You Go Away and Look What Happens….

August 17, 2008 at 11:10 pm · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

Sorry not to add anything for a while but we’ve had a holiday - always a dangerous thing being away from the garden for a few days at this time of the year of course. What happened - well perfect growing weather of course - showers and sun. So the weeds have gone berserk along with everything else. This is just a short status report - more later….

Status now - the broad beans are over and need pulling up, and the lettuce is coming to an end (and I still haven’t planted more lettuce seed). That’s the things that don’t need a lot of work - on the production side - the runner beans are still in full production (I picked and froze a couple of pounds just before going away) also the climbing french beans (lots frozen also). The mangetout peas are also still producing (again some in the freezer) and the turnips are ready, though we haven’t eaten any yet. The sweetcorn aren’t too far from being ready, the ’silks’ are going brown now. More courgettes (some still in the fridge from before the hols, though only a few on the plants now). The blackcurrants have almost all been picked (they are in the freezer).

However, the next big production crisis looms - the tomatoes. Thye have just started ripening seriously, we’ve eaten about a dozen since getting back. There are dozens threatening to ripen now, so it won’t take much to overwhelm our salad eating so the recipe books will be studied in the next few days I think for tomato rich recipes.

On top of that the brambles need picking…..

On a positive note the rain and my drip watering system (powered from rainwater butts) meant that the peppers and tomatoes both inside and outside the greenhouse didn’t dry out so a good result there.

Needless to say the grass also needs cutting and the hedges - well what do I need to say.

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Filling the Freezer

August 3, 2008 at 9:51 pm · Filed under Beans, Progress, tomatoes

Yes - we’ve given up the struggle to keep up with the beans and peas - so a session slicing, blanching and putting in bags yesterday for runner and french beans plus manegetout peas. I suspect more may follow as production still exceeds consumption!

Courgettes are another problem - we did get rid of some of the backlog this evening in a courgette omelette but more are ready…..

The next glut is going to be tomatoes - there are lots and lots - all green yet but I have that feeling they are all going to ripen at once - so we’ll have to dust off the tomato recipes I think. Still we do like pasta dishes and they can consume quite a lot of toms.

The guinea pigs are consuming some of the salad leaves but we aren’t really keeping up with the growth on that front either. AND - I must confess i haven’t planted any more lettuce yet - but I will - honest   just need that spare time….

The sweetcorn is looking rather fine now and the cobs look as if they are fattening up nicely on at least some of the plants.

Sweetcorn

Sweetcorn

On the fruit front, my son and I had to tackle the blackcurrants today - one and a half pounds (800gms) off three bushes (two more to go). It prompted my wife to use up some of the frozen ones from some year in the past today! Quite what we will do with this years harvest isn’t yet decided - we have made ice cream, coulis and pies in the past so we’ll see - maybe just the freezer for now. Not only blackcurrants are ready but the brambles (blackberries to you folk not from the North) are just about ready for harvesting - and we have lots in the hedges. Now they go into bramble and apple pies of course (well some of them - we still have lots in the freezer).

Backcurrants

On the wildlife front - cabbage whit butterflies have been laying eggs like mad on the nastertiums so it won’t be long before they are covered in caterpillars - good job I’m not growing any brassicas this year! Butterflies of any other variey have been noticeably scarce this year -though I did see a peacock on the buddleia yesterday. Rather curiously I’ve seen the hedgehog wandering off down the garden early in the evening a couple of days last week - very unusual in daylight - a mother looking for food for youngsters? A squirrel made an appearance as well - but we are ready…..

I have at least tackled some of the hedges during the last few days, and I cut the lawn last week….

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Just A Few Remarks

July 24, 2008 at 11:28 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Since I’ve been concentrating on our produce I haven’t been mentioning some of the other issues so I thought would just make a few comments.

Firstly, the blackfly attack on the beans seems to have petered out - I haven’t pinched out all the broad beans and many plants are untouched. The few plants that were affected and I had to take the tops off and/or rub out blackfly on the pods seem to have recovered. There were a few on the runners at one point but they seem to have essentially disappeared. So that’s all quite good.

