SmartGrowers

How to Transplant Parsley

kmcevoy — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:19:29 +0000

If you’ve got a bright space indoors then you could be enjoying fresh Parsley right the way through Winter. All you need is a large pot, some potting compost and a trowel. Warning, this can be a messy job so wear gloves if you need to protect your hands from the dirt.

First use your trowel to loosen the soil underneath the Parsley plant. Parsley is related to carrots, hence has nice long roots. Dig deep!!

Get your pot ready and place beside your raised bed. Put your hands under the parsley plant and pull hard. If it’s not budging get your trowel out again and loosen some more soil underneath the plant.

Pull up the plant and place the plant and roots into your pot. Don’t worry if you break a few roots. Fill the pot up with compost, covering the roots. Press the soil down firmly around the roots. Top up with soil until the soil level is about 1cm below the top of the pot.

Give your Parsley a good watering, about 2 litres. Let it stand for a few minutes to let the excess water drain out.

Now move your Parsley inside. Parsley likes a nice bright location and will reward you with lots of fresh growth. Don’t forget to water regularly.

In spring your Parsley will start going to seed. You’ll notice it producing tall stalks from the centre of the plant. Once this happens it’s time to say bye, bye to your Parsley plant. But by this time your new Parsley plants in your raised bed should be growing strongly.

How to Harvest and Store Parsley

kmcevoy — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:38:15 +0000

So Winter’s approaching and you’ve got huge parsley plants full of leaves growing in your raised bed. However a severe frost will destroy these leaves overnight, reducing them to a withering mess. So what can you do?

Easiest and most effective way is to harvest your parsley leaves, give them a good wash and then freeze in a freezer bag. This preserves the oils and taste of the parsley. When you need some fresh parsley during Winter, simply open up the freezer and take what you need out of the bag.

You can also dry parsley but it does not taste the same at all. Parsley looses most of it’s oils and hence it’s flavour during the drying process. Drying is also a lot of work than freezing.

Preparing your Raised Bed for Winter

kmcevoy — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:18:51 +0000

The clocks have changed, first frosts have appeared and even the Santa lists have started. Sure signs that Winter is approaching. But don’t put your feet up just yet. A few minutes snooping around your raised bed today could be very rewarding.

What you’re looking for is those forgotten vegetables. Remember those carrots that looked too small to eat a few weeks ago? And what about those beetroot that you sowed in August? Well now’s the time to go out and harvest what’s left.

Anything that’s not frost tolerant needs to be harvested now. Lettuce, Carrots, Beetroot & Spring Onions all need to come in. Otherwise the next severe frost will kill them off. Mizuna, Lamb’s lettuce, Rocket and Rainbow chard are a bit hardier and will probably survive all but the coldest of Winters. Check out how to harvest & save Parsley here.

So out you go now. Take 2 mins to gather up you vegetables and enjoy your tasty dinner.

How to have fresh salad rocket for most of the year

kmcevoy — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:29:47 +0000

Follow these simple steps and you’ll have a continual supply of fresh rocket until at least October.

Cut back your rocket stalks as they bolt
Once you’ve cut the stalks back 3-4 times (your plant will be about 16 weeks old at this stage), pull the plant up. Smooth the soil
Make a small hole 10mm deep
Sow 4 seeds into the hole
Cover the seeds and water
Thin the seedlings about 3 weeks later

Just don’t go mad and pull all your plants up at once. You should aim to re-sow your plants over a 6 week period so that you can continue to harvest from the older plants while the new plants get established.

Get the most from your Salad Rocket and Mizuna

kmcevoy — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:13:25 +0000

Sooner or later your salad rocket and mizuna will start to produce stalks from the middle of the plant and send up little flower heads. It’s called ‘bolting’ in the gardening world. Bolting can occur prematurely if the plants come under stress, especially if they get too hot, too cold or too dry. Your plant will put most of its energy into producing flowers and not the tasty leaves that you’re after. So what can you do?

There’s a quick and easy way to extend your plants leaf production. Simply cut off the stalks about 5cm above the soil. Don’t forget to harvest the leaves off the stalks. Your plant will produce a new crop of leaves before eventually producing more stalks. You can chop your plant bank 3-4 times before you will need to re-sow it again.

Harvesting Radishes in your Raised bed

kmcevoy — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:41:20 +0000

Radishes grow surprisingly fast, especially if there is a little bit of heat. Expect to be eating them within 7-10 weeks of planting those little seeds. You’ll know that there ready when you see the red globes poking out of the soil beneath the leaves.

