A long weekend means that the plants at the office allotment will have to fend for themselves for a few days.

To get ready we set up the Click & Drip watering kit to irrigate all of the raised beds from one tap and Emma topped up the planters. 

Faye and Natasha's radishes are coming along really well and Emma's fruit bushes are look great.

A-lot-of excitement at the office allotment

The bright, warm weather is bringing the plants along quickly. At the office allotment the blueberries need to be kept moist at all times, so the Quadgrow veg planter is perfect as it ensure the plants don't dry out over the weekend. Those of us with raised beds can be spotted wandering through the factory on a morning armed with watering cans! Tending plants in the sunshine is such a lovely way to start the working day.

Liz has joined the office allotment group thanks to chillies. She was complaining that her chillies at home were slow to get started, so we told her to bring them into the office to be put in a Vitopod propagator. They've been in for two days and are now coming along beautifully. So much so that she is well and truly smitten with veg growing and has signed up for a Chilligrow and a Windowgrow at the office allotment and will be caring for the 4 fruit bushes in our Quadgrow Slim. Welcome on-board Liz!

You can't keep a good lettuce down

On Saturday the lambs lettuce in number 1 Windowgrow had reached mammoth proportions, so we harvested it to enjoy alongside chilli and naan breads. I harvested by cutting (so that the leaves will grow back) but was pleased as punch to see that they seemed to have grown back by Monday evening! You just can't keep a good lettuce down...

Back to Saturday, the leaves were as delicious as only a lettuce eaten within minutes of harvesting can be and were the perfect fresh counter-balance to the rich chilli and a bottle of absolutely delicious Argentinian Vinalba Malbec from the lovely chaps at Majestic wine warehouse.

Chilli can be a controversial dish and at the risk of causing an uprising I will admit that I don't put much chilli in my chilli as I prefer spice to heat - better for the wine too; so for me it's cumin, fennel, coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, some chilli and good dark chocolate.

Fruit First Timers

It's not just veg at Greenhouse Sensation HQ, 4 fruit bushes joined the veg plot today; a redcurrant, blackcurrant and 2x blueberries. 

We've popped them in a Quadgrow veg planter and the Suttons catalogue says we should be picking fruit by July. The blueberries are destined for muffins by decree of Emma's husband, but we're looking forward to snacking on the redcurrants and blackcurrants, healthy alternatives to the flapjacks in the staff canteen!

First Tomato



 We have our first greenhouse tomato!

Our first tomato to form is a Sungold which is a very sweet cherry variety and an office snacking favourite, though Emma tends to get carried away and burns her tongue on them -something to do with acid and greed!

Sungold takes its name from the colour, it ripens to a lovely golden orange. The Sungold tomato seeds were started in a heated Vitopod propagator in a heated greenhouse on December 20^th and transplanted to a Hydrogrow NFT on March 25th.  The plant is already 1.5metres tall!

First Greenhouse Strawberry



 Our first greenhouse strawberry has formed.

We are growing El Santa, a summer fruiting variety, because they are reliable, we find they fruit early and they taste great.

We’ve just added a brief strawberry growing guide to our website http://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/, so if you’ve never given growing strawberries a go take a look.

Sowing outdoors



 The weather has warmed up so we decided to sow outdoors in our raised beds today.

In the raised beds we've opted for carrots, white onions, mange tout and coriander.

We are lucky to have lots of rabbits in our area, but we don't really want to share our veg, so we've added fine mesh netting to the raised beds.

A word or two about San Marzano tomatoes

I'm particularly looking forward to the San Marzano tomatoes which we are growing in the polytunnel. Our Chairman and founder John M grew San Marzano tomatoes in his polytunnel last year and they tasted fabulous. This Italian plum variety is considered by many chefs to be the best tomato for pasta sauces in the world and you won't find us arguing with that!

I knew we were right to be fantatical about them last year, they even have their own website
http://www.sanmarzanotomatoes.org/ 

The skin is quite thick and the flavour has just the right amount of sweetness without too much acidity.

It's an indeterminate (cordon) variety, so it must be grown with supports and ours were huge last year, making several large batches of sauce. The plant looks very impressive when it's fruiting because the tomatoes which are about 3 - 4 inches long, grow close together in clusters.

In the greenhouse, the weather is warming up a little, so Paul's taken the lids off the Vitopod propagators. We still have 12 tomato plants in the Vitopods, we will be picking the best 4 for the Quadgrow veg pots at the Greenhouse Sensation office in the coming weeks.