Club root on kohlrabi

So so disappointed ... I had a look at my kohlrabi this morning and something prompted me to pull two up. Sad to say that they seem heavily afflicted with clubroot. I didn't lime before planting and I have no idea what the gardener before me planted in the area that is now occupied by my cauliflower, cabbage and kohlrabi.

Apparently he planted brassicas. It seems I may have also shot myself in the foot by accepting seedlings from a fellow gardener - she may not have started hers off in sterile potting compost and the fungus could have been present even before they reached my garden.

You can see more pictures of the afflicted roots here.

Tomorrow I have the wonderful task of either going back and pulling out all of my brassicas to try and contain the spread or just leaving them alone and hoping for the best for the rest of this season.

Oh, and the three trays of broccoli and cauliflower seedlings I have here waiting to go in the ground? I guess they'll be ... not.

In the autumn I can heavily lime the brassica area, which will be a different patch in my rotation and then try again next year.

Here's another useful factsheet. And in case you wanted to know, clubroot is called 'knolvoet' in Dutch.

What the garden did on vacation

Came back from vacation and first thing on Saturday we were at the allotment. The committee had made sure my garden was watered and I was amazed to see how everything grew while we were gone! The weeds grew too!

Some new photos to show you what I mean.

A beautiful butterhead lettuce. This one was a seedling from the garden centre.



We ate one just like it for supper tonight with a chilli vinaigrette, chopped tomato, feta cheese and sliced carrot. Oh, and the best kebabs ever! Marinated in a ginger, garlic, maple syrup and vinegar marinade. Mmmmm...

One of the Salad Bowl lettuces planned for dinner tomorrow. This lot was sown indoors back on the 3rd March.



First pea pods, sown indoors on 3 March. Don't they look just like peas in a pod?



A cauliflower surrounded by some purple kohlrabi. The idea is to harvest the kohlrabi as golf ball sized fruit and then pull them out, leaving the cauliflowers the rest of the space.

These cauliflower are remarkable because they were eaten almost down to the ground by the ducks before I made my cunning chicken wire enclosure for them! They've recovered wonderfully. The chicken wire is off and they now have pirate flags protecting them from errant fowl. I'm hoping the pirates on the bunting will prove even more chillingly frightening to the ducks. Pity you can't threaten ducks with walking the plank.

The caulis were from the garden centre and the kohlrabi from my neighbour. Don't they look beautiful together?



Blackberries in bloom. I'm thinking ... JAM!



A procession of cows on the polder:



I wonder what they were doing? Do you think one said 'follow me' and the rest did? Maybe the two behind have co-dependent personalities. Maybe the one in front is a dictator. Psychology among cows... I'm sure someone's studied it.

I also replanted some tomatoes to 10 cm pots, bought some compost to replant the rest, potted on some calabrese (broccoli), planted more lettuce in a tray, weeded my entire plot, tried out the new sprinkler, and then tidied up everything and brought it home because tomorro, after 45 days of drought, it's going to rain!

Making Newspaper Pots

Just a quick note here to say that I found a wonderful resource for making newspaper pots! I've made a few to hold my courgette seedlings (when they come up) and I'll definitely be using these for beans and peas in the future.

I also ask my local florist to keep all their 10 cm plastic pots for me. They buy plants in bulk and re-pot them and usually just throw away the pots.

This way I get them for free and in return I bake something nice for the florist as a gift. It works pretty well as an exchange :)

How to Make Newspaper Pots

Ok, so who turned the sun on?

It's flipping hot! I could even say 'it's FRIKKIN' hot!' I got so sunburnt today. First window washing, then car washing, then the whole afternoon in the allotment.

We spent most of yesterday morning there, before rushing back to catch the Grand Prix qualifying - husband is a fan.

Today I was there from 1 - 5 pm. The kids sat in their tent and read books, dug a bit in the dirt, fed grass to the chickens, got in the chicken run with the chickens ... in short... all those things kids get to do outside that they can't do in an apartment block. I love it!

Yesterday most of the time was taken up with chatting, having coffee with some other gardeners, getting some spare seedlings - spitskool, kohlrabi and kropsla. I planted them out yesterday but my visit today showed that the kropsla were very offended by the heat and today they were very wilted. I think one or two might die.

No such luck with the kohlrabi.

I'll let you in on a secret. I really don't like kohlrabi, but the lady who gave them to me was so nice, and I want to see what they look like when they grow and I had a spot to put them in so I took them. Ok, so the real reason I have them is because I just can't say no!

