greentapestry : The Pigtailed One

Thursday 19 March 2009

The Pigtailed One




The last ten days or so has seen some warmer weather and much increased activity in the greenhouse, garden and allotment. Various seeds have been sown including various lettuces, mixed salad leaves, chard, beetroot, leeks, tomatoes,celeriac,cosmos (starting earlier this year) and a perennial white stock. The latter is gloriously scented, but my plant became rather scraggy after a while. Luckily my sister saved some seeds last year from the plant that I gave her. Peppers sown towards the end of February have germinated. Still lots more seeds to sow but I am going for the little and often principle this year. I have divided more plants for the garden club plant sale. Hopefully astrantias and campanula persificolia will be added to the haul next week.

I have managed a few trips to the allotment now so it is looking neater and tidier. This afternoon I picked the last of my sprouts and decided not to bother growing them again. Never mind their miniscule size and the long wait for a nibble. The deciding factor in striking them off the to grow list is that they seem to have been a magnet for all the local whitefly population and then some more. Clouds and clouds of them flew off them into my face every time I touched the plants even in December. Never again! I have now pulled out the plants which were going to feature on the menu for D's chickens last night.



On Saturday evening we toddled off to our local arts centre where the pigtailed one aka Bob Flowerdew was appearing. I have nothing against men with long hair, but I have always felt that I would like to cut Bob's pigtail off. I resisted the urge to put a pair of scissors in my bag. For those of you who have not heard of Bob Flowerdew is he is an organic gardener who is on the panel of the long running Gardener's Question Time radio series. He has also appeared in a number of television gardening programmes in the past. He is known for being somewhat unorthodox and has some quite forthright views. The evening was split into two sections. The format of the evening was a talk which was followed by a question and answer session. An interesting evening although himself briefly nodded off at one point and sadly there were empty seats in the auditorium. I have sent off for some seeds of 'Yellowstone' carrots following Bob's recommendation. Tomorrow I shall try another suggestion - I will be scrubbing a shop bought sweet potato, planting in a pot of compost and then placing it on the heated sandbench in the greenhouse. Hopefully this will eventually produce shoots which I can than take off and plant up individually to grow on. He also suggested giving ginger bottom heat so I will be trying this too. Advice for allotmenteers from Bob - get yourself a fruit cage, veg are labour intensive. Don't I know !

NB - I can't take credit for either of the above photos. Forgot to take my camera with me.

9 comments:

  1. Ha, ha, ha :- The pigtailed one.

    He never gets grey does he?

    Sorry to here about your Sprouts.

    Rob

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  2. Well I do agree with you, cut it off.
    Bob F. has written one of my favorite 'garden' book that I bought at RHS bookshop The Complete Fruit Book. That was 10 years ago and on that picture he is quite cute but now plast Bob cut it off!

    Take Care/ Tyra

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  3. You can feel the amount of work building up now. Seeds, digging and splitting perennials. Good fun though.
    The pigtailed one is giving a talk over this way too, but can't seem to get anyone else interested in going. May just have to drag along a certain someone.
    P x

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  4. Our stateside version of your Bob may be Felder Rushing, who I heard speak over the weekend--also unorthodox and opinionated, but by and large I like that, esp. if our views coincide, which they do! Too bad about whitefly and the sprouts--I love sprouts!

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  5. Last year I went for the little and often approach with my seeds and everything seemed to germinate at the same time - well I certainly was struggling with the pricking out. This year I have gone for the mass sowing approach and have sown everything in the last week bar a few things which I will leave until April. Hopefully they will all germinate at different times!!!!!!

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  6. Well this wonderful blast of warm and sunshine has got made my green fingers tingle. Had a good 'clean' up yesterday and planted my first batch of seeds (annuals)... The only veggies I grow are for my small garden, so wont be planting any seeds for them just yet.

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  7. Out sprouts were poor this year - never the same two years in a row!
    I agree with you about pigtails on men.

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  8. I have never seen a pineapple where it grows - just in the grosseristores ;)

    Have a nice weekend :)

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  9. Rob - could not get close enough to see if there was any grey :)

    I have yet to come across anybody who likes Bob's pigtail but Mrs Bob must. I will look out for that book Tyra. I have a couple of his other books which are most informative.

    Pam - yes it's all systems go now isn't it ! I am sure that you enjoy Bob's talk - hope that you get to go.

    I will have to find out more about Felder Rushing Monica - I do like the name :)

    Helen, I will jeep my fingers crossed for you and myself that everything does not need pricking out at the same time !

    Hello Treesparrow and thanks for your comment. The lovely warm spell certainly filled me with extra energy and my fingers were itching to get dirty. All the best with your veg sowing.

    Maybe it was a bad year for sprouts then Easygardener. I had not grown them before and will not again :)

    I have only come across pineapples in the shops too Lene but it would be nice to be able to pick your own :)

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All your comments are much appreciated and treasured. I wil try to reply to everyone who leaves a comment, but it may take me a few days, especially when I start spending more time in the garden and at the lottie. I know that you will understand :) I am sure that I will also visit your blog if I have not already done so. If you have any specific questions I will either reply to them here or you can email me at : thegreentapestry@gmail.com

Namasté

- Anna.