Of tomatoes, chairs and a table...

So far we've had the tomato plants inside as, believe it or not, we had temperatures below zero during the nights two weeks ago. But last week we finally put them out in the yard. They've taken the bed meant for the parsnips. We have two types. Six cherry tomato plants and two regular sized ones. The regular ones didn't do too well inside this year. No idea why. So far the plants have taken well though and are happily growing along.

One of them has already developed flowers too!

Aside from the repotting program we´ve also (finally!) bought ourselves a garden table and chair set. So we can enjoy the not so summery summer here in the Lowlands. It be pretty! Yay!

 I couldn't resist putting up another picture with some of my girlfriends' handywork. She is quite the crochet fetishist ;-) Her own blog is found HERE

She also dyes yarns with natural pigments. If you're interested in those yarns and crochets I highly recommend taking a looksy at her etsy store which is located HERE

 

As you can see the green is exploding at the moment! It smells great! The beetroot is als doing very well and the potatoes are starting to flower. The beetroot even survived the dog's enthusiastic tail wagging :-P You wouldn't guess it by the way she's quietly chewing up an old flower pot thingy, but dutch shepherds are typical shepherds. All stubborn enthusiasm and energy! Even the "more gentle" long haired breed.

 

I must say the blaue swedens have quite beautiful flowers. I'm curious what colour the blaue congo flowers will be.

 

The last collars are on

I've added yet another collar to the swedens during last weekend (8/9 june) making the total collar tower 4 high. That's 80 cm. I also raised the congos up another collar bringing that total to 3. That tower is 60 cm high.

We've decided to leave it at these heights so the plants have time to develop all those roots that should now be down in the towers. No use creating huge root systems that don't have any potatoes on them after all.

So from now on it's watering every evening and letting the plants flower. After that, keep watering regularly untill the plants have dried up yellow and then it's time to harvest! Can't wait to see whether or not the stacking will have worked. And how many kilos of taters we'll get from our towers.

The strawberries are still going strong and so are the beetroots. The first very tiny strawberries have already been harvested. And eaten. Forgot to take a picture, sorry :-P But we are getting a lot more by the looks of it. Bigger ones too.

We've been raising up a few tomato plants indoors which have now been moved outdoors as well, the weather being great and all. So we might have some tomatoes after all.
The blueberries are already starting to develop berries. The redcurrant not so much. I doubt we'll see any redcurrants this year.

We've also finished up the rest of the backyard. Now we can actually properly sit there around a cozy fireplace. Which also doubles as a barbeque. And my girlfriend uses it to dye her wool as well. Talk about multifunctional! The garden table and chairs will be put in somewhere within the next few weeks.

I give you our new and improved backyard!

And our mutt of a dutch longhaired shepherd named Sofie. Who couldn't resist getting on the picture ofcourse.

The next project will be clearing out the left hand part of the shed, taking out the front and turning it into our rabbit pen. These won't be eaters. Just our old pet bunnies.

Replanting and another collar

Last weekend we added another collar to the stack of blaue swedens. The congos aren't big enough  yet to receive another collar. We also relocated the strawberries to the parsnip bed.

Two reasons:
1. The parsnips didn't survive. The parsnips are dead! Long live the strawberries!
2. The cats. They have taken to snuggling in the strawberry pots. Absolutely not caring that there is a plant in there as well.

We hope that putting the strawberries in the bed will prevent that from happening anymore. The strawberries themselves are doing great though. We can already see a lot of tiny green strawberries appear. Nomnom!

Oh by the way: The trick worked! We're farming cats now too! XD

Potatoes, level 2!

Four days ago I added a pallet collar to each potato bed. Man, those plants are exploding from the ground!

The theory behind the raising of the beds is simple:

A potato plant will grow to a certain height. What grows from the "armpits" (where a leave sprouts from the main stem) depends on the armpit being above the soil or below it i. e. in the light or in lightless conditions. If no light is present a root will form. This is where the potatoes develop. If exposed to sunlight a leaf will form. By adding another collar I effectively shorten the plant. The plant will now grow back to the height it "wants". Below the soil the snipped off armpits will now develop into roots that should produce more potatoes.

This is how everything looked when I started.

Here's what I did:

I snipped off all the leaves from the main stem on the area of the plant that would be covered in dirt. Like so:

Then I filled in the beds with dirt. I added a top layer of pot soil for a bit of extra nutrition as well. Here is the end result:

One of the beds is already growing hard and fast, so I'll probably be adding another collar within a week or so. The other bed is also growing, just not so fast. The plants were a bit smaller when I added the collar, so those will have a few weeks left to grow before adding the next collar.

Some pictures of growing plants. And a fireplace.

So today we spent weeding the beetroot, potatoes and the front yard. The parsnips aren't really visible and I'm starting to think they might have frozen during the one week of frost right after I planted them. Only time will tell I guess.

My girlfriend repotted the tomato plants! They are growing along nicely. These are the cherry tomato plants. The normal tomatoes didn't survive so far, so we planted a few more of those hoping the second try will give us viable plants.

Here are some pictures of the beetroot and potatoes. They seem to be coming along nicely.

And the beetroots too ofcourse. Can't leave them out. Cute little buggers.

 The rest of the yard will be filled in with gravel. I also wanted a fireplace so we can sit outside by the fire as long as the weather permits. Fires are great! An added bonus is that my girlfriend likes to dye wool. With a proper fireplace she'll be able to do so more efficiently, using less wood and get it doen in less time. So I got on the internets, found myself a stack of cheap fireproof bricks and got some of that fireproof (well, 1250 degrees Celsius proof) glue/kit/stuff. And here's the result!

It has to sit for 24 hours, then I'll get a small fire going to harden the glue completely. Next job: Get shoveling to level out the rest of the yard, buy gravel and fill it all in. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week. It all depends on the weather and how I feel after the coming 4 night shifts.

The first harvest and more planting.

Well, we've gotten our first harvest. Apparently mushrooms grow very fast. Veeeeeery fast. So fast in fact that I kinda harvested them slightly too late. The mushrooms had already opened up. It didn't matter for taste thought. I made a nice omelette with them!

We'll keep the mushroom box around and see what happens. There might be more mushrooms on the way.

Apart from our first harvest we planted a few additional fruits. We've gotten a 'few' strawberry plants and a redcurrant. And today we got a few cucumber seeds and napa cabbage seeds from friends. I guess we'll have to figure out where to put those as well. Anyway, here are some pictures of the strawberries on their table.

They even have flowers already!

 

 

We are starting to see some potato plants coming up. And maybe some of the parsnips. I won't be weeding yet though as I'm not sure what to remove yet.

 

 

The potatoes are planted!

Today I planted the potatoes and beetroot. I put the potatoes some 5 to 10 cm under the soil and spread them around the beds at distances of about 40 cm. To give the soil a bit of a boost I mixed in a few bags of garden soil. Compost will be used later to fertilise the beds more. Now the waiting game starts.

When the potato plants have come up about 30 cm I'll add the next pallet collar. I'll then trim back the shoots and leaves on the lower 20 cm to the stem of the plant. That is the height of the collar, which I'll fill in with soil. Then it will be rinse and repeat for the coming few months. I'm really curious wether this potato tower will work.

As to the weather: It's getting a bit warmer and we've had our first rain in quite a bit. It seems like spring has finally decided to show her face.

Pictures will follow later. There isn't much to be seen aside from 4 beds filled with dirt. The rest of the yard still needs doing. I hope to get to that after this months' paycheck.