Wait until the globes are 1-2cm wide and harvest. If you let your radishes grow much bigger than 2cm then they can get a bit tough and wooden.

Once you’ve pulled them out of the soil simply cut off the leaves and the long root, give it a quick wash and it’s ready to eat.

Tidying up your Vegetable Raised Bed

kmcevoy — Sat, 01 May 2010 12:13:06 +0000

So you’ve got a few spaces on your raised bed where you should have seedlings. Maybe some of your seeds did not germinate, perhaps a pesky slug devoured one of your seedlings or, good heavens, the neighbours cat trod on your bed and the seedlings got uprooted. Good news is that you can correct this very easily and your food-growing will soon be back on track.

First have a look at your bed and identify:
1) Plants that are out of position
2) Spots where you have more plants than you should have
3) Spots where you have no plants in at all. Check your instruction booklet to see what plants should be here

Next, move plants that are out of position into the spots that have no plants in. Also, move plants from spots where you have too many to the spots where you have none. The video below shows you how to do transplant your seedlings.

Finally, get out your seed packets and sow fresh seeds into any remaining empty spaces, again using your instruction booklet to identify what seeds should be sown in which spots.

In a few weeks you bed will look as good as new.

Thinning your Seedlings – a neccessary evil

kmcevoy — Sat, 01 May 2010 11:55:09 +0000

This is the job that I always hate. Like you, I get quite attached to my little plants too. Especially having watched excitedly as they transformed from little seeds into green seedlings, poking through soil. But now the shadow of the grim reaper looms large for some of those poor innocent seedlings.

Once your seedlings are about 2 inches tall and have more than 2 leaves, you’ll have to thin them out by removing the weakest (smallest) plants. Sounds cruel (on second thoughts it not only sounds cruel, it is cruel!!), but if you don’t do this your plants will compete with each other for food & light and you will end up with poor quality vegetables. For best results you need to have just the following number of plants in each spot.

Lettuce, Rocket, Radish, Parsley - just one plant per spot.
Beetroot - 4 plants per spot.
Spring Onion – no need to thin

You’ll need a pair of scissors. Simply select the plant you want to keep (usualy the biggest), and snip the other competing plant next to it just above the soil level. The video shows you how to do this.

Alternatively you could transplant your unwanted seedlings into another pot or raised bed. Here’s how to transplant. You need to be careful not to distrurb your seedlings too much and don’t forget to water your plants in immediately after transplanting.

Don’t dump the plants that you have just removed. The lettuce, rocket, radish, beetroot and parsley plants are all edible, just give them a quick wash. They mightn’t fill you up but they do taste delicious and will give you a taster of what’s to come!

Food growing tips in Sunday Tribune

kmcevoy — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:53:19 +0000

Ross and his balcony vegetable raised bed

The Sunday Tribune did a nice feature on the 11th April on how to get started growing your own food. Article is full of advice and tips. One of our members, Ross Golden-Bannon, was interviewed for the article and shares his food-growing experiences.

There’s a great picture of him and his raised bed on his balcony in central Dublin. Check out how he’s getting on with his balcony raised bed He’s just planted his new SureFire kit.

You can read the full article on the Sunday Tribune’s website:

http://www.tribune.ie/magazine/features/article/2010/apr/11/all-we-are-saying-is-give-peas-a-chance/

What do you think?

The Great Cat Protection System

kmcevoy — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:51:33 +0000

I vividly remember the scene. It was about 5 years ago. I had just opened my backdoor and saw the carnage. 6 young radishes, 2 lettuce and a few rocket plants were sprawled out on top of the raised bed. Withering away in the sun, their lives tragically cut short. And the culprit?

Yeap, that fluffy sweet cat of ours. He had just run past me into the kitchen for his breakfast, all innocent eyed. I know how irrational it sounds now, but back then I wanted to wring his little neck. It was one of the very first food-growing kit trials and pride of the house. And that selfish little git decided to scratch around in it. He could have chosen anywhere else in the garden.

So since then I always take a little precaution when I sow new seeds into the soil. It’s actually very easy to keep cats off the bed. I’ve tried a few different methods but the simpliest and most effective is to simply place a few light twigs or branches over the top of the bed until the plants are about 3-4cms high.

And my cat, I assure you that he is still alive and well. As for the slug that took out loads of carrots one evening… that’s a story for another time.