I’m still harvesting broad beans but they will all need shelling now for cooking I think - there are still lots left as well. I suspect my son is going to get pleny of shelling practice!

The french beans grown in a pot in the greenhouse seem to have finished really, they aren’t producing many flowers after teh harvest - but I’ll leave them for a while just in case. The bush french beans outside are more or less at the end of harvesting, but the climbing ones are just getting into full production.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the sweetcorn is quite variable in height with the ones nearer the hedge being the smallest - not sure whether this is a result of dryer soil or shading I’m not sure - we’ll just have to see what ind of cobs the smaller ones produce.

For some reason all the newer salad clops don’t include lettuce, I’ll try and plant some more but I think there will be a hiatus - although the current lettuce crops aren’t bolting much yet so should last a week or two more. Rocket and other salad leaves are now harvest-able from inside the greenhouse - but the outside ones aren’t so good yet.

The peppers in the greenhouse seem less well developed than in previous years, though they are flowering now - but not as tall as I would expect at this stage. Still we’ll see.

Although the last courgette planted outside has finally started to produce a crop (thus adding to the glut…) - the one in the greenhouse is still producing male flowers only - why?

The weeds are really looking good now around the beans and sweetcorn - I really must have a weeding session I suppose - however the hedges and lawn are higher in the queue, plus the blackcurrants are almost ready- that’s an entire family picking session - then coolie or blackcurrant ice-cream - yum.

Anyway, another dry day so I had to use the hosepipe tonight, and give all the tomato plants a feed - and it looks like another sunny day tomorrow - it’s beginning to feel like summer at last…..

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Yes we have some Beans, and more

July 22, 2008 at 11:45 pm · Filed under Beans, Progress, tomatoes

Yes harvesting is in full swing now. We are eating runner, french and broad beans plus courgettes and for the last couple of days - mangetout peas.  The climbing french beans are now producing, just as the bush plants are beginning to come to an end.

Our salad bowl is full with lettuce (of several varieties), nastertium and recently some of the salad leaves planted in pots in the greenhouse. See picture below for a typical harvest:

Bean and salad harvest

My wife has just about managed to keep up with the courgette crop, we’ve had a couple of lasagnas filled with fried courgette during the last week - and very nice they have been.

It won’t be long before the tomato plants are producing ripe tomatoes - see pic below:

Immature Tomatoes

Immature Tomatoes

So I guess we’ll be looking at a few tomato recipes in a couple of weeks……

We’ve had dry weather for a few days now, and it looks like being dry for the rest of the week - so watering is now becoming quite a chore - particularly going round all the growbags.

The sweetcorn is just coming into flower - but there is quite a wide disparity in the size of plants, however all of them seem to be at about the same stage. See a typical plant below:

Flowering Sweetcorn

Flowering Sweetcorn

On top of all that - the blackcurrants are not far from being ripe:

Blackcurrants

Blackcurrants

 Along with all the crops, the weeds are growing apace - I’ve even pulled a few up - but finding the time to have a big weeding session is proving difficult, so the crop plants will just have to compete for now.

On the wildlife front a curious development the other day - I spotted a hedgehog near the back of the house in the morning around 9 am wandering backwards an forwards along the hedge bottom - usually carrying some leaves and twigs on its way back towards the house. Now, seeing a hedgehog walk about in the day is fairly unusual, but this went on for at least an hour - I even managed to video some of its activity. My theory is that is is a female and was building a nest to give birth. I haven’t delved about to check, and it hasn’t been seen since so we’ll see….

On top of that - the blakbird has been building yet another nest - somewhere at the bottom of the garden now! It’s beginning to smack of OCB.

And I haven’t got round to cutting the hedges again yet - even though they need it- been busy with a shed…..

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I Knew We’d Have a Glut…..

July 15, 2008 at 12:02 am · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

Well yes - though I’m not really complaining - but of course everything is now ready to harvest at once. So I am harvesting broad beans, french beans and courgettes. However, these are still not overwhelming the cooking ability of my wife - though we currently have four courgettes in the fridge waiting for the next meal. An example of typical harvest shown below: Tonight we had fresh courgette, broad beans (with their shells removed - my son is now an expert at the task) and french beans all lightly fried up with garlic and served with pasta and pesto - yum!

