The Broad Beans were given the first line of support yesterday, which was great to see as they are doing well and the winds can be strong up there in the High Garden, thank you Thomas for the great job. Now that the Potatoes are sorted we are moving through the garden weeding out all weeds and turning over the soil, the whole area looks so much better for it, Fruit Cage today.
Well the mounding up of the potatoes has started, well over half of the work is finished, and the other part will be worked on today. I was not able to start till well into the day as we had rain (great for the seed that I planted the afternoon before), I did not want to be moving the soil too much, the potatoes will be much better for it, they now have more room for their roots which I look forward to eating later in the year. I have also planted ‘Tomato Kings’ plants and was able to get more yesterday from him, once again thank you.
Yesterday I filled the High Garden, the last four rows were planted and as I write this there is a light rain falling out there, just what the new rows need, the three rows are Mustard ‘Spicy Green’, Territorial Seeds, All Season Salad, Thompson and Morgan, Salad Green ‘Garden Cress’, Territorial Seeds and another row of Parsnip ‘Tender and True’, Thompson and Morgan, I have come to understand from talking to people that Parsnips take a long time to germinate. I will now get on with the area on the other side of the hedge.
We need to mound up the Potatoes now, they are at a good size, we take a rotavator between the rows and break up the soil, this soil is used to mound up the rows, it is also a good way to sort out the weed problem, if you mound them up enough you will only have to do it the once, and this should be the only time you have to knock down the week because the leaf spread should stop any more coming through. The problem now to watch out for is blight. 
I had the chance to go to Chelsea Flower Show yesterday which went very well, it did help that we were at the gate at 7:45 and so the numbers where low at the Show Gardens but where I wanted to be was the Floral Marquee, to see the vegetable seed suppliers and the one I really needed to see and know from him, how I got it wrong, ‘Eagle Sweet Peas’, so to grow Sweet Peas you need to full the pot you are going to use 3/4 fill with compost, soak it at this stage well, top up the rest of the pot with dry compost, plant the seed 3/4inch deep and cover with newspaper and place in the greenhouse or cold frame, do not water till the plants are through. Hope this is a help for you as it was for me.
I am pleased to now have the Climbing Beans in, they are planted on the frame that we built for the Sweet Peas, since they did not grow, I had the space for something else, at least you can eat Beans. I need to get another lot of Lettuce sown so we have a good supply through the summer, I am going to give L.’Chartwell” a try next.
It was rather hard to hide the jealousy on my face when I walked into a glasshouse at Gravetye Manor yesterday with one of the gardeners Matt, to see his large collection of fine Tomatoes, some of the best looking plants I have seen in a very long time, it seems that he has become the King of Tomatoes for the South East of England. I was a little shocked at first when only One was offered to me, there must have been some four hundred plants in the glasshouse, after a little talking and interest on my side, a tray of plants was then offered, more like it. I had to take a photo of Matt with his tray of Tomatoes, it was like he was giving up some of his children, here is the photo of Matt and his tray of Tomatoes, and thank you Matt, I will be back. P.S the whole garden is really worth a visit
The two different Climbing Beans are now ready to go out into the garden, they are ‘Cobra’ and ‘Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco’, they where both planted straight into large plug trays on the 30/04/13, most people plant the seed straight in the ground, last year I did it this way and did not have good luck with them, this year they got going in the glasshouse, I moved them into the cold frames on Friday, now they are ready to go out into the garden.
I am very lucky to have a friend in New England who loves to send me interesting seeds for the vegetable garden, Kyle sent me a good collection of Squash and Gourd seeds, all of which I planted yesterday in large plug trays, we will plant the Gourds on the large compost heaps, this year I am going to grow the Squash on the soil with large heaps of compost. I hope that we can get fruit off them to eat, we even have seed for the Pumpkin that they use that side of the water to make pies out of, watch this space, I hope the smell of Pumpkin pie will fill the house this autumn.
I understand that my blog is now R18 because the horticultural term “pricking out” is used on this blog, to just state a fact, we use the term to move seedlings from the first pot they were grown in, to the plug trays, this is the first step they take before they go out into the soil from plug tray size. I am going to show you a photo of some Tomatoes that I am going to prick out today, those of you who can not cope with such things should turn away now……….
Great Dixter Vegetable Garden 