Well, I just knew something would go wrong. There we were pondering at the weekend what to have for tea and we decide upon some sweet potato and carrot mash which sounded like a good idea. It’s ideal as it just so happened we had been growing a number of carrots which were ready for harvesting.

So off I go, really excited at the prospect of pulling up our first carrots. As I grabbed the foliage and started to pull, what unravelled before my eyes was not …… expected.
Instead we have quite possibly grown the ugliest carrots in the world.

I am not entirely sure why this has happened, I thought growing carrots was going to be easy, well growing pretty carrots that is! Some of them have tunnels down the sides of the vegetable looking as though they have been eaten, and others look like they have grown extra legs.

The carrots we were growing were the Parmex and Chantenay varieties, and it’s the Parmex who have been eaten the most and the Chantenay who have deformed the most.

Looking forward to harvesting the rest of the Chantenay and Autumn Kings now!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Are you attending Glee at Birmingham’s NEC this September?

Don’t miss the biggest trade show for the garden and outdoor leisure industry this year. Here at Potty Innovations we’re putting the final touches to our exhibition preparation and are planting up some end of season goodies to display in our products at the show.

Never heard of Potty Innovations before? We’re UK manufacturers of innovative, lightweight planters and containers. Our ranges include the Clover Stackable Planters that are ideal for growing in confined spaces, the  Hug Pot designed by Benjamin Hubert (winner of the EPS Design Competition) for family planting fun and the Cultivation Station Raised Bed System a lightweight customisable alternative for growing your own home grown produce. All of our products are quick and easy to use and are great for anyone regardless of age and gardening skill level.

If you are looking to stock something totally new and unique for next season, come along and visit Potty Innovations in Hall 5 Stand E53. For more information you can check out website and blog or visit our Glee Exhibitors Profile

We look forward to meeting you!

Despite a few hiccups, growing courgettes from seed really hasn’t been that difficult. As soon as the late frosts had passed and the courgette plant was placed in the raised bed, it quickly established itself during June and has been growing well ever since.

The courgette is certainly my favourite plant in the garden and we have already eaten four courgettes, have another three in the fridge and four more growing on the plant itself.

Harvesting the courgettes was pretty easy after an initial confusion about how to actually cut them from the plant, sounds a little strange now but we didn’t want to kill it by accident, so I just imagined what they looked like when we had previously bought them from the supermarket.

I was surprised to go out some evenings into the garden and see monster courgettes which had matured into marrows because they had been left for such a long time. A moment of curiosity I decided to weigh the ones we had in the fridge and one of them was no less than 1kg in weight!

Needless to say we are not short on courgettes for cooking, but short on recipes for meal diversity! As much as we both like roasted vegetables it’s not something you want day in day out especially during the summer.

So far our meal ideas have consisted of a courgette bake, roasted vegetables and a courgette and feta salad, all of which I would highly recommend. All ideas were super yummy and we are still in the process of collecting more recipes. I have to say that the courgettes we have had are delicious, they are fresh and juicy and seem to have sweetness that lacks from courgettes we have purchased previously.

I don’t know if any of you courgette growers out there would agree but I didn’t realise just how big the courgette plant was going to get. It is easily taking up the whole of the middle planting area in the Cultivation Station and seems to be growing along the earth as we cut the fruit blocking the light to our spring onions and carrots. Next year I might try staking the plant and growing courgettes vertically, a courgette tree if you will!

Kids Gardening Activities for Outdoor Fun

With the right equipment, gardening with kids can be both safe, fun and an excellent children’s activity. It’s commonly recognised by most parents that children lack an interest in vegetables, but we also know that the flavour of home grown produce can’t be beaten.

So read on and watch the videos to find out how gardening with kids can be fun!

Preparing for the Garden Centre
 
A good idea is to start at the very beginning with your child. I decided that with my son Sam who is three, we would try planting up a set of Hug Pots as a fun children’s activity. I began by taking him along to the Garden Centre to choose some plants.
 
As an idea I would suggest to any parents who are deciding to do some gardening with their children to select plants which are either quick to grow, or are already looking interesting such as strawberries, peppers, tomatoes or seeds such as salads and cress.

There is nothing worse that staring at a blank patch of soil with nothing happening. Even as adults I think we can all admit to getting over-excited at the sight of a brand new shoot poking through the soil. For myself, it usually involves me shouting ‘shoooots’ in an odd high-pitched voice and dragging my other half into the garden so he too can understand my joy.

If I said the trip around the garden centre was without the stresses and strains usually associated with shopping with a young child I would be lying. Having to keep one eye on him and one eye on where the trolley was going is surely testing my multi-tasking abilities. Overall it was however a really enjoyable experience for both of us and it was good to see an inquisitive little mind at work having fun and wanting to learn.

As an additional treat, albeit a compromise so we could actually leave before the Garden Centre shut, we also went and looked at the ‘fish-ies’, you may notice we spotted some ‘coral chicken’.  
I fear that’s a phrase I wont be allowed to forget in a long time!

