Strawberries in early summer, ready to pick and eat.

Spring Tidy Up - April

A few weeks ago I managed to get out onto the Balcony, the sun was even shining, and do my spring tidy up after the mild winter we've had. I wanted to create a lot more space, as it seems the balcony has been taken over by a lot of garden waste, so I started with this first. I've been collecting a couple of bags of waste, old soil, leaves, so these were the first to go.

Next was the greenhouse. I've had this for a few years now and you can tell as its looking a little old, but its still handy to have. Its plastic cover was ripped to pieces, this has gone, so now it can be made better use of, by using it as shelves for the smaller potted plants. The inside of the greenhouse was cleared out, so old pots and canes were sorted out, stacked and generally tidied up into a smaller area.

For the Balcony itself, this had a good brush and clean, as lots of dead leaves and debris had managed to cover the balcony floor. Pots were then moved around to create more space and I also came up with an inventive way to help with watering some of the larger pots, by creating some homemade water holders out of all plastic bottles, these were added to the Onion and Garlic large grow bags.

Vegetable wise, the netting on the Garlic and Onions was removed and packed away, to give the vegetables a chance to grow naturally and continue to flourish in their final months. I also noticed that I've managed to lose quiet a lot of the cabbage plants I had re-potted, I'm down to just 6 now, which does come in handy for space, as the Brussels Sprouts are really to be placed outside, but it is a shame as I may have planted them out too early.

Aloe Vera - New Shoots

My Aloe Vera plant hasn't been looking too good lately, but I noticed the other day that there was three new shoots coming off the plant, which I carefully re-potted over the weekend, hopefully these will survive. I mixed the old soil from the plant with some of the vegetable compost, which will hopefully give them a little feed to encourage some growth.

                                                          Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

As for the old plant I'm hopeing to save the nurishing liquid from its leaves, as its great for burns and other healing methods... I just have to figure out how to do this, so I guess I'll be hitting the old gardening herb books, as well as my new book Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong, to see how I can use this.

Re-potting in March: Part Two

Sunday was a beautiful day, so I took the opportunity to re-pot some of the vegetables I have on the windowsill at home. Most of these had now grown to a good handling size, so they were easy to transport to their new pots. Soil wise, as I still have a whole bag of the Grow Your Own Vegetable Compost, which contains 6 months of feed, I mixed this with some of the water crystals I have and filled up the 20cm pots I bought last year with the mixture.

For the Tomato varieties, Moneymaker, Gardeners Delight and Roma VF (Plum), I selected the three strongest shoots and placed one in each pot, making sure each was firmly fixed into the centre of the soil. These were all then carefully labeled, placed back on the windowsill and watered.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

The same process was done with the Brussels Sprout seedling; only these were a lot smaller and needed a lot more care when re-planting. I picked only the best and strongest looking shoots, making sure each had at least three or four leaves, which were a bright healthy green colour. I placed ten seedlings into two of the 20cm pots', making sure each shoot was firmly put into place, so it didn't fall over easily and carefully trickled some water into each pot.

                                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

These still a few more vegetables on the windowsill slowly growing away, I've even seed a few more Chili seedlings starting to come through, but the Peppers (sweet) and Aubergines are still struggling a bit and I'll also be potting up some Courgettes very soon.

Re-potting in March: Part One

It was a little chilly and also a little rainy on Saturday, but I managed to pop onto the balcony and re-pot a few of my vegetables from the mini-greenhouse, which have been overwintering for a few months now and the Sweet Pea plants, which I've been growing in doors.

Last weekend I bought a new large pot with a lovely red flower design on it, which I filled with Grow Your Own Growbag compost from HomeBase, as this has up to 6 weeks feed within the soil and some water crystals. I planted the seven Sweet Pea plants that have grown to around 20cm tall, at the back of the pot supported by small canes and at the front of the pot I planted four of the thirteen Cabbage plants with collars, which have been overwintering in the mini-greenhouse.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date March 2012

As for the rest of the Cabbage plants, these were re-planted in the long tube that recently held my herbs. Along with some of the old compost from the herbs, I added the last of the organic compost I had, mixing this together and then I added a top layer of the GYO Growbag compost, with some water crystals added for extra help with watering. The last nine cabbages were then planted around 10cm a part, with a Cabbage Collar added to each plant.

On the balcony itself, I re-potted the Carrots and Leeks, which have been slowly growing and again have been overwintering. The Leeks were separated and around 5-7 Leeks were added to each pot, as for the Carrots, these were carefully moved into larger, deeper pots for better growth, and all of these again contained the GYO Growbag compost and water crystals.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

To help some of the other plants feed better, I also added a Miracle-Grow Controlled Release Tablet to each of the Garlic and Onion bags, as these will slowly feed the vegetables when they are watered for up to six months.

And all of the plants and vegetables on the balcony were then well watered.

First Attempt at Garlic

Last year my boyfriend Zac bought some Garlic plants that had already been started off, at the local garden centre. I planted them in one of the large pots, but they never seemed to do anything. Eventually they all died off except one, which just wouldn't give up.

This ended up in a pot on its own and left over winter and a couple of weeks ago it started to look a little bit straggly, so I took the bulb out to dry out and this is what I was left with.

                                                                       Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

More Garlic has been planted for late last year, so hopefully attempt number two will be a lot better.

The Last of the Spicy Tomato Soup

That's it today for lunch I ate my last batch of the Spicy Tomato Soup I made, with last years home grown tomatoes. Luckily, I've recently sown all my summer seeds including three varieties of Tomato, so all's I have to do now is wait for them to grow, so I can make more.

                                                          Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: February 2012