Beans and Courgettes
Beans and Courgettes

So what else - the tomatoes are coming on it’s just the ususal bsiness of keeping the side shoots in check. I’ve been feding them with tomato fertiiliser now they have fruit set. Which reminds me - why are tomato seeds always present in compost and survive? Wherever I use my compost in the garden tomatoes always come up later (I’ve pulled up 3 or 4 so far this year) and yet I swear hardly any go into the compost heap….

The lettuce are all doing really well, though lots more than we (and the guinea pigs) can deal with, but very nice. and the other salad seedlings are coming on, though I suspect need a bit of fertiliser to hurry them up a bit.
Runner beans are within days of having beans worth picking -  though I did see one today that really was ready. Another crop to eat then….
Sweetcorn is ok - though some variation between the plants in height - I suspect they may need a bit of encouragement as well.
The only real disappointment is the remaining sweet pepper outside the greenhouse in a growbag - it’s looking very sick and hardly growing. Meanwhile the ones inside the greenhouse are ready to flower.
The blackcurrants are startig to ripen now and looks like a good crop - provided we get them before the birds do.
Speaking of birds, our blackbirds are nesting again in bushes close to the back door (I suspect they have worked out they are safer there) - they are well used to me in the garden so don’t pay much attention to me now.

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Not just growing but cookery now….

July 8, 2008 at 11:20 pm · Filed under Beans, tomatoes

Yes this could become a cookery column as well… I harvested loads of broad beans over the last few days. Some on Sunday and others on Monday (see pic below).

 Broad Bean Harvest
Broad Bean Harvest

We had the Sunday ones in a stir-fry with some french beans and several courgettes from the garden (plus other stuff of course). The ones on Monday were treated rather differently. I had found a recipe in a Sophie Grigson book for broad bean and prawn pilau - but this meant shelling all the beans after blanching them, which took a while for about 12oz of beans (with the help of my son), see pic below.

 Shelled beans
Shelled Broad Beans (and their shells)

It was so successful that we may cook it again soon (only this time with chicken and probably courgette) - very easy to do as well. Also, it helps use the broad beans which are almost all ready to eat - I can see a freezing session coming on….

What else, well I actually did some weeding - and the weather again has saved me the effort of watering. Tomorrow looks like being a very wet day as well - such is the British summer….

I have spotted some tiny tomatoes already on some plants as well.

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I feel a glut coming on…

July 4, 2008 at 11:53 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

We’re stll having rather variable weather with rain forecast for the next few days - still it saves doing a lot of watering - though I’ve had to the last couple of nights.

Of course the intermittant raiy days and sun have kept things growing well and now harvesting is in full swing. We’re having lettuce most evenings - but hardly making a dent on the crop - I just cut a selection of leaves plus some of the older ones for the guinea pigs - but you’d hardly know. They’ll be ‘bolting’ next of course…then only the guinea pigs will benefit. Still there are some seedlings coming up as well.

The courgettes are in full production we’re going to have to start being inventive over usingthem. I think my wife was considering a ‘mixed veg’ quiche or omelette over the weekend to take care of some of the production - if only she could see the rate they are coming on (not a part of the garden she visits too often though….). On top of that the broad beans are in full production (we did have a few in our salad tonight). The french beans in the greenhouse have enough ready to use in a meal as well and the ones outside aren’t far behind.

The runner beans are flowering like mad and I can see small proto-beans already - the climbing french beans are in flower as well but a bit behind the runners. The tomatoes are flowering everywhere but their production is a few weeks away.

Growbag tomatoes outside greenhouse
Tomatoes outside greenhouse

All the salad crops both inside the greenhouse and outside are growing well now - even a row of Kohl Rabi planted as an experiment seem to be coming on. The peas are just starting to flower and almost all have now got the idea that they should be climbing up the twigs.

Pea rows - coming on...

The pea rows - just about finding the twigs

The weeds of course are also growing well and I’ve even managed to pull some of them up but most of my time over the last few days has been spent on dealing with an overgrown bush, the lawn and other clearing up jobs in the garden.

Meanwhile the hedges at the front and other bits at the back are just about ready for cutting again. That’s the trouble with the plant world in summer - they will keep growing - especially the ones you would rather they didn’t.