Planting up the Hug Pots

Planting was fun and it turned out to be a good children’s activity. We planted some peppers, tomatoes and chillies. Sam loved his Hug Pots and in turn enjoyed his gardening becoming chief dirt digger and deliverer in no time! This was a great opportunity for him to make a mess, learn about planting and also as a result to take an interest in caring for the plants later on.

Being a creative child, Sam also found that the Hug Pots were ideal for building sand castles!

 Your fresh herb growing is now hopefully in full swing and its time for us to look at preserving fresh herbs by freezing or preserving fresh herbs by drying. 

Hopefully like me you will want to preserve your fresh herbs for later use. Lets face it,  growing and preserving your own herbs means you could be eating your own tasty herbs all year round without ever having to buy them from a supermarket again.

Well that’s what we would like to achieve, isn’t it? If the answer is ‘yes’, read on! 

Five step guide to drying your fresh herbs Virgin Gardener style!  

1. Cut herbs carefully with pair of scissors
2. Shake and wash to remove bugs
3. Dry with kitchen roll
4. Use string and tie stems together
5. Hang upside down in a warm place and dry 

When tying the stems together I put between 4 and 8 stems of herbs in a bunch depending on how bushy they were, and do make sure the herbs are dry after washing to avoid any rotting.

The herbs should be ready when the stalks and leaves are brittle, then all you need to do is remove the leaves and break them up by hand or gently with a rolling pin.  There you have it, your very own dry herbs!

Remember to obtain some airtight glass jars to store the dried herbs.  If, like us you have bought herbs from the supermarket before, why not re-use those glass jars. 

Other tips you may find of use which I have learnt post drying include firstly blanching fresh herbs before hanging because it preserves the flavour. Secondly whilst crushing can be therapeutic,  dont crush your herbs into submission and instead leave bigger pieces which will also help retain the flavour for longer. 

Do you have any hints or tips on drying or preserving fresh herbs?

Looking for kids gardening ideas? We think a good way to get kids interested in gardening is to have a fun plant pot which will appeal to them and get them wanting interact with it, in this case planting.

Earlier this year we submitted our Hug Pot plant pot to Bizziebaby for review by three families who fancied doing some kids gardening. All of the children were between the ages of 3 and 6 and the planters provided an ideal opportunity for the children to try their hand at gardening (with a little help of course!).

The result was a resounding success scoring 4.6 out of 5! The kids gardening ideas involved the planting of everything from strawberries, tomatoes and even peas and was enjoyed by all. If you are thinking of getting your kids interested in gardening, why not try planting something completely different such as a venus fly trap!

The Hug Pot plant pot was designed by Benjamin Hubert to look fun and friendly. They are a great kids gardening idea made from a lightweight child-safe material and a much better choice in comparrrison to their breakable terracotta counterparts. Simply fill with compost, add some seeds or seedlings and give it a good water!

You can read the parents reviews here at the renowned parenting review site BizzieBaby.

Remember the Hug Pots are available to buy online for £12.50 per set for a limited time only, so grab yours while you can!

Raised Bed Kits – The quick way to start growing your own

The Cultivation Station Raised Bed Kits from Potty Innovations are simply the quickest and easiest method of putting a raised bed together, enabling you to spend less time building and more time gardening.

Even if you have a small space in which to grow, you’ll be amazed at the amount of nutritious vegetables you will be able to grow in containers, and let’s face it nothing tastes better than your own home-grown produce! Our raised bed kits offer you the opportunity to do just that, available in a number of sizes they are an easy to use and affordable solution to get you started with growing your own at home.

What are the benefits of our Raised Bed Kits:

• Quick and easy construction without tools
• Cost effective and an easy solution for beginners
• Lightweight sections for easy handling
• Defined sections for easy crop rotatio
• No sharp edges – splinter free
• Safe around children

What Can I Grow?

• Onions, spring onions, garlic
• Carrots, parsnips 
• Cabbage, lettuce, cut and come again salad leaves
• Chives, sage, rosemary, coriander, dill – many kinds of herbs
• Peppers, Tomatoes
• Cucumber, courgettes
• Sweetcorn
• Strawberries
• Flowers
• The possibilities are endless!

Start your growing today and get your garden working for you with a Cultivation Station raised bed kit from less than £50 including vat and delivery. Our 8 piece compact starter kit will allow you to plant an assortment of home-grown vegetables and herbs, so all you need to do is find a nice sunny sheltered spot and get on with the fun of growing. 

Whilst we are in the midst of the 2010 growing season, do come back and check up on the fun antics of our very own Virgin Gardener over the next couple of months to see what she has and hasn’t managed to grow successfully. She is pretty new to this ‘grow you own’ game after all!

Seeing as my herb garden is rapidly expanding I have been looking into methods of preserving herbs quite a lot of late  and in particular how to preserve herbs by freezing. In our Cultivation Station we have a wide variety of garden herbs such as dill, thyme, rosemary, sage and coriander, all of which are growing like mad in this weather.

