Selfsufficientish.com

Peggy Sue wrote: It has a year round planner for lettuce so you get contstant salad, fancy giving that a go (the slugs will be ahppy if nothing else!)

Oh a lettuce planner! Can you give details of the book or when/what/where to sow please? Since only buying seasonal veg (until hopefully we have our own when we wont be buying ) I had most complaints about a lack of salad. The kids are very good now though and look at everything in the supermarket to see where it's come from too.

well, i planted my first lot of seeds in a tray on saturday and have recorded them thus....

its a 18 hole seed tray and 2 rows if you have the wide side closest to you......oh!, you should know i'm very good at making things as clear as mud !!....

i've dated and recorded it as column 1 back , column 1 front, then what the seed is and how many....i have 13 single pods with a variety of things.
theres a picture on my blog if you need to make sense of my drivel!.

long term i dont think this will work, but i have to start somewhere and can adjust as time goes on!.

The lettuce planner is in an old 'collection' book, you know the ones you had to collect every week for 5 years and put them in a massive binder. I'll have to see if I can get all technical and somehow upload it somewhere (don't hold your breath). If I fail I'll get you to pm me and I can scan and pdf it definitely.

That should keep me busy till the floodwater has gone!

Ok my confidence in my technical ability is limited so here is some info:
The 'book' is the Ralph Whitlock Gardening Diary : April Week 1 page 90-91.

The diary names 11 varieties (most of which I ahven't heard of) and shows you when to sew and when to harvest calling each slot early, mid or late Spring, summer, Autumn & Winter. So I'll abreviate:

Windemere: S- Early spr-Early Sum every 2 weeks; H- Mid sum-Mid Aut
All Year Round: S-Early Spr-Mid Sum & covered Aut; H-Spr-Aut
Lobjoits Green Cos: S- spr; H- Mid Sum-ear aut
Salad Bowl: S-mid spr-Ear sum; H-mid sum-ear aut
Appia: S-Mid-late sum; H-Aut
Amanda: S- (Greenhouse) late sum-ear aut; H-end aut-late winter
Kordaat S- (GH)ear-mid aut, H-winter
Kwick: s-(GH)late sum; H-alte aut-early wint
Premier: S- Mid aut (cover); H-mid-late spr
May Queen: S(GH/cover)early-mid aut; H- early-mid spr

So ahve other people tried these varieties or do they no longer exist?

Hello Peggy Sue.

That's great, thank you very much!

I was in Wilko's this morning and actually bought Lobjoits Green Cos (Johnsons seeds. £1.25). I was debating getting the All Year Round which was sitting next to it :) I will go back and get them now and look out for the rest.

OOh - trip to Wilko sounds in order!

It may be different here in Australia, but I find it invaluable to note down rainfall in my day to a page diary along with everything else (nothing beats rain!).
I also let my good lettuce go to seed and after a while have no problem with year-round lettuce (not at the moment though; new garden Grr). I find oakleaf lettuce great for our arid conditions.

corymbia wrote:It may be different here in Australia, but I find it invaluable to note down rainfall in my day to a page diary along with everything else (nothing beats rain!).

thanks corymbia...thats a good tip. i'm not yet out in an allotment....still struggling with the council on that one . i will probably record some things like that while i'm finding my feet and learning the ropes!.

My garden diary is interesting as I always make sure I note when all the spring bulbs/shrubs and fruit trees start fruiting.

Last year's spring was very early and this year we are 2 weeks ahead of that!

I had peach blossom start in February and plum blossom's been out the last 2 weeks.

Yet in 2006 our first daffy didn't open until 23 March!!!!!