We’ve just returned from a romantic sojourn in the beautiful, misty and mysterious city of Venice (is Venice a city - I guess it is). First things first - Venice is beautiful and everyone must go to see it at least once in their life. It’s the law. Secondly, there are no taxis (well if you don’t count water taxis) so my feet are officially ‘killing me’ after walking what felt like the length of Italy along tiny cobbled streets and even smaller stone bridges. But…I’m not complaining because I managed to squeeze in some seed shopping (yes! I found a seed shop - in Venice.). To my complete delight we rounded a corner after exiting the Vivaldi violin museum (did you know that he was a priest before a composer?) - and there, large as you like, was this stand, groaning under the weight of beautiful, coloured seed packets. Yey! Myself and some Chinese tourists could hardly contain ourselves as we tried to turn the little stand without being totally rude and whisking it around just when the other is reaching for a packet. Still, after much deliberation I decided on three packs - a Tomato variety called Pomodoro a Grappolo Robin, a thin-leaf, ‘Italian’ (is there any other kind?) Basil called Verde Compatto, and a vegetable that is completely new for me Raperonzolo, which can only be described as looking like a white carrot. I asked the shop-keeper how to cook it and, as he didn’t speak English, he made a chopping action with his hands and then pretended to eat something. I’m not sure if that means you should eat it raw, or not, but at least it confirms that it ‘is’ for eating. Anyway - I’m soooo excited about growing my Italian seeds that they now have pride of place in my seed box (ie. right at the front).
I’ve been searching for some Swift onion sets to sow now and harvest in May next year. This, I thought, would help me in my quest to be totally self-sufficient in onions for one whole year. I have around 50 onions in storage right now, and three bags of shallots. This might last us until March or April next year - assuming that none of them rot and they are all usable. So I really needed to get those onions in on time. However, because I am running behind this year (not sure how that happened) I found that most places had sold out. So with no sign of Swift onions at any of the regular seed stores that I use I decided to consult eBay to see what was on offer there. I’m happy to report that I found 50 Radar onion sets (just as early as Swift I think) for £1.49 from Home+GardenStore. They arrived two days ago and they’re now in the ground along with some garlic and shallots from my own stores.
I had a question from Barry over at Mr Toad’s He asked: “Perhaps I can ask for your opinion on a matter: the field secretary recommended using “Roundup†to knock everything down before I start and assures me that it’s commonly used for such purposes. What’s your opinion of this chemical (the plot is pretty bad).”
Personally, I try to avoid using chemicals. However, I have to admit to using RoundUp when I first took over my plot and the occasional (very occasional) sprinkle of slug pellets. I would say that mtp is mostly organic and that our heart is in the right place. When I first got my mitts on mtp, way back in Feb 2005, it was in a pretty bad state. Ouch! But I (and the undergardener) got out our digging forks and cleared the weeds on one half of the plot by hand until it looked so much better. This process took us 10 weeks. But that was only half of the plot - the other half still looked like a weed graveyard. And because it was just turning May it was starting to grow! So I decided to use RoundUp. I asked one of my neighbours to do it, who had a handy backpack type thing which made it easy over large areas. I paid him £10. I did it, it was me!
I’m not proud of it but it did mean that I could start to use the ground straight away. I think it was a good thing that we put in 10 weeks of back-breaking work before we reached for the RoundUp - it kinda made me appreciate the instantaneously clear plot. But… and this is a big but… RoundUp will kill the good nasties as well as the bad nasties so you might want to keep that in mind if you choose to skip the digging and go straight for the RoundUp.
Please add your thoughts on whether to RoundUp or no?
I’ve potted up some herbs ready for winter. Here you can see Marjoram, Mint, Parsley and Oregano but I also planted up some Chives too. Give them a trim once you’ve potted them up. The mint particularly liked this and has sprung some very vigorous new shoots. They’ll need shelter - here on my kitchen windowsill they should have enough protection to see them through the winter. And of course having them nice and handy (I can reach out of the window and grab some Mint for my New Year Mojitos!) means that I don’t have to trudge up to the muddy plot on a miserable winter’s day. I’m all about cosy fires and big glasses of wine right now - all the way through until early March.
This year I have decided to do my first bit of seed collecting. I think I will stick to ‘easy’ seed for the moment, which means large ones like pumpkin, peas, runner beans and the like. I have already collect a ton of Klevedon wonder peas, Futsu and Uchki pumpkin, and the seeds pictured here are Enorma runner beans. The secret is to leave them on the plant to dry out for as long as possible. If you harvest the seeds when they are still green, they will rot in storage (as I found out with a previous batch of peas). They must be bone-dry before you pack them up into paper bags (or envelopes which is what I’m using). As usual store them in the dark in a cool place.
The more shrewd amongst you may notice that mtp is looking smarter and more dandy these days. I was inspired by Clare over at Pumpkin Soup to update my look. While my IT support (Ryan) didn’t have time to redesign my site from scratch he did help me to choose a new theme (TerraFirma 3.3) and tweak it for my small needs. Hence the new look. I hope you like it.
