Organic gardening – Page 2

Every year around middle of June it starts. Al brassica varietie plants start to have holes in there leaves. Some plants actually die from it, some do survive. Helping is lots of rain this year, which apparently keeps the activity of the cabbage flea beetles down a little. Strangely enough, but luckily, they did not damage my cabbages yet. Maybe that is because there are enough predator insects by now. On the larger garden bed where I planted the cabbages, last year I had a mixed cover crop with mustard in it. This totally got eaten including the cabbages in the next garden bed. Maybe this mass attracted enough predator insects to keep the cabbage flea beetle pressure down and I hope these predator insects will spread through the rest of the garden.

It was already the 20. of Mai when I started to prepare the greenhouse for the new growing season. I gave all of the planters a nice thick layer of compost and started sowing.

I sowed almost everything that should stay in the greenhouse direct into the greenhouse planters. I sowed cucumbers, for fresh eating and pickling, watermelon, some tomatoes, basil, dill, one courgette and flowers. Only the celery, chilli and lettuce I pre-cultivated in trays. I have been watering the greenhouse every day and all sprouted well. Up until now there has been no real problem with pests yet, but I do keep a close eye on everything.

For the first time in years the watermelons are taking off really good and are even forming fruit already, as you can see on the picture above.

With the cucumbers I keep on top with cutting of any side shoots and if I see any leaves with a discolouring or any damage I remove it. This way I hope to keep the plants healthy as long as possible. The first pickling cucumbers are already forming.

Cucumber vine with 2 pickling cucumbers forming with the flowers still attached

In the middle June I planted some lettuce in the greenhouse planters and we have been eating from it already, as to the lettuce I planted outside at the same time, which is still too small to harvest from.

2 wooden planters in a greenhouse with lettuce

A volunteer Asia-Salat Red Giant appeared between some dill and went into flower already. I will let it go to seed and self-sow.

Asia-Salat Red Giant blooming in a greenhouse

The Asia-Salat I have in the greenhouse still looks good, but all of the Asia-Salat and radishes I planted/ sowed outside are perforated and dying. We have a big problem with cabbage flea beetles (phyllotreta). About middle of June, when the wetter has been a bit dryer, everything outside started to have little holes in the leaves.

I have sowed borage and marigolds for the insects in the greenhouse and the borage has started flowering already.

Blue borage flowering inside a greenhouse

The basil is ready for harvesting and will be turned into a delicious pesto soon. I have large-leaved basil, like I always have, red basil and Thai basil. The last 2 are new for us and we will try out how they taste. If we like them we will grow them more often.

A row of lush large-leaved basil in a wooden planter in a greenhouse

I am very happy I gave the space and sowed one seed of courgette in a planter in the greenhouse. It sprouted wonderfully and thrives very well. We will be able to harvest the first courgettes in the coming days.

2 courgette with the flower still attached on the courgette plant

Strangely enough with the courgette I sowed in little planters to plant outside later, only one seed sprouted. A few weeks later I sowed again, but double this time. Now many more sprouted, so it is looking good on having lots off courgettes this year.

11 small square planters with courgette seedlings

I am only wondering why the first batch did not want to sprout. Maybe it was to cold standing on the ground. I should provide for some shelving before next spring. This would give me some more space to pre-cultivate seedlings as well.

At the moment everything stands on the ground and the seedlings in the trays also put there roots into the soil below, which is not very helpful. Also I thing I have been using the wrong soil for pre-cultivating. The seedlings in the trays came up nicely, but after some time some of the seedlings did not look so good anymore, the tomato seedlings did not really grow and some seedlings simply died. We also had a few slugs that caused some damage among the seedlings. Another possibility is that the seedlings just where to long in the trays, but I found the seedlings to small to plant, only they just did not want to grow a little more.

A few trays with small seedlings and some little square planters with bigger seedlings on the ground in a greenhouse

I was thinking that the soil I used was maybe not ideal, so looked for something better. I did not find soil to pre-cultivate locally, so I bought a good potting soil and sifted out the larger pieces. I am trying this out with lettuce and with another batch of celery. Time will tell if this is better.

To finish this post an overview picture of the greenhouse at the moment. The courgette is right around the corner, so that is not visible.