Planting out

The spell of warm weather we have had has brought my plants on a lot quicker than I expected. Often we get cold wet and windy weather in April - but not this year! Many of my plants have become too big to remain in their little pots and seed trays, so I have had done a lot of planting-out over the last few days.

Here is my Marrow ("Bush Baby") in its new home.

This big tub (filled mostly with home-made compost) is half of an old plastic compost-bin. It is open at the base for improved drainage, but as you can see, it provides a depth of about 50cm for the Marrow to grow in. I'm prepared for the worst too: if there seems to be a danger of frosts or very low night-time temperatures, I will protect the plant with a big plastic bell cloche - like this:-

The long-awaited planting-up of the Cucumber bin has also taken place! I have put two Cucumber plants ("Marketmore") in this tub, and I will be training them to climb left and right over the wooden support frame I constructed.

I have put out some Lettuces into their final growing places. There are six each of "Little Gem", "Webbs Wonderful" and "Fristina". They will be joined in due course by six of "Batavian Red", but those are still too small for planting out.

In the background, further down the same raised bed, you might just be able to see three Red Cabbage plants ("Marner Langerrot") and a couple of rows of Radishes - the white Japanese or Mooli type, and the long red Italian Ravanello type "Candela di Fuoco".

Here is a pic of the same bed from the other end. Clumps of Perpetual Spinach and Swiss Chard in the foreground, then two rows of radishes, then three Red Cabbage, then the lettuces in the distance. I think this is what you call "a mixed planting"!  [Ali: sorry that the rows are not dead straight. My excuse is that Mr.Fox re-arranged them for me. :)]

The flexible green plastic hoops are now covered with netting, by the way.



 In the next bed, the red Beetroot are mostly looking OK.

However something has eaten away the stems of some of them, just above ground level. Their foliage is still surprisingly perky, but I don't expect them to survive.

The golden Beetroot (sown later, without the benefit of a cloche) is still tiny, and its germination rate was not very good so there are a few gaps.

In my usual way, I have re-sown with a few more beetroot seeds in pots, as an "insurance policy". Even if I don't need them for filling gaps, I can always use their foliage as a salad ingredient...