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I Knew the Wind was bad….

June 25, 2008 at 11:30 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Yes that windy day left its mark - when I got down to the bottom of the garden yesterday I thought ‘that’s funny there’s a lot more greenery now’ - and there was - it was one of the lilac trees which had decided that lying down was better than standing up! So I had to spend a while yesterday and today cutting and sawing branches - and creating a large pile of bits. Now they will have to stay in a pile until autumn as there is nowhere to hold a bonfire in the garden at the moment, and there is the equivalent of several of our organic recycling bins full - which is full of hedge cuttings right now anyway - and I have other piles waiting to go in….

On top of that today I had to move 52 paving slabs from the front, where they had been delivered, to the back -  some of them are going to go under the shed, and others to be laid as paths in the veg beds.

So, not much actual gardening was done - mind I did put some plants (impatiens and petunias) into the front garden while waiting for the delivery. I did sort of weed a bit in the vegetable patches, but as the photos will attest, weedng is not my forte - I tend to leave it until I really have to do something about it, so my garden won’t ever be a ‘tidy’ garden.

One point has been running through my mind - I saw an article on another garden blog (sorry can’t remember which one) asking why we as gardeners grow veg that we don’t necessarily like. I was trying to think of examples in my case - but can’t really think of any. On the other hand growing too much of something - now that’s a different matter. We’ve still got runner beans in the freezer from several years ago and yet I have more growing now….. Hmmm - yes I know it’s better fresh, but runner beans in particular always seem to be in excess.

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Definitely not Summer Today

June 22, 2008 at 10:44 am · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

Yes, another variation on ’summer’ the weather - we have gale force winds today (a deep low pressure over the UK) but at least it isn’t raining - here (heavy rain in Scotland). I’ve already had a close look at the runner bean support which are looking a bit under threat. It’s a good job the runner beans aren’t more developed so at least at the moment the wind can blow through the support netting. The trees around the garden are waving like mad at the moment. We had rain yesterday, but light rain all day so good for the garden really. Heyup though - this the summer solstice and all that…..

Elsewhere, in the garden things are moving on. Tomatoes are flowering in the greenhouse, and close to flowering outside. The coourgettes are producing - we had three yesterday - one curious point though, the courgette in the greenhouse is only producing ‘male’ flowers - I’m sure there must be a reason for this….

Courgete Row
Courgette Row in full flower
The french beans in the greenhouse have some baby beans already, and the ones outside can’t be far behind as they are flowering like mad.
I think there are enough broad beans ready now to harvest - they should be small and sweet as well, they do tend to be at their best when young. The blackfly menace hasn’t spread too much, I’ve had to cut off some badly affected stems but most plants are relatively unaffected. I haven’t had to resort to blasting them off with the hosepipe yet - pity that’s quite enjoyable…

Broad Bean Pods
Young Broad Bean Pods

The lettuce I planted in a pot in the greenhouse are finished now and I have resown the pot with more lettuce seed, so we are harvesting the lettuce outside now.

One disaster has struck though, I was watering section B the other night where the peas are planted (coming on nicely) and I planted other salad seed a few days ago - I thought ‘I will make sure I give the spinach-beet row (the only survivor of the first salad planting session and growing nicely) a good watering’ - and the more I looked the more they weren’t there! Except on close inspection the base of the leaves could be seen - they had been zapped by pigeons I suspect despite the protection. Very annoying - security has now been tightened over that section, especially as new salad crops are coming through just now. My annoyance was slightly reduced that day when I heard that Yorkshire had beaten Lancashire in the 20-20 cricket. Such victories are always worth savouring…..

I’ve also planted some other salad cops in pots to grow int he greenhouse - from salad ’seed collection’. Some Mizuna, which I don’t think I’ve grown before and some ‘land cress’, also new to me.

As for wildlife, a week ago or so I noticed the female blackbird was collecting nesting material again, but flying off to the other side of the garden from the ‘cat’ side - very wise I think. There always seems to be at least one house sparrow collecting for a nest as well. The great tits have suddenly started feeding on the peanuts again as well after ignoring them for a while. Toads have taken up residence in growing bags in the greenhouse and outside as usual - they get very upset every time I water. Oh - and I caught and evicted the squirrel so we are squirrel free for the moment.

