This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Veg Update (celery, radish, onion, etc)

Celery, Plant Hart's Seeds, Sown April 2012; over wintered.
June brought some great weather and we had over a week without rain (yeah) and temperatures in the 20sC / 70sF.  However, this meant I had to water plants and seedlings, and I lost a few trays of seedling to the scorching sun - never water tender little seedlings when the sun is beating down as it just fries them. Here's what has been happening in the veg garden in early June...

Left: The celery is growing as cut and come again. It looks as if I'll soon have some stalks to use.
I harvested my first hand full of radishes 'Scarlett Globe' and have more to use this week. I'll be glad of the space to plant some other seeds. I'll plant more radish in between other plants.
The onion in the veg box seem happy. 
Courgette planted out last week. I was at an allotment and the grower put a plastic pot (with the bottom cut out) around his courgettes. I think he said it kept them from rotting so I'm trying it... not really sure about the benefits of this?
With the sunny weather the seeds germinated and are growing well; I've been thinning already but have more to do. Carrots, calendula, 3 types of radish, turnip, lettuces, nasturtium and bean are all within this bed (square foot gardening idea).
I purchased two new types of radish to try - Radish Red Meat and Radish Hilds Blauer Herbst. They're growing well as per the photo below. They take longer to grow than most radish and the pack suggests lifting them in November. It will be interesting to see how they do and if they are worth taking up space for so long. Anyone else grow these before? It would be good to know what you thought.

I've more seeds to sow and more ground to maintain - so I'm off to the garden!

For more information on the seeds I've sown click here.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

8 comments:

  1. Your radishes look delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our courgettes are due out in the next day or two! As for celery - we've given up on it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. All looking good, especially that celery. It's something I've never grown before.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Kelli, I have used plastic pots with the bottom cut out to plant veggies in and it keeps cut worms out or moles or whatever and lets them get established without root problems. It seems to work well. Your radishes and celery look great! Happy gardening.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Weather was certainly wonderful in West Midlands as well, as within two weeks my radishes turned their roots into little balls of joy - I harvested them all last weekend. I am waiting for the new ones to grow! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. My cut and come again celery is doing well also Kelli - things are definitely much slower this year but eventually getting there.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like how you laid the sticks to avoid cats scratching on them.
    They look like a gardeners work of arts.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Catching up on posts I missed while away on holiday.... Just wanted to say that you seem to have cracked the technique for growing perfect Radishes! I seem to remember that last year you reckoned you were a complete novice in that area. I don't know the two Autumn-harvesting types you mention, but they look most unusual. I have got some seeds for "Watermelon Radish" which I will be sowing soon. It's a bit like your "Red Meat" one I think.

    ReplyDelete