18th June, 2012

The strawberries are beginning to ripen and that means it's time to protect them with netting.  I also think this thickness of netting probably keeps the wind out and therefore produces a favourable micro climate inside.

I made a cloche for the smaller strawberry bed too.

The green is a bit striking and quite obvious in the back garden, I may invest in some black netting to tone it down a bit.

I had a change of mind with the tomato plants and decided to have four plants rather than the usual five and in the space I have squeezed a cucumber (right) and melon (left).

There are flowers on the tomatoes so I should get some fruit.

 

I tend to forget to pinch out the aubergines which will produce a bushier plant with more flowers; this year I remembered.  I've not been very successful with aubergines, let's hope this does the trick.

 

I pricked out some marigolds which I always find therapeutic.  These will be planted in a bed outside and some in the greenhouse.

Outside I have the runner beans and French beans lined up and hardening off for planting in the side bed.

The peas are flowering but I found a rogue one with a crimson flower.

16th June, 2012

What happened to my tomatoes? (click on the pictures to view them in a higher resolution).

This is what four of my tomato plants look like after I potted them on into their final pots with new multi-purpose compost.  So what has gone wrong?  Now I admit that they were overdue for repotting and normally I pot from 3" pots into slightly larger ones before they go into their final large pots in the greenhouse.  This time I ran out of compost and just potted straight from 3" pots to the final ones.

As you can see from the picture below, they looked fine when I potted them up.

Even more intriguing is that three other plants that I had potted into intermediate sized pots look fine. In the picture below they are to the left in the black and orange pots. Towards the back on the right in the white bucket is a plant I potted up from a 3" pot using a different batch but same make of compost and that looks fine too.  So I don't think it's the compost.

Or is it that the plants were slightly undernourished and the repotting did them in?

The three plants I potted into intermediate sized pots can be used to replace those that have died.  There was a reason why I decided to keep them after all!  I didn't 't really have space for them but I do now.  It does mean that I only have one gardener's delight plant now; the three replacements are of unknown variety as I got them as a gift.  I will retrieve one more plant from the garden for the fourth replacement.

12th June, 2012

How come a month has passed since my last entry?  Well, my parents visited one weekend and then there were some swimming galas for the kids and of course the inclement weather. So not much time for getting the garden in shape.  However, I have had some time at home with the half term break and managed to get fairly well up to date.

Checking back on my last posting, there has been a good amount of growth. 

First thing I noticed was how much the broad beans have grown and I shall be picking some this coming weekend.  This picture shows the beans in the background of the middle bed with the spuds in front of them.  I've earthed up the spuds when the soil was damp as it was very lumpy during the brief dry spell. to the left in the other bed you can see the stakes to support the tomatoes.

 The bases of the kohlrabi are beginning to swell.

And the peas are flowering.

I laid down straw for the strawberries, looks like a good crop this year. Although I did replace six with new young plants because the existing ones were distorted and produce odd shaped fruit; is that due to a virus?

The black and redcurrants have grown very well too.  Behind them I transplanted two summer fruiting raspberries from the bottom of the garden where it was too shady and the never produced much fruit and because I had opened up the space by removing some of the hedge, it seemed a good spot for them.

The asparagus has been very disappointing.  It was knocked back by a cold spell and then it got badly infested with asparagus beetle, so I cut off the effected spears and sprayed with a bug killer. I don't think I'll be eating much of it this year and anyway it seems as if the beetle has come back.  I notice that when the spears are handled the beetles drop off quickly and then disappear into the soil.  I have to admire them for that as well as their beautiful markings.  But could you just leave my asparagus alone please?

In the greenhouse, I have potted up five tomatoes (Gardener's delight) into their final pots along with three guest plants that were given to me but of unknown variety; they look strong and healthy so I couldn't bring myself to throw them out.  The rest of the tomatoes (Tigerella and Cristal) have been planted outside and tied to stakes.

The aubergines and peppers have also been potted into their final pots and look very vigorous on the greenhouse shelves.  I'm growing six of each along with some chillis, cucumbers (for outside) and melons.  I haven't really got space for the melons but I couldn't help myself and the seed needed to be used up.

On the lower shelf there are chillis, French beans and runner beans.  I'm also trying climbing French beans for the first time this year.

I have a lot of spare plants such as tomatoes, basil, parsley, courgettes that I am taking to work for a plant sale and swap. Also, a small allotment bed has been dug at work as part of a green initiative; there are about twenty of us who are involved.  We spent several lunch times removing stones and rubble after the work's gardener had removed the turf, rotavated it and dug in some compost which he makes on site;  I'm glad he did the initial digging, that's hard work. The beds have all been planted up and sown with seeds which just goes to show how eager we all are to make it a success.  I'm not sure how the produce (if we get any) is going to be divided between us.  I'm providing some spare raspberry canes and strawberries for the fruit bed. 

Finally, we have come to realise that our conservatory is only good for growing cacti. It gets too hot and dry and have managed to kill a peach and a lemon tree.  So I did an internet search for a local cactus nursery and as luck would have it there is one in Matlock, just up the road.  It's called Abbey Brook Cactus and has the national collections of several cacti species and is well worth a visit even though only two of the glasshouses are open to view.  So we visited the first weekend we could and dragged my parents along who were visiting. There were many in flower and we bought about 10 small plants one of which is flowering. Actually, my mum bought them for us which was very generous; thanks Mum!  My parents want to visit again as they would like more too but didn't want to buy any as they were worried they might damage them on the train journey home, so next time they want to drive up and fill their boot with spiny lovelies. 

We'll be going back before the visit again, we can't wait that long.

16th May, 2012

At last a half decent weekend and a chance to get outside.  I started by pricking out the parsley and lettuce. 

I bought some dahlias which will go in containers for some colour on the front porch.  When I potted them on I was able to split them further into about 11 plants.

It's time to lower the shelves in the greenhouse to allow more space.

I also fixed the broken louvres on the side vent; one of the glass panels kept falling out of its frame, so I used some adhesive filler to secure it.  Otherwise the glass obstructed the vent from opening and closing automatically.

I planted out the kohlrabi after a few days outside to harden off.  I should do this for about a week bringing them back in at night but I am not around during the week to easily do this.  I reckon that they are hardy enough and keeping them in the greenhouse makes them grow too fast.

I spread the sieved compost around them, the soil is still very clumpy especially when it dries out.  One day I may be in a position where I don't complain about the soil but I can dream. At the moment it goes grey when it's dry and I want it to be much darker. 

I'm happy with the autumn sown onions and garlic, the onions are swelling!

The strawberries are showing lots of flowers.

The broad beans too have flowers.  They have completely regrown new shoots since I planted them out.

The spuds are emerging.

We have some lovely bluebells in the lawn which is a great excuse not to have to mow it.

2nd May, 2012

It was an atrocious weekend, it seemed to rain all day and night and doing anything in the garden was a no-no.  On Friday the bottom field flooded but didn't quite reach the garden like it has in the past.  Despite the continuous rain the river level went down and the threat of further flooding subsided.

I managed to rush outside and snap a few photos of the greenhouse.

The peas are growing well in the gutter and I will need to plant them out; when the weather permits!

Next weekend is a bank holiday so it's probably going to rain again.  I reckon I won't have much to report though as the weather has turned cold and the plants have stopped growing.  It's been 3 weeks since I last had some asparagus and even now there is none to pick.

I can always start to sieve the pile of shreddings and lay it on the beds.