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Gardening Advice & Tips for Irish Gardeners
The Weekend Gardener (Part 9)
We had some lovely weather over the weekend and this gave me a chance to continue maintenance on my raised beds.
Jobs on my to-do list this week were...
- Light weeding between the rows or vegetables
- Prick out and transplant my broccoli
- Harden off & plant out my courgettes
I have been able to weed little and often on my beds as the weeds really haven’t come to much. So after 15 minutes with my hand trowel, I was mostly done with weeding. Both Carrots and onions are slender plants with narrow delicate foliage and therefore require regular weeding. Plants like potatoes, courgettes & broccoli fill out fast and develop big leaves which quickly outcompete weeds and therefore require less weeding.
The second task today was to transplant my broccoli seedlings. They were planted over a month ago and haven’t grown much in the last 2 weeks. I assume that they have outgrown their pots and that the nutrient levels are too low. So by transplanting them I can give them more root space and new compost to aid growth.
Before transplanting, I watered them well. I’m using 9cm pots, with one plant per pot. Again I used a general potting compost and I soaked the soil with water with organic seaweed extract fertiliser to give plants a much needed boost.
After transplanting, I put my seedlings back into the greenhouse where they will stay until the middle of May.
The Last task of the day was to plant out my courgettes. These guys have been growing fast since they germinated and were starting to outgrow their pot. They are also large enough to go out into the raised beds. On Thursday (3 days prior) I hardened them off during the day, bringing them back into the greenhouse at night. So by Sunday they were ready to go into the ground.
In the End I choose to plant 3 courgettes, and placed them about 40cm apart. This is a bit close but I hope they will spread out over the edge of the raised bed.
Watering was the last job of the day and this is something that I’ve needed to do every two days in the greenhouse. Each time I added a cap full of seaweed extract to the 10L watering can. This fertiliser is just a general feed and gives an early boost to young plants.
