Comments for North by North

Comment on Last but one by anjafinne

anjafinne — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:42:26 +0000

They are actually sown in trays and transplanted into cartons – as we cannot plant them in the greenhouse before the second half of May they need deep containers to keep their roots in good condition. We used toilet roll middles last year to pre-grow sweet corn, they were very handy.

Comment on Last but one by plot18

plot18 — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:04:30 +0000

wow you have a lot sowed in cartons ive used modular trays and pots, i did use toilet roll middles to grow dwarf bean in last year. i will be using them again this year if no one has thrown them away,look forward to see how you get on.

Comment on Last but one by livingofftheland

livingofftheland — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:51:13 +0000

Fascinating. Do keep posting to let us know how things go with the beans this year.

Comment on Last but one by anjafinne

anjafinne — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:40:28 +0000

At the moment it’s hard to believe that in a month we’d be planting garlic and sowing carrot – our traditional Mothers’ Day activities. Actually, French beans are the biggest problem (I refuse to call them “the most interesting challenge”) in this climate. Sow the dwarf beans too early and they will not germinate because of a late cold spell – sow them too late and get no harvest because of an early frost.. Sow the climbing beans, transfer them to the (unheated) greenhouse and have a two week cold spell at the time when you are supposed to plant them out; they grow 10 cm/day so the result is an impossible tangle of 1+ m long plants in the greenhouse… Once in 3-4 years we have to do without French beans – when both the late and the early frosts occur during the same season,.
Our summers are – though short – relatively warm and as there is no real night (just a blue time between evening and morning) the plants grow generally well; thus the sensitivity to frost is the defining factor .

Comment on Last but one by livingofftheland

livingofftheland — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:30:23 +0000

The climate you grow in makes our moaning about the weather seem rather silly. I like your reuse of drink cartons as plant pots. I’m also very impressed by your scrolling images at the top of your blog page.

Comment on Snow snow snow by anjafinne

anjafinne — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:28:26 +0000

I have to admit that at this place we do have June-August without snow; where we lived before this – 200+ km north of the Arctic Circle – we really had occasional snowfalls any month of the year. And I hate snow.

Comment on Snow snow snow by EnglishRoseFrenchGarden

EnglishRoseFrenchGarden — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:06:28 +0000

Crickey – I love some snow in winter, and I love the 4 clear seasons in our part of France, but not sure I could cope with the thought of snow in June and July.
Lets hope its on its last legs now, and spring and summer are on their way

Comment on Snow snow snow by anjafinne

anjafinne — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:00:43 +0000

By the end of April – though it is quite common to have some also later (actually we tend to say that if it snows in June it is the last snow – if it snows in July it is the first snow…)

Comment on Snow snow snow by englishrosefrenchgarden

englishrosefrenchgarden — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:54:48 +0000

When would your snow normally be gone? Here in France, it is always worse Jan/Feb, and we get the odd flurry later in the spring, but I am hoping that Spring has definitely arrived.
Bonne courage, and good luck with those chilli’s

Comment on Spring on its way? by sweetpea

sweetpea — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:33:08 +0000

I’m sure it will reach you soon enough. I love the changing pictures at the top of your blog by the way. Happy gardening!