Elsewhere in the garden, the apples and pears are coming on and it looks like a good blackcurrant crop this year. I’ve managed to tackle more of the hedges, though there is still more to do of course - bit like the Forth Bridge painting really. Preparing for a shed to go up (in the garden near the house) has meant removing the roots of a large forsythia bush and a mahonia - I’ve got most of it out but it has been a fair struggle but the ground is almost ready to be levelled off now.

Baby Apples
Baby Apples (Lord Lambourn)

We have got some flowers growing in the garden as well, mostly perennials but some annuals this year as my son planted a pack of ‘flower seeds for kids’ a while ago and he has kept the patch watered well - and now the mixture has started flowering - I even managed to cut the hedge above the plants without damaging them - so they brighten up he garden.

 

 

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Seeds and Courgettes

June 14, 2008 at 10:08 pm · Filed under Progress

Well the weather has stayed relatively dry, so I managed to get a few jobs done in the garden yesterday. The main achievement was to finally get some more seeds planted - so I now have rows of rocket (2 rows from different packets), carrot (different variety from the previous planting), pak choi and mixed salad. They are all in section B - more or less where the original rows were planted. Hopefully this lot won’t get eaten by pigeons as the protection is there now.

I’ve also had to take off the tops of half-a -dozen broad bean plants as they were infested with blackfly, but so far only one plant seems to have blackfly on the main part of the plant. I rubbed off as many of the blackfly as I could on that one -I may have to resort to the water spray method if the blackfly spread much more. I’ll need to take the tops off most of them over the next few days I suspect.

Today, I harvested four small courgettes for use in a stir-fry so the courgette glut has started… Broad beans are only a few days away from being harvested at the stage where the pod and beans can be cooked so production is beginning. I noticed that some of the tomato plants have flower buds now as well. Lets hope the weather stays reasonable for the next week or so to help things along.

 

 

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The Blackfly have arrived

June 12, 2008 at 11:54 pm · Filed under Beans, Progress

Yes, just because I said the other day that there didn’t seem to be much of a blackfly attack on the broad beans, now a few plants are heavily infested. It could be a lot worse though and the ones most affected can just have their tops taken out, but it isn’t nice nevertheless.

Broad Bean Blackfly
The dreaded blackfly on broad bean plant

Meanwhile the weather has returned to changeable, well it is the UK after all - temperatures are now 10deg C lower than the other day, with some rain showers. I have managed to get on with a few garden jobs though.

So I’ve added more string support to the broad beans, they are quite tall now and beans are now growing fast and producing pods (see below) so it won’t be long before we should be eating them.

New Broad Bean Pods
Broad Bean Pods

 

The french beans are now starting to flower, both those inside the greenhouse and those outside (see below). I noticed to day that the runner beans are in bud and will be flowering withing a couple of days.

 French Bean Flowers
French Beans in flower

I’ve planted all the peas from the greenhouse now, the remaining ones left to fill in gaps in the row sown direct into the ground. Also, the growbags are now full with tomatoes or peppers (one pepper only lasted one night - the slugs got it!, there was a replacement available though). So I’ve still gor a couple of tomato seedlings and peppers left. I’m loth to throw them away but it looks as if I’ll have to, still makes me sad though after all I’ve seen them grow from just a seed….. (sob).

Row of Peas
Peas (from greenhouse planted seed)

To move on - we’ve already had some lettuce from the pot full grown in the greenhouse, and the plants outside are just about ready to surrender a few leaves. The radishes in the grenhouse are poor mainly because they weren’t thinned out - I need to plant some more plus some rocket as well since none of the previous sowing appeared.

The courgette plants are now flowering madly, well two of them anyway, and courgettes big enough for eating can’t be far enough - followed by a glut no doubt….

Away from the veg, I finally got round to planting up our hanging baskets, two of them outside the kitchen. A bit late in the day, so the choice at the garden centre was pretty poor but they both have a red and white theme and when they develop a bit more should look ok.

