Parsnips and Carrots coming on

Since the weather stopped raining just before the bank holiday it has made a tremendous difference to my parsnips and long carrots, just goes to show that no matter how hard you try you can't beat nature if you have to grow them outside. All the parsnips are still going strong but i did lose one long carrot and a couple of stump carrots to a jackdaw that seemed to be fascinated by them and the beetroot and leeks . I tried all the usual things to keep it of but I think it just got fed up in the end, though i did bring in the big guns to frighten it of.

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It was our local NVS meeting on Tuesday night with a talk buy David Metcalfe on how he developed his Pendle and now Improved Pendle leek, the meeting was the most popular of the winter season so far with around 40 / 50 people coming along. He grows both Leeks and Onions in pots the Leek in 50 ltr and Onions in 30/ 35 ltr pots in a mixture of.

For Leeks 120 ltrs sterilised soil + 75ltrs sphagnum moss peat with 1/2 a jar of dried blood
1 jar of dolomite lime 1 jar calcified seaweed 1/2 jar humate 1 jar osmocote exact (15-9-9) and 2 handfuls of viresco dry. Then NO extra feeding. With that mix he hopes to grow blanched Leeks with a girth of 12 ins +.

For Onions 75 ltr sterilized soil +75 ltr sphagnum moss peat with 1 jar of Vitax organic grower 2-1-4 1/2 a jar dried blood 1/2 a jar calcified seaweed 1 handful of viresco dry 1/2 a jar dolomite lime. Then NO extra feeding. The jar he uses is a old 500g chicken tonight jar. Sounds easy growing them when he tells you but?
It did at least spur me on to try and get a few jobs done this weekend so as not have the usual mad spring rush, so i started to empty out all the sand from the drums that i grew long carrots in last season and set them up on the new base that i built last back end' it took an age as i had to barrow the sand about 80 yrd all up hill to refill them, i gave them a splash over with armillotox as i went along just in case anything nasty was lurking. With haveing the extra drums for this season i hope to get some decent Parsnips as well as Carrots next August, at least all this work keeps my mind of all the doom and glum that's around just at the moment i see tonight our dear leader Gordon is about to spend another 200 billion pound helping out the Banks yet again, i hope he knows what he's doing but i have my doubts, what is certain is theirs going to be a lot more pain before we are finished with this recession. Oh i nearly forgot to mention on a more cheerful note United gave MK Dons (the so called away win specialists ) a 2-0 first half lead then stuffed them 3-2 in the second half, great eh! moved us up the league 3 positions as well, as they say United all ways come strong second half of the season so watch this space.

Carrot and Parsnip growing Plans

As I found myself in town last week with the trailer on i thought I'd just pop round to my local scrappy for a couple of your bog standard blue barrels as i need a couple more so as to grow a few more long Carrots and Parsnips next season. Simple request you'd think but oh no Environment wont allow them to deal in them as they have to go to Warrington now for shredding and recycling. Next i tried the local brewery that has empty ones stacked up by the hundreds and another local warehouse. Same answer if you havent got a waste disposal liecence you cant have em, we have to pay thousands to send them to Warrington. I was never keen on Warrington anyway but by now I'm sick of the place. Mentioned my problem in passing to a farming friend today and he said i just picked some up that were dumped you can have them if you want. Success at last.

Channel 4 Programme

Did anyone else see how to grow giant vegetables on TV tonight very entertaining and just goes to show the lengths some go to to be the best, I don't think i could get my other half out of bed at 4 o'clock in the morning to help deal with a infestation of red spider mite on me Parsnips, still he did get them to grow to well over 12 foot in length. Good luck to them all I say

Little weeds

Hi, what is it with weeds i just turned my back for a few days and they have just about taken over the garden and so i have spent most of the weekend catching up with them, the damp growey weather has put them into overdrive.
In the veg plot i have being retying the broad beans to the canes as they must have grown about 18" since i last did them a fortnight ago, they are well in flower and have set some pods low down on the stalks it was a little later than usual when i got them planted out but they should still crop OK, the beetroot has really enjoyed the regular downpours we been having and look really lush and healthy and its a similar story with the parsnips top growth is rapid. Even though it has been raining a lot and strange as it might sound i have been watering the potatoes that are growing in pots they have a lot of top growth and seem to deflect most of the rain so i need to get in under the leaves and give them a good soaking fairly often.
The season must be passing as United played their first friendly match away against Kendal Town its hard to make any judgement as to how the new season will go but the 4-0 win will help to boost confidence.
On the farm we have sold our first batch of lambs and the last of the store cattle that we held back from the Spring sales the cattle were a better trade than i had expected but i was a little disappointed with the lamb prices a case of sum you win and some you lose i suppose.

The first new potatoes

Today i am going to pick the last of the gooseberries , I have not got on with picking just as fast as i should and the blackbirds have been having a feast still theirs enough to go round and i will have plenty, they were held back a bit by the early dry weather but have made up for that this last couple of weeks.

I got the first pick from my potatoes on Friday they were just a shade on the small side but with the shallots that i picked as well they should go down a treat for sunday lunch. The tops of the potatoes had been destroyed in the gales a couple of weeks back so they weren't going to grow anymore the plants with the tops that still intact will be left to fill out a bit more.

The last row of carrots and parsnips are romping away now that conditions are ideal for growing i took the picture just after i finished thinning them out it always seems a waste to throw away a lot of thinning but when i try to sow them lightly we end up with a lot of gaps in the rows, the beetroot have just been earthed up to stop them from being rocked about and if you look to the left the runner beans are starting to pick up a bit after being battered in the gales when a lot of leaves were blown clean off leaving them with a bald patch in the middle