I planted out 12 Ostara strawberry plants yesterday and today I planted more sweet peas v. Old Spice - they finally came through after about four weeks! I now have Old Spice and Bijou on either side of a fence constructed of canes and chicken wire.

More sweet peas came out of their layers of damp kitchen paper today and went into trays. This variant is Candyman and it is a bright pink. I'll erect another screen for those in a different place. The sweet peas are for cutting. They don't seem that popular in the allotments here. I wonder why?

Other seed sowing happened today. The sweetcorn I had growing in pots was planted out and I also sowed seeds directly into the ground. I am making two windbreaks of corn, and my runner beans (Armstrong) will be left to clamber in the corn.

The runner beans and dwarf beans that I have here at home are becoming rather leggy but I'll keep them here a while longer. I'm still nervous that there might be a late frost.

I planted out two trays of Salad Bowl lettuce and I'm really pleased with the patterns I've made. I alternated rows of red and green lettuce - very pretty! The other three plants that were over went into the strawberry bed. They should be cut before the strawberries spread to fill the bed.

I also planted two more rows of carrots. I'm getting into this 'potager' look and sowing rows of plants in pretty patterns. The carrots form two sides of a square and the sweetcorn the other two. Hopefully the corn will shade the middle of the square so that I can plant things that are not that tolerant of heat in the middle.

My makeshift cover from chicken wire for the cauliflowers has worked really well, no more ducks eating them, but the peas are still being eaten by a mystery beast. It just nibbles the edges of the leaves? Bit like a caterpillar chomping, but I can't see any?

Spinach is through, need transplanting, carrots are through and need thinning, lettuces are through and ready to transplant. The apple tree is blossoming!

At home I planted chives; lemon basil; basil minette; gardener's delight, tigerella and costaluto florentino tomatoes (heirloom beef steak tomato) in trays.

I think I need to stop with the tomatoes now as each of those trays will give me 6 plants and I already have 18 cherry tomato plants already potted up.

Tomato addiction, anyone?

Oh, I want a courgette plant, but this year I will be lazy and buy one (and some aubergines) from the garden centre rather than starting my own from seed.

The flowers I planted in trays last weekend are through and I have to transplant them to modules.

I think it was a pretty successful weekend's gardening but I just wish it would rain! It hasn't rained for weeks now. The gardeners at the allotment allayed my fears of the canal running out of water. Apparently it has never happened before, except one year when there was a fault further up, so my plants won't die from lack of water.

It was so hot that the ponies were in the sloot (canal)!

I wanted to join them.

Plum Blossom & Easter Bunnies

Plum blossom

Yesterday we visited the garden and found that the Easter bunny had been!

I planted the leeks out into the trenches I'd prepared the day before. I intend to plant rocket or to plant out my lettuce seedlings between the leeks. The lettuces have come up in droves so as soon as they develop a second set of leaves I'll transplant some of them to other spots.

There definitely seem to be some kind of carrot-like thing growing. Just waiting for the next leaves so I can be certain. My spinach is also through.

Onions and garlic are about 2 inches high now and the strawberry crowns are developing beautifully.

At home I transplanted peppers and tomatoes into 10 cm pots. I also started some leeks, maize and sunflower seeds on the windowsill. The leeks are in a discarded biscuit container and the maize and sunflower seeds are in paper cups.

I'm disappointed with the germination rate of my sweet peas. Despite soaking them between sheets of kitchen towel until they sprouted and then planting them, I only have about 11 plants from two packs of seed.

The varieties I used were Old Spice and Bijou (a low growing variety). Now I'm trying again with a variety called Candyman which yields pink blossom and the remainder of the Bijou seed.

The paper cups tip for bigger seeds was one I picked up from a book and I'm so glad I did as paper/plastic cups are *much* cheaper than buying black plastic pots.

An even better tip - if you have a florist you visit frequently ask them to keep the black plastic pots from the plants that they buy to re-pot - saves a fortune!

Cauliflowers, Leeks and Lettuces

Yesterday I bought some cauliflower, leek and lettuce plants from the garden centre.

Mine are not far along enough yet to plant out. The other half of our garden (the new part) has been cultivated. The cauliflowers went in there, the leeks are going alongside them in a separate bed.

The Husband did a lot of work today lifting paving stones and we've laid them out like stepping stones. I plan to plant low growing plants like felicia and verbena between the stones through perforated film.

He also made the sitting area at the back of the garden a bit bigger - perfect for summer barbecues!

The new half garden will be home to parsnips, leeks, carrots, cauliflower, pumpkins and potatoes.

