This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Sunday 11 March 2012

Veg Update (leek, celeriac, rhubarb)

Leek 'Musselburgh' and Celeriac 'Monarch'  
It was in the high 50Fs at the weekend and I finally got some jobs done in the garden - mostly weeding (and more weeding), dividing snowdrops and some light tree pruning.

I've been very bad and left celeriac in the ground from May/June last year until now. I've been waiting for it to reach a reasonable size. Something has been nibbling on it so not exactly 'best of show'. I don't think I'll bother with celeriac this year, think I'll stick with celery. Celeriac takes a long time to grow and I find it fiddly to clean and prepare.
Rhubarb is coming up. I always think about forcing but then I end up just leaving it.
Veg abandoned over Winter in the veg box. Spring Onion, Beetroot, and Parsnip I think. Wonder if the beetroot is still edible at this stage? I should have pulled it up but I keep forgetting. Don't think I'll bother growing beetroot this year; not too fussed and I want more room for container carrots.
Parsley 'Plain Leaved 2' - a staple for cooking.
I'm behind on sowing seed but will sow over St Patrick's weekend. 
And St Patrick's day is the day I plant potatoes!

9 comments:

  1. Your rhubarb is very early. Mine is not even showing above ground yet. I'm also giving Celeriac a miss this year - too much effort for too little reward.

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  2. Your parsley is just the same size as mine, and as I am cleaning the garden slowly to prepare for a new season, I've harvested quite large amount of it. This year I need to plant more root variety of parsley...

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  3. What is celeriac? We will plant our peas on St. Patrick's Day. Do you think that we could plant potatoes too? My daughter says that they are a cool weather planting. We planted our seeds today, hoping for success. e have planted started tomatoes before and been successful, but not here at the new garden. Do you have any secrets for success to share?

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  4. I like the idea of growing carrots in containers. I've never tried beetroot or celeriac before. I've been curious about trying celery. Your parsley is looking wonderful! Cheers, Jenni

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  5. Our rhubarb is all sprouting too some has quite large leaves now. We have different varieties which are at all different stages. We don't force ours - I prefer the naturally grown sticks that you can use as umbrellas

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  6. I'd never eaten beetroot other than the pickled variety until I grew my own. I really like it roasted now. It looks like rhubarb crumble will be on the menu soon.

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  7. Your leeks look great Kelli -mine never seem to grow that big! It's a good thing I like baby leeks...

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  8. Hi Kelli, we all forget some veg over winter!leeks looking good ,ours are still small and not likely to grow anymore but they are a usable size at least

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  9. That's healthy looking parsely!
    Everything look so good! Happy sowing new seeds!

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