On Wednesday our new Cold Storage Unit arrived at the Nursery.  It wasn’t an easy task to get the unit into place as we had to dismantle part of a fence so that the lorry could get into the correct position.

Only a couple of hours earlier Sean, Darren and Kenny were busy preparing the area and had to check that the sleepers for the unit was level.

We were all so excited about this as it is the first of the items that we have on our wish list.  It means that we can now harvest our salad crops everyday during the summer as they will be able to be stored at the correct temperature.

We have also cleared and renewed the compost around our rhubarb crowns and finished digging over the squash and gourd beds.

Emma’s tip this week: If you are a fan of runner beans or courgettes start trench composting!  Make a trench under the spot where you want your crops to grow and line it with some cardboard and kitchen vegetable waste.  Top it off with the soil you removed to make the trench and it will soon start to break down.  Don’t forget where it is though.  These crops are extremely hungry and need plenty of feeding.  A great idea is to actually plant a courgette into your compost heap and watch it grow!

To donate to People and Gardens text SPUD16 £5.00 (or your amount) to 70070

Last week started off by us giving our mint plants a good old short back and sides haircut, this has enabled us to fertilise the plants.

We were also asked if we could help harvest some old hop vines.  The guy’s enjoyed doing this especially when they realised that the hops were part of a trial to see if they could make beer out of them, I think some even asked for some samples to take home when it’s been made.

We continued with our seed sowing program.  Last week over 6,000 parsley seeds were planted along side endives, spring onions, mizuna and lettuces seeds.

Our young seedlings, planted only a couple of weeks ago, were ready to be potted on into larger seed trays.  This is quite a skilled job as the young plants are very tender and need gentle handling.  The guy’s have mastered the skill and were potting on the spring onions and baby leaf lettuces in the warm and sunny greenhouse.

Emma’s tip – Here we are into February and now is a good month to start sowing your spring onions for all those lovely salads we are dreaming of in the warmer weather.  The team here at Watering Lane are exceptionally good at growing this versatile little veg, we use a variety called Guardsman, which true to it’s name grows tall and straight.  They are a great staple in our veg bags later in the season. Continue reading →

To donate to People and Gardens text SPUD16 £5.00 (or your amount) to 70070

Due to technical problems at the Nursery this post could not be posted on Friday 27th, hopefully we are all up and running properly now.

Our week started off with the greenhouse being closed due to the roof being cleaned.  The guy’s found it really exciting watching these people work out in the cold, wet and windy conditions with hoses, cleaning out the gullies and the glass.

Due to the weather we have been cleaning off plant labels and seed trays for the Eden green team, but when they could the guy’s completed the digging in one of the large plots up in the field.

It was also a Veg Bag week, so lots of measuring and packing of veggies took place.  Our bags this week contained, potatoes, onions, carrots, swede, cabbage, sprouts, green and red pepper, mushrooms and mixed bean sprouts.

Two of our volunteers, Jackie and Pix managed to pot on mizuna and spring onion seedlings, whilst Bill, James and Nicky J planted 3000 parsley seeds, these will be eventually planted in the field.

Emma’s tip this week – apparently there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!  What a load of tosh.  With all this rain we have been having the People and Gardens team have been unable to get really stuck in and finish our winter digging.  Usually an ideal job to be getting on with in January.  Never mind, February is just around the corner.  Lets hope it dries up.  Instead make use of your time indoors by starting an allotmnent diary so as not to forget what you have grown and even begin chitting some early potatoes.  Stay dry.

The week started with Darren, Sean, Nick D and myself building a new leaf compost bay.  We had great fun and were finished just after lunch time and managed to get the first batch of dirty, wet and rather smelly leaves in place.  Sean did suggest that instead of it being used as a compost bay he thought a hot tub area would be nicer.  Sorry Sean don’t think so.

The continuing job of pot washing and preparing the seed trays were also ongoing this week.

As we managed to have a few dry days we were able to go up to the field and carry on clearing some of the rhubarb patch and other areas of the field.

We have had a busy week on the visitor front.  Tracy Greer who is from the Eden Projects communication team came to see us as well as Tamsin from the St Austell Voice newspaper who is hoping to do an article about the project.  Ellie Michell from Barefoot Media also popped in to see us. 

Emma’s gardening tip for this week.  We have some fabulous rhubarb here at Watering Lane and now is the time to dig up some older crowns and divide them in order to regenerate the plants.  Mulch the soil around the crowns with well rotted manure or garden compost.  Have a good week.

This week we have planted our first endive and mizuna seeds along with some Lollo Rosso lettuces.

Our pots have been topped up with fresh compost and the ginger has been repotted for next years crop.

The gourd bed has been dug over by the guy’s and we have started to weed around the rhubarb crowns.

This week was a veg bag week and we delivered 74 bags filled with lovely fresh veggies.  The bag contained potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, cauli, cabbage, parsnips, ginger, red pepper, purple sprouting broccoli and a bag of freshly harvested mint.

Emma’s tip for this week is if you haven’t already there is still time to grow some garlic if your soil isn’t frozen or too water-logged.  If it is, you can start the garlic off in the greenhouse – in modules and plant out in the spring.  This just means it will be ready a little later than garlic planted directly outside before Christmas.  Happy gardening.

We would like to wish all our friends and supporters of the project a very Happy New Year and to let you know that the money raised for Wateraid amounted to £140.  So to everyone who helped us raise that money, thank you very much.

The New Year has kicked off with us having a bumper crop of ginger.  The guy’s have spent three days harvesting, brushing and preparing the ginger.  Some will be used to go in the Veg Bags, others will go up to the Eden Project’s kitchens and the rest will be replanted again for next years crop.

We will be increasing our growning capacity this year so new pots and compost have been laid out ready for the start of the planting season.

We have also been tidying up the Nursery which has been blown and battered by the bad weather over the Christmas and New Year period so its been a good excuse for a lovely big bonfire.

It has been suggested that we do this little report every Friday with a gardening tip of the week from our very own gardener Emma Throwup (related to Percy Thrower)  January is a good time to catch up on your cleaning and taking care of your tools also for cleaning out your seed trays and pots ready for the planting season.  Check out all your old packets of seeds and make plans for the year ahead.