Growbags and Greenhouses -The WB Garden Blog

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…..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The last post spoke too soon - almost all the time since then we have had sunshine with temperatures up into the 20’sC. This has only meant that even more tomatoes have ripened so another several pounds have had to be picked and the recipe books are being scoured for recipes.

Meanwhile runner beans are also growing - most of the last lot having been blanched and frozen - but we did eat some of the fresh ones today, that only leaves several pounds to be harvested…

We also had some of the boccoli, that at least is producing  in the sort of quatity we can handle.

Apart from those, the peppers are still growing and the lettuces are getting a bit bigger so  maybe in a week they will be big enough to harvest.

So far I haven’t had time to do much with it all except collect the fallen pears and mow the lawn but maybe this week…

Well it’s been a long time since an update thanks to holidays and recovery from the same. Meanwhile, the summer has gone apparently, at least in England for now. I had made complex arrangement to keep plants watered while we were on holiday, but they weren’t really needed for the plants outside, as there had been plenty of rain. The tomatoes and peppers in grow-bags inside the greenhouse and outside had survived reasonably well also thanks to a continuous drip feed watering system I had set up.

The tomatoes had done so well that about 7lbs of them had to be picked at the first opportunity - some have been given away and some eaten, but we still have quite a few to deal with. Now (after a week or so) there are a lot more ripe….Recipes using lots of small tomatoes are needed!

Tomatoes outside kitchen

Peppers are ok in the greenhouse and the chilli peppers are beginning to ripen, though some have been attacked by something, probably those caterpillars again. Mind, if they all ripen we’ll be selling chillis on a stall outside!

Chilli Pepper ripening - hopefully

The runner beans, usually the first to suffer in the absence of rain, had also produced plenty of beans - and I picked about 11lbs the other day, those were just the really mature beans as well. There are still plenty of young beans left. However, the weather has been so windy over the last couple of days that I’ve had to add extra supports to prevent the main rows of beans from being blown over. Looks like a session of blanching for the freezer coming up.

As for the lettuces planted just before we went away, they have grown, but not all that well, so as well as being wet the temperatures must have been low as well. Unfortunately this mean we have had to buy lettuce to see us through, as all the original lettuce plants have gone to seed (though the guinea pigs don’t seem to mind).

New lettuces (beet and spinach rows beyond)

The brassicas do seem to have ceased to be attacked by caterpillars but I haven’t had time to make a close inspection yet. Some of the broccoli have flowered, but some have reasonable heads (see below). I did harvest a couple of cabbages before going away, but they turned out to have been so chewed by caterpillars that they were no good for eating - so maybe the rest are similarly affected. The sprouts look as if they are beginning to ’sprout’ now - so maybe we’ll be alright for Christmas.

A head of broccoli that hasn’t flowered yet!

Also, the poor weather may have affected the rows of beet, rocket and spinach I planted just before going away, in the area where the broad beans had been. The rocket has come up ok, but very few of the other seeds have produced. Just look behind the lettuces on the picture above to see (or rather not see) the seedlings.

And the grass needs cutting, then the hedges……..

It struck me the other day that I hadn't really given details of the varieties I am growing - and who knows, someone might be interested and wonder what type of bean etc. - so here is what I have so far:

Broad Beans
Mostly Bunyards Exhibition and some Sutton (I think) left over from last year

Runner Beans
Galaxy (I have tried some others left over from previous years but so far without success)

French Beans
Purple Queen planted (but not yet up) and I have other old ones I might plant.

Broccoli
Autumn Calabrese

Cabbage
Hispi F1

Sprouts
Wellington F1

Lettuce
A mixture of Little Gem (cos), Webbs Wonderful (iceberg), All year round (butterhead) and Lollo Rossa (red looseleaf)

Tomato
Sweet Olive F1 and Cherry Sweet Million

Peppers
Salad Festival & Canape F1 - sweet peppers
Heat Wave - chilli peppers

More on this topic as I plant stuff - I'll try and remember to say what the variety is when I plant…..