The back of the garden houses an apple tree, another aalbes and a new plant, a Josta bes which our voorzitter gave me. The front of the new garden has blackberry, aalbessen and a rose bush.

Yesterday I planted marigolds (tagetes), alyssum, and tricolour daisies in trays. Hopefully they'll germinate quickly and give us lots of little plants to put amongst the vegetables.

In the garden itself the onions and garlic are almost all up. The spinach seems to have germinated, but I'm not sure - I have to wait for them to grow a bit before I can be certain. This is why I like growing things in trays indoors - then I know exactly what comes up!

There are baby lettuces coming up. It seems like every seed I sowed germinated! I'll thin them and plant the thinnings into trays to plant elsewhere when they're a bit bigger.

Still no carrots, or anything identifiable as a carrot. Patience is a virtue, I believe.

Rosemary and Thyme

The weather today was pretty fantastic. It got up to 19C!

Unbelievable for March.

So, guess where I was?

Planting lemon thyme, eau de cologne mint, apple mint, common thyme, sage, chives and chervil. I also planted a campanula and another plant - can't remember its name. Now isn't that a good start? Plant stuff and have no idea what it's called?

I had to ask for the water to be turned on so that I could water my plants. Yesterday they wouldn't turn it on so Sebastian had to do some seriously dangerous scrambling to get water out of the canal for me. Today that was absolutely not happening. Seb wasn't with me and I had no intention of ending up in the 'sloot'. I firmly requested that the pump be turned on and finally it was. Good thing I bought a ten litre watering can because it took me about 10 trips to water the few little plants I have. I see a hosepipe in my future.

I continued the work we did on the weekend and dug over some more beds. I discovered a large rhubarb plantation at the back of my plot so I'm planning to move the rhubarb plant I bought over there to keep the others company.

While I was there one of the other gardeners asked me if I had planted some special kind of bean plants. I asked why and he said it was too early for beans. I replied that I had some thermal fleece for them and so if frost was forecast I could always protect them. He seemed dubious about whether they would survive. I felt like saying 'Dude, if they die I'll just plant some more! Get over it!'

One cannot be rude though, one has to maintain one's 'normen en waarden'.

Sadly five of the bean plants got broken off by the wind - four Borlottis and one Contender. I need to replant some to fill in the gaps.

Life is definitely stranger than fiction. Remember I told you about the Chinese girl, Hong, from my class? You can imagine my surprise when she appeared with her mother in law at the volkstuincomplex!

Her parents in law have a garden there. It was so nice to chat to her and meet her mother in law and her baby son.

Another coincidence? One of the ladies who works at the natuurwinkel has a volkstuin in the same complex. So, that's two 'contacts' I have at the garden. How's that for six degrees? We have over 100 000 people in our town and two of them, from totally different areas of my life appear in a third, unrelated area. Weird.

I found a long term weather forecast for Europe which is very useful.

Let's hope the warm weather continues!

Sunday the 25th

_{More tulips from 2006}

Today we were at the garden. We planted 100 onions (Sturon), one head of garlic (Prinator), 100 shallots (Red Sun), 18 dwarf beans, (Borlotto and Contender), and one rhubarb plant.

Yesterday we planted 12 each of Kelvedon and First Early May peas, and 12 strawberry plants.

The carrots that I planted two weeks ago have done absolutely nothing, even under thermal fleece, so I'm going to buy more seed and try again.

The blackberries are budding, the plum tree is blossoming, and I found out we have an extra bit to our garden containing black and redcurrant bushes.

Tomorrow I will continue digging, plant some flowers and cover the beds with mulch. 16C forecast for tomorrow! Spring is here!

Ponies at the Volkstuin

Today we were at the volkstuin.

Big big news! The ponies were in the meadow!

As you can imagine, the kids were overjoyed, but disappointed that the ponies came to me when I clicked my tongue to call them, but wouldn't come for them. The ponies (and the kids) have spring fever, galloping around the paddock full of youth and springiness. I think the ponies were after sowing some wild oats ...

The Husband did lots of handiwork. Amazing what a few minutes of ...errr...showering together... can achieve. Here he is surveying his handiwork.

Here's a photo of my tiny pea plants! Varieties Kelvedon Wonder and First Early May. I am so excited.

I am even more excited about the slight green spot I spied in the tomato tray. I yelped with glee and The Husband came running. He thought I had injured myself.

Happens so rarely you see... yelps of glee and all that... ahem.

Maybe this spring weather has gotten to me too?