Harvests etc

Hello peeps, sorry I haven't been here in a while, sometimes I forget, sometimes I'm too busy and sometimes there's just not much to blog. While I've been away I've had a bumper crop of tomatoes, so many in fact I've been giving them away to friends and family. About 5 medium sized punnets in all, they ripened pretty late this year it was September when they all seemed to redden at once. Really tasty though there's nothing like the taste of proper organic tomatoes, in the supermarkets they're far too watery.

I've also had a few tasty raspberries off a very small plant and some strawberries too, I am currently raising rhubarb too but they are quite slow growing and even though I set them off indoors in August they probably won't be ready till next August and even then only a light harvest should be taken from the plants, in Yorkshire we have a tradition of "forcing" rhubarb which means growing it in the dark to make it grow faster and sweeter, it grows so fast in these conditions it can be heard growing. It's grown in a place called the Rhubarb Triangle in between Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford mainly around a town called Rothwell. I am undecided whether to give it a go, it might be a good idea for my smaller garden as it doesn't get any sun anyway. On a small scale the rhubarb just needs growing under a bucket.
Anyway that's all for now but I'll be back a little more regularly now hopefully.

Summer Distractions

I start by apologizing for the distance between my posts but Summer brings holidays, weddings and lazy days in the sunshine.

Well in the garden the weeds still pretty much have the upper hand if I'm honest but slowly I'm reclaiming the land, now the dandelions have gone to seed and planted themselves I have again dug them up, the main problem I have here is creeping buttercups which are buggers to get rid off, even with chemicals which I refuse to poison my soil with, so it's basically back ache or nothing.

I have had lots of progress in the tomato department, they have grown thick and very fast, until now I have only ever grown them in pots but they really are seeming to enjoy their free range life and the bees are doing a brilliant job of pollenizing them all. I'm now not just seeing little yellow flowers but little green tomatoes too. When I grow tomatoes I always grow too many for myself but it's great to hand out free food like this to friends and neighbors they'll love them so much more than supermarket stuff.

A week after my holiday in Wales I planted some butternut squash seeds and some more cucumbers, they grow great on windowsills with plenty of light and water. I can hardly believe the speed they grow and now just one month later I've had to separate them into bigger pots. Slugs and snails love cucumber plants as well as squashes so I'm keeping them covered for as long as possible so they'll have the best chance of winning the war with the beasties. Another problem was I planted them thinking for sure I'd know which was which but as it turns out the plants look pretty much the same at this stage.

 < Butternut Squash                                                                                     ^ Cucumber


I have also decided to plant up some flowers for my doorstep so bought some Nasturtiums from James Wong's range and some Phacelia I claimed for free from the Soil Association as they are supposed to be loved by bees. Nasturtiums as well as looking pretty go great on a salad as they have edible flowers which look lovely and colourful too. This is them not looking very colourful yet.


In other news my mum's eaten all the raspberries from my other plot outside her house and I've been handing out the herbs for free as they grow like wildfire. And I also have mini pepper plants growing on the windowsill and they are starting to flower so fingers crossed they do well this season.

Onwards & Defiantly Upwards

Right the time has come for most of the little veg plants to leave the safety of the windowsill and head out into the outside world. However plants cannot be just thrown outside into the soil and left to survive. They need hardening off first, I have recycled an old china cabinet as a little green house, it doesn't get too hot like proper greenhouses and there's still a little draft that can get in so it's good for hardening little plants.

 After a week or so the tomatoes, which are now starting to out grow the cabinet are ready to go outside. I have put in alot of hard graft preparing the soil. Backbreaking weeding and turning the soil, the dandelions really have taken over but don't worry dandelions have their uses too and the rabbit at the animal shelter loves them. The soil could do with manure adding, I'll have to steal some from Suzie at the shelter.
For the tomatoes I have chosen a sunny a spot against a wall, this gives them the best shot at ripening off but as it's between 2 hedges they have a little protection from the wind. The plants need staking because tomato plants can grow quite lanky and are easily destroyed by wind. I've planted them in half a foot apart so they've got room to grow.






As well as tomatoes, the sunflower, peppers and cucumber need hardening off too so into the cabinet they go, it won't be long till they go out for real.

<-- Sunflower plant now needs a stake to hold it up, only one seed out of 3 germinated, I have no idea why.









