This week in Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden, we will be giving the windows in the greenhouse a thorough clean. Last week, unable to resist it any longer, we took down the bubble wrap insulation. This was a really satsfying job as the last of the winter was removed from the garden. The windows will now be washed inside and out to ensure the maximum light levels inside as well as keeping it looking at it best. The autovents are set up permanently and are already opening on sunny days to give much needed ventilation. We have shading set up ready to be used for hot days and also as an added protection on cold nights. The heater will keep our tender crops warm if the temperature plummets.
Also this week we will be potting our tomatoes, peppers and aubergines into their final pots. They are a really good size now and getting hungrier by the day so will need a good sized growing space to spread their roots into. Some of our tomatoes have already started producing flower stalks. Once the flowers open, we will give the plants a spray of diluted epsom salts to give them a much needed boost.
Outside we will be planting out our second sowing of broad beans along wih some more peas. Our brassicas are now healthy sized plants growing happily in our cold frame. This week we will put up our vegetable cage ready to plant them out.
The cold frame and greenhouse are now packed with plants and there are still many more on the list. We tend to grow all our plants in modules and plant out, as the pest population make direct sowing a near impossible task. With space at a premium, we will order some plants in rather than growing from seed. This week I will be choosing salad plug plants to stock the garden. I like a large variety of salads so it makes sense to order plants rather than many packets of seeds. And it’s always a real treat when they are delivered!