I’ve managed to fit in a bit more hedge cutting - and I  have the scratches on my arms to prove it, but there is still plenty more to go at.

 

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Suddenly it’s Summer again!

June 9, 2008 at 11:36 pm · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, tomatoes

Yes it’s amazing what 3 days of fine weather, the last two with full sunshine and temperatures up to 25degC today, can do to change things compared with last week. We even had lunch ‘al fresco’ in the garden yesterday. Now I’m having to water the garden and some of the tomatoes have looked a bit stressed. It was so sunny that working in the garden was very hot and sweaty today - fortunately I didn’t need to be out in the full sun for too long.

Inside the greenhouse the tomatoes, french beans and peppers are coming along fine. The lettuce is ready for harvesting and the radishes have had some harvested - though not many were actually useful. The courgette seems to have settled in fine. I’ve just got 3 tomato and 3 pepper seedlings to find a place for now. There are also a few pea seedlings waiting to fill in gaps outside.

Outside, the broad beans are already producing proto-beans and only a few signs of blackfly attack so far. It is just about time to start nipping the tops out - some of them are quite tall. The runner beans are well up the netting with one of them already above the top. The climbing french beans are not quite as developed. The other french beans are simply growing, no sign of flowers yet.

The tomatoes outside the greenhouse are looking fine (see below), though one of these has been damaged since the photo was taken and may need to be replaced. The empty growbag now has two sweet peppersand a tomato in.

Tomatoes outside greebhouse
Tomatoes outside the greenhouse

The sweetcorn is coming on, thoguh a couple of plants are still lagging behind and don’t look too healthy. The courgettes have started to flower, and it looks as though they  are producing courgettes (see below).

Courgette in flower
Courgette in flower

The peas I planted direct into the garden have started to come through (see bwlow) though it looks as though there will only be a 50% germination rate (this seems to be about standard in this garden and I’ve never been able to determine why). The ones planted in the greenhouse pretty much all came through ok, and I’ve planted them out in section B parallel to the other row.

Peas coming through
Peas just coming through

Some of the carrots sowed in section C, have come through but no sign of the rocket at all. The row of what I thought was mixed salad turns out to be turnip…. So looks like I’ll have to try some other salad seed - at least there is room in section B where the other seeds failed to come through.

I must do something about getting some plants for the hanging baskets this week I think the chance of frosts is past now.

With the blackbirds gone I’ve been able to cut that section of hedge, there is still about 10 metres to go though and of course the grass is growing…..

 

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No Rain Today!

June 4, 2008 at 11:50 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Suddenly sunshine greeted us today. So I was able to fit in a couple of garden jobs at the end of the day (I was working on something else most of the day) - I managed to plant out some of the extra tomato seedlings - one to replace one of the rather sick looking tomatoes in the first growbag outside the greenhouse and a couple of others in another growbag on the garden near the greenhouse (these came from a Christian Aid seed packet, but I don’t know the variety). Also, one straight into the garden. If they all produce we are going to be up to our necks in tomatoes later in the year….

I’ve planted a couple more sweet peppers into a large pot to grow on in the greenhouse and I’ll add a chilli pepper to them as soon as I can. That still leaves several pepper and tomato seedlings and one growbag - hmmm…

All the tomato plants in the greenhouse have needed staking now and have even been producing side shoots already.

Meanwhile, the sick climbing French bean that was poorly has definitely popped its clogs - but hopefully the rest will make up for it - they look ok anyway.

On the wildlife front - the blackbirds definatleey have chick as I’ve heard them and the parents are foraging wildly on our lawn for food - but they are still ‘alarmed’ a good deal of the time, with all the calling I’m surprised they have enough time for feeding.

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We Had A Dry Day!

June 2, 2008 at 12:13 am · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, tomatoes

Yes Saturday was dry, which was a change for the last week or so. Also a bit of spare time to get into the garden after a week of taking my son swimming, more swimming, and what else.. oh yes - swimming, but ending today with climbing (in the rain - yes raining again). So yesterday (Sat) I managed to catch up a bit in the garden, even cutting some hedge and mowing the lawn!