Although I have been merrily snipping away at them and using them in cooking (carrot and sweet potato mash with coriander – yummy) I have also been looking at methods of storing fresh herbs for the winter so they won’t go to waste.

So what do I know about storing herbs?

Methods I know about include drying herbs and putting them in water after cutting but I wanted to start with preserving herbs by freezing first.  I did a bit of research and this is my mini ‘how to’ guide. 

1. Cut the herbs, nice and clean with a pair of scissors (or a knife)
2. Wash the herbs in cold water
3. Place herbs on a piece of kitchen towel and allow to dry
4. Lay the herbs in a sandwich bag
5. Label the bags (just in case) and place them in the freezer

Shortly after doing this I required some coriander, so I promptly got it out of the bag and it defrosted quickly and was chopped and ready for the dish in seconds.

 So, so far so good and I have read somewhere that freezing should keep herbs preserved for around 6 months, so we shall see. In the mean time I can see myself ending up with a freezer full of herbs as there are plenty of fresh herbs outside still available for rich pickings.

Never one for over-reacting but bugs, bugs, bugs! That’s it am declaring all out war on the little blighters, my weapon of choice organic pest control despite only aphids, slugs and snails bothering me so far.

My final working plan for the Cultivation Station raised bed has incorporated various hints and companion planting tips. This includes which plants can help each other and also which are good for controlling pests organically.

Companion Planting Hints and Tips:

• Carrot fly defence – marigolds/onions/garlic/sage
  • Onions are good for disguising the smell of plants like carrots.
• Aphid defence – marigolds/onions/dill/coriander
  • I have heard that diluted washing-up liquid in a spray can help treat affected plants, this helped me with my coriander.
• Cabbage white butterfly defence – rosemary, mint, nasturtium (may be a sacrifice to save the cabbage)
  • Or you could always feed the caterpillars to chickens?
• Cabbage likes to be with sage
• Broccoli likes dill and rosemary
• Cabbage not good with tomato
• Peppers – good with tomato and basil
• Shade creating plants such as beans can help broccoli from bolting

Arming myself with this information has helped me devise the following ‘plan’ and as you can see it’s not quite complete yet. My raised bed still has space left which I think may be taken up by the numerous cucumber and gherkin plants I am currently growing (a gherkin pickling post on its way no doubt)!

Marigolds were the first companion plants I heard about and I took it upon my self to grow some from seed as I was unable to find any plants in the garden centre at the time. If the truth be told I had no idea what they looked like so it is entirely possible I just walked past them. Anyhow for cost effectiveness the seeds were pretty cheap and have provided me with 20+ plants (with seeds still left), enough for myself and enough to share. These pests had best watch their backs!

The major development in organic pest control arose from Rich (my planting companion he he) who suggested we collect some canes, insect netting, cable ties and string and assemble one huge frame over the Cultivation Station for the ultimate in bug protection. It sounded like a big job, but a good idea nonetheless!

After a good couple of hours we stood in the spitting rain looking quite pleased with the finished design, sat over the top of the raised bed, the frame even had its own roll-up door to provide access to the plants! However it was then that we realised there was a major flaw.

Rich: “You didn’t want any plants pollinated did you?”
Me: “……yes..”

Of course, with not having a ‘bug checkpoint’ to sort the good from the bad, count the bees in and bugs out as it were, it’s a bit of a problem. So a re-think is on the cards which will unfortunately involve taking down the frame, something I simply don’t have the heart to do at the moment!

Bugs: One – Virgin Gardener: Nil       

So I finally got round to digging out the wellies.  Look out garden here I come!

In April I was able to do a fair amount of prep in my garden, planning the size and location of my newly expanded Cultivation Station, I was even successful in recruiting myself a little help setting it all up. I say help, mummies little helper is not so helpful after all, good boy raking my dirt but bad boy for taking a hammer to my Cultivation Station! Thankfully it survived his bashing with just a few dents and scrapes.

I planted my seeds in polystyrene seed trays and to my surprise they all started shooting and growing quite enthusiastically (Yep I’ve still got it!) However long bank holiday weekends camping with the family and work commitments meant I still hadn’t managed to get out there and plant my seedlings.

But now I’M BACK, I have now planted out some of my seedlings I planted in April YAY!. With mummies little helper again helping, but not so much! I have put the little babies in my gargantuan Cultivation Station. I have tried listening to the Virgin Gardner (she cracks me up) and tried to do companion planting to ensure bugs etc don’t eat my veg but only time will tell if I got it right (indeed if she got it right). Our Virgin Gardner keeps talking about a plan but I must admit I have no plan. What with mummies little and big helpers not being so helpful I plant what I can when I can where there’s space. Maybe next year!

I still have a lot of work to do ie completing filling in the centre of my raised bed but at least I have done some planting now. I’m also very pleased with my pretty flowers along the top of my sunken deck and I’ve also got a Lucky Clover hanging basket with pretty flowers in (I like pretty flowers). Last year it successfully grew tomatoes which our Virgin Gardner was quite jealous of because hers got blight.

I’ll blog off for now but look out for my next post where I’ll be getting fruity!