In other news I have brought the potted strawberries from the courtyard at my previous plot and planted them out in prepared soil. Strawberry plants are fantastic for people without much time to garden, they are perennial (they come back every year I've had mine for 3 years), they survive frost and water logging and even do well in prolonged periods without water and if you want them to they'll spread so you get more crop. They are however hard to raise from seed so buy baby plants from the garden center.

Finally I am trying to raise funds for Yorkshire Animal Shelter and have crafted cards featuring my photography, I am trying to sell them on eBay without much success so far, if you're interested head here for a look --> Emma's eBay Shop. Or just text YASG18 £3 to 70070 to donate £3. Ta.

Spring Getting More Springy

It's now late March and things are beginning to happen, my roof is being done currently so little can be done outside as a huge pile of slate and timber sits in the middle of what was a lawn. However indoors there's a little action.
My mushrooms are sprouting away and I've had a few but probably not as many as I could, mushroom are easy to forget about I must admit but the soil NEEDS to be kept moist. Another problem is with their love for warmish moist conditions they do attract some tiny little flies, I can't think of a way to remedy this unfortunately so I just keep them as far away from us as possible while still being indoors. This is one of my chestnut mushrooms, I left it a little too long before picking, it's still good to eat but you should pick them before the gills underneath show.

Second the tomato seedlings have really took off and I've transplanted the strongest of the plants into a pot so I can sow more seeds in the propagator. The pepper seedlings have just started to show too, they take longer than tomatoes. No sign of butternut squash seedlings yet =(. We've also got microgreen herbs and Chinese chives from the James Wong selection on their way.

Now I'm very scatty and there are plants I plant and forget about. About 18 months ago I bought small fig tree only half a foot tall at The Range thinking oh well that'll be different. I re-potted it and it grew. It loses it's leaves in Winter and has to be brought indoors to avoid frost. When I moved house last Autumn I left the fig tree, lovingly named Phileas Fig with my mum. She looked after him over Winter and the other week tells me "that tree shot up and it's got new leaves." I took a look, now mum's hallway is very small and a bit gloomy so as well as getting in the way poor Phileas wasn't getting the nourishing light he needs so he's a little pale. But to my surprise there were 2 little green nodules growing from the tree. Figs! Wow unexpected he's still only small. He's gonna need some multi-purpose feed and when he's moved outdoors after any frost risk has gone I'll grab some manure from the animal sanctuary. Tomato feed once every 3 weeks helps too according to RHS. He's now in my hallway, alot more room and light till he can go outside.

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Right the time has come to fill my windowsills with seed trays. Tomatoes and peppers need their head start in January/February so that when the frost has gone in March/April they're ready to go straight outside either in pots or into the soil in the sunniest place possible.

So I began with filling seed tray cells with 1 Gardener's Delight  tomato seed each, tomatoes are probably the easiest crop to produce with the best most satisfying results. In the other half of the tray I have sown 1 mini bell pepper seed per cell. I've had some bad luck with conventional pepper varieties as they seem to grow to a certain size when I have to pick them because if I leave them any longer they rot, but when I pick them and try them out they don't taste sweet just bland and boring. I have chosen this mini variety hoping they will take less time to mature and just like cherry tomatoes they will have more taste.

I have also put in a row of butternut squash seeds, according to the seed packet they shouldn't be planted till May but I'm really eager to see how they do as I've never grown them before as they take up alot of space. Mr Veg has a great recipe for a goats cheese and squash lasagna which we'd love to try with home grown squash. If the growing is successful I'll share the recipe.  

In another tray I have descended to put in more James Wong seeds I've never tasted before. These include Chinese Chives which are supposed to taste of roasted garlic, Microgreen Herbs which grow quickly like cress and go great in salads and on top of burgers. The final seed I've set off are Inca Berries which are cherry tomato sized yellow fruits that are supposed to taste of gooseberries, kiwi and pineapple, so really looking forward to tasting them. The great thing is once grown they should produce berries right into winter.

It's Been a While.......Sorry.

Hi Veggers, sorry it's been a while since my last post alot has been happening I've been on a couple of holidays and I've moved house. Don't worry the Urban Veg is still there and growing in my mum and dad's front garden. I now have a bigger and more challenging plot (photos later).

So for an update on the existing veg we've had many many many cherry tomatoes off our 6 plants, more than me and mum can eat. I've got some juicy looking peppers nearly ready for picking. The leeks are doing well as are the little turnip I'm hoping they along with parsnips will be good for Christmas. Parsnips taste sweetest after the frost has got to them.