I’ve planted out three more tomatoes into a growbag outside the greenhouse - that still leaves several more rather large seedlings which I’m loth just to throw away, so they will probably go into the garden somewhere. One of the two leftover courgettes is now planted in between two of the others already in. That leaves one more which I may try to find room in the greenhouse for it to grow there.

The beans are all coming on well (apart from the sick climbing French bean, which looks pretty terminal now) - see below for runners:

Runner bEAN pROGRESS

Runner beans and climbing French beans beyond ( the gap is where the sick one is)

Most of the lettuce planted recently seem to be surviving, and I noticed this afternoon that some seedlings are through in one of the short rows recently planted (may be lettuce - I didn’t check).

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are doing well and the peppers also. The dwarf french beans in a pot are quite tall now and may need staking, so some canes are in already. I’ve still got (apart from the tomatoes) some chilli and sweet peppers to plant somewhere (there are still a couple of growbags not used yet) but will have to do some clearing up in the greenhouse if I’m to fit them in there. Meanwhile, the lettuce growing in a pot are at the point where I can harvest elaves from them, and the radishes are big enough I think. I think the peas I planted in pots are sarting to some through now. The grapevine in the greenhouse is now in full flower and the branches now starting to threaten to take over - but they leaves do produce shade when it is needed at the height of summer, I’ve just got to keep trimming the branhes back before they really get in the way.

Plot B, where the original salad rows were planted, now has several potato shoots showing, and I’ve already removed several potatos. Whenever I grow potatoes despite all my efforts when harvesting there always seem to be several left behind to come up next year - in this case it looks like a decent meal of them!

Elsewhere the headges need a real going over, though a section near the house has to be left as the blackbirds have moved ther after their original nest was destroyed. This has caused a problem as they are almost permamnently in an ‘alarmed’ state whenever next door’s cat is out, or indeed there is any movement in the garden near the house - and the alarm calls start from about 5am (right outside our bedroom) …. Unfortunatley the cat seems to be making a real effort to get them again, I caught it inside the hedge the other night trying to get to the nest. It’s a real pity, after the blackbirds have already had one set of chicks almost certainly taken by the cat.

On the wildlife front, we have collared doves paying regular visit to the bird table - rather too many visits as they seem to be living entirely from the seed feeders - see pic below.

 

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Bank Holiday Monday Progress

May 26, 2008 at 8:38 pm · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, tomatoes

We didn’t have rain today (yet), but we have had gale force winds so not worth going anywhere - and it’s meant emergency extra support for the broad beans, but almost all seem to have survived ok. also I added some support for the tomatoes outside the greenhouse - the one affected by wind yesterday seems to be surviving.

I did manage to get out into the garden this morning and apart from helping the broad beans cope, was able to get the other two pepper plants into a growbag in the greenhouse. I spent a bit of time planting peas (’kelvedon wonder’ and a mangetout variety) into pots to get them going a bit quicker (while listening to the test match cricket of course). The climbing French Bean that looked sick yesterday still looks bad but isn’t actually dead yet.

Outside short rows of carrotts, rocket and turnips have been added in the SE corner of plot C so we’ll see whether they germinate any better than those in section B. Also, my neighbour ’swapped’ some leek and celery seedlings for a couple of runner bean plants (thanks Barbara) - and I’ve never grown them before so I planted them out in plot B and I’ll watch how they go - should be interesting anyway.

Another sighting of that squirrel again - so we’ll see if it is tempted by peanuts….. Speaking of which I had to reload the peanut holder on my bird-table today as well as all the seed feeders - the ’sparrow gang’ really goes through the seed fairly quickly but the panuts had hardly been touched (there is another feeder that seemds to be more favoured now) so they had become pretty old and sour hence the refilling.

While I’m on about wildlife, the usual toad population has reappeared in the grenhouse (one had been hibernating in the bag with the polystyren bits), and the rain the other day brought all the frogs out all over the garden - though I’m convinced not as many as previous years.

As promised yesterday here are some progress pictures:

French and Broad beans
Lettuce (front), French Beans and Broad Beans

Broad Beans in flower
Broad Beans in full flower

Growbags in greenhouse
Toamtoes and Peppers in the Greenhouse

Tomatoes outside greenhouse
Tomatoes outside Greenhouse

 

 

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