Tag: mr fothergills
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Leaf Beet – Perpetual Spinach
This handy little leaf is not actually spinach proper but a member of the beet family. Who knew? 🙂
It doesn’t matter though because you can use them just as you would spinach leaves in a raft of dishes from salads to toasted sandwiches and stir fries.
The ‘perpetual’ part of the name is true though and you will get crop after crop.
Growing
Perpetual spinach is easy to grow from seed. I soak them overnight in a jam jar with water in it. Then I liberally sprinkle them over an area of prepared soil that gets full sun. I then cover the area with another thin layer of soil and gently water it in.
I keep the area moist but not waterlogged until the seedlings emerge. After that I water normally.
Pest control:
I use Pyrethrum spray if they are getting attacked by caterpillars, spray this on the top and the bottom of the leaves. My son and I regularly hunt for slugs and snails, both get a squishing and the shells get mixed into the garden beds. Once the plants are going strong though, the best pest control is to harvest the leaves before they get attacked :).
Seven weeks after the seeds went in:
Related Links:
- see more posts using this leaf and spinach proper here
- go to all meal ingredients
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Bish Is Rocketing Along
Bish writes:
I am a persistent casual gardener, in that I keep trying but due to work and life I don’t spend as much time as I should on maintenance and the like. My garden’s nothing like Ben’s! Anyway, now that the team are testing out some of the Mr Fothergill’s planters, I thought I’d chip in with my own story about using their products.
I had a burst of energy the other day and decided that I would clean up the little herb beds that we have out the back. These are really productive little raised beds, and I think because we have good drainage and they get the morning sun, they are especially so in winter. Anyway, I removed a bunch of mint, an old sage plant that was starting to struggle (after three years of providing us with plenty of leaves for burnt sage butter, yum), an old thyme plant and some old oregano stragglers. I ended up still having a bunch of space left in one of them.
I had started to organise my seed collection (I usually let one of my crop go to seed so that I have some seeds to play with next time) I found a five year old packet of Mr Fothergill’s seeds, this one containing Rocket. I figured after that long these were probably not too viable, so I just scattered the seeds across the empty space in my herb bed and raked it through just to cover the seeds, and thought no more about it.
As you can see in the picture, here we are a few weeks later and pretty much all of them have germinated and I am going to be faced with a massive oversupply of Rocket in the near future, so looks like we’ll be making pesto or something with it all! It certainly says something about the viability of seeds and how they are able to persist in many situations – and the way they’re treated by Mr. Fothergill’s!I’ll keep an eye out for some good pesto recipes but if anyone else knows some please send them in!
Bish
Related Links:
- see more of Bish’s posts here
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PK Reviews: Mr Fothergill’s Cucumber Windowsill Greenhouse Kit – Daily Updates
So on the 16th of July 2016 I ‘unboxed’ one of the Mr Fothergill’s Windowsill Greenhouse Kits. Check out that post here.
I will be updating this post with the latest snaps and observations.
Finally it is planting time (25/08/2016:)
Today (20/08/2016) the seedlings have gotten large enough for me to start making them sun tolerant. I did this by exposing them to slightly longer periods of direct sunlight each day.
The last 7 days of growth (03/08/2016), almost all the seeds have germinated:
Day 13: Most of the seeds have germinated. Not all as the same rate but I am happy 🙂
Day 6: Morning and then night, go guys go 🙂
Day 3: First signs of germination so I cracked the lid slightly after taking this snap :).
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PK Reviews: Mr Fothergill’s Windowsill Greenhouse Kits
The lovely people at Mr Fothergill’s (Australia) have sent me out four of their Windowsill greenhouse kits to review. I am reviewing the Lebanese Cucumber kit here and I have asked three of my friends to trial the others.
I simply love this company’s ethos and focus on consistently delivering a good product. Although not a small business I feel like they are eager to carry on the support and engagement even after you purchase their products. Anything that gets people interested in growing their own vegetables gets my respect.
You have to have a number of strategies to do this, not everyone has a large garden (or a garden at all) and Mr Fothergill’s ‘all in one propagation’ line might be the key to unlocking their passion.
Two other big things to note. Firstly, and this might be very important to you, none of the seeds in any range sold by Mr Fothergill’s are Genetically Modified. Secondly, although a large amount of this product is plastic, they are fully reusable. You just replace the peat pellets, buy some more seeds and you are good to go.
Ok, unboxing time 🙂
The kits retail for about $9 AUD and you can order them here online or at your local Bunnings.
This is what you get:
- A reusable Windowsill Greenhouse
- 12x Jiffy peat pellets
- A packet of Cucumber Lebanese seeds
I chose a spot in the kitchen close to the window that gets the morning sun but not any direct sunlight.
Next I added warm water and the result made my toddler’s eyes go wide as we watched together as the peat pellets expanded over about 5 minutes.
Then I worked the little hole on top of each pellet open a bit, added a seed to each one and gently pressed the lid on. You get a few extra seeds in the pack so some of the pellets got two.
When I start to see germination I will crack the lid a bit and when the seedlings are all underway I will remove the lid.
I can’t wait to transfer them to my garden as I have never grown cucumbers before. I had better look into what sort of trellis they need.
I will let you know how I get on :).
Thanks again to Mr Fothergill’s Seeds and Bulbs,
PK
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