Also we have electric daisies which I tried the other day and must say are a acquired taste, nasturtium which the caterpillars took a fancy to are now in bloom and the cucamelons are fattening up and should be ready soon.

On a downer the sweetcorn just didn't do well, it went to seed and on the plus side is now feeding the birds, lucky birds.

Apologies also for the image quality my big camera wasn't to hand.

Just an update

After 3 weeks of scorching weather and one massive downpour the veg is getting exciting and there are more happy tree bees about as the herbs are in flower, soon the buddleia (butterfly bush) will be in flower too.

The tomatoes are now well on their way, I usually buy Money Maker Tomato seeds, they are quite reliable and give a good crop, at stages throughout their growth I pinch off lower leaves and stems as the plant can then focus more effort on fruits.

They're now green and just need plenty of water and sun I have also caned them up as with the weight of the tomatoes and the heavy rainfall they're starting to droop, I don't want them to snap.









Next is the pea pods which are really starting to fatten, I'm not sure how many peas I'll get it will probably just be one serving but hey, as long as they taste as great as other home grown veg. Unfortunately my peas appear to be affected by a pest known as Thrips tiny black or brown bugs which hide under the leaves, they've made a mess of the leaves but they don't really touch the pods. They can be controlled with a organic insecticide spray.


While I've been gone the sweetcorn has grown nearly as tall as me but I'm not sure if it will crop well being in a container. I guess we'll just have                                                          to wait and see.

My Royal Subjects hehehe

Now everything's starting to go mad in the garden, I spent 1 night away from home and something new emerges =0. Yesterday I came home from the fella's and found the strawberries were popping exciting EEEEEEE! I most look forward to strawberries, I'm hopping the raspberries and blackberries catch up so I can have a nice summer fruit salad.

Also shooting up are the spuds, I have a patio bag out front to grow them in and a bed out the back (which we keep having to pull the dog out of). You know I really can't remember when I planted the ones in the bag but I should be expecting them to flower soon.

The latest crop I've tried this year is peas, last year I grew beans which was silly because I don't like beans. So yeah I'm currently trying to train them up a cane wig wam but it's windy and some are finding it hard to grip, they need to grab the canes so they don't grab each other and pull themselves down.

Another plant that's fairly new to me is the sweetcorn, the Royal Consort likes his sweetcorn so I have to make an effort to please him
 I accidentally killed it last year very early on so I'm
paying extra attention to it this year, I've got 5 stalks at the mo growing happily in a bag. Lets keep it that way =).

Tomatoes are doing well as they always do in pots in the sunny front garden, last week I spread them out into 3 troughs, 3 plants each. Today I nipped off the extra shoots at the bottom of the plant so they can put more         energy into fruits. 

Also doing well in the little cold frame are the pepper plants, turnips and a little grape vine I bought cheap hopping when I move out I'll grow have more space to grow it up a pergola. 

Also out there is a little fig bush, spring onions, beetroot (not doing so well), leaks, goja berries and carrots which I went a bit overboard with.

                                          G Dog is not impressed with the lack of biscuit plants.

My Kingdom

Welcome to the blog of the Urban Veg Queen, this is the blog of a small garden in the middle of Leeds. I have been trying different things for a few years now working on the best plants for small urban spaces.

First is looking at the space I have to work with. One small South facing garden at the front of my house which is completely paved over but the amount of sun it receives makes it ace for growing crops like tomatoes, strawberries & chilies. An urban environment also makes good for these crops as cities are usually warmer. This is my space as it was a bit earlier this year. The plastic coldframe from Morrisons has been replaced by a proper eBay model below. Basically every plant in this garden just about has to be potted.



This however is a great space for starting off
seedlings and hardening them off. I plant crops that need deep roots in green sacks from the Pound Shop. They're fab for potatoes and carrots.








My second space is at the rear of the house and is therefore North facing, most veg gardeners know a North facing garden is hard work as not much grows in shade. So the challenge is finding what will thrive I also intend on using this space to help local wildlife. The pigeons and sparrows already seem to love it and we get Blue Tits nesting most years but I want to make it a wildlife paradise for everything, after all every creature has a role to play in the garden.

This is the space as it is at the mo (ending at the gate just across that council field is Leeds town center). I have put in a herb garden to the right which I'll tell you all about in my next post.
But yeah pretty barren we had to combat a creeping buttercup problem hence the black weed fabric and rug. Now it's gone it's time to start work and keep on top of it.