Garden update

I realised a few days ago that I hadn’t posted any garden pics for a while, mostly because I’ve just not had time to take any. The garden has been doing quite well though so I made time to take some photos to show off some of my successes.

The courgettes are doing great again so far, but they seem to have suffered from the damp weather we had until recently and have some mildew. I had the same problem last year but much later in the season so I don’t think the courgettes will be producing for much longer.

I’ve had plenty of the Black Forest courgettes so far though and the new varieties have done fairly well too. This one is Romanesco. The flavour isn’t as good as Black Forest when raw, but it’s lovely cooked.

The other new one is a round one and the flavour raw is superb. I haven’t had many from the plants yet but there are quite a few almost ready to pick now.

I got a bit carried away with the tomatoes again and have a total of 25 plants. I’m getting a bit of blossom end rot in the greenhouse, on the Rainbow Blend but I’m hoping that the rest will be ok. Outside, the Tigerella are looking good and have plenty of fruits coming on.

The Maskotka is doing very well. I’ve got about six of those and all are covered in tomatoes. I’m guessing they’re all going to ripen at once resulting in a freezer full of nice saucy bolognaise.

The sweetcorn is growing fast and is getting quite tall. It looks as if we should get plenty of corn from it as there are lots of flowers. I’ve been quite fascinated by it as I’ve never seen corn developing before.

The beans are mostly growing well and we’ve already picked a good handful of French beans, which were very nice with dinner last week. I’ve just picked more for lunch today.

The aubergines are looking quite good. One or two of the plants have flowers forming. I haven’t grown them before so I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop.

I’ve got one bed with summer squash in, and they’re growing fast now. I’m hoping they do better than last year’s winter squash.

I am struggling to keep on top of maintenance with so much to look after, while working a full-time job. Stephen has doing quite a bit of the watering but I do need to try to do some weeding and tidying soon.

Next year I definitely need to cut back.

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Garden update

I’ve been busy in the garden and it’s starting to look quite a bit tidier. I’ve also started planting some of the plants outside. It may be a bit risky, but we should be past the last frost date here now and the long-range weather forecast looks good.

The greenhouse is so full, that I really needed to get some of the  plants out of there. I’m hopeful that they’ll be ok but if not, I have plenty more 🙂

The corn was getting quite tall so that’s gone into its bed along with plenty of egg shells. The war with the slugs has commenced.

The cats have been outside in their pen while I was working. They’ve enjoyed the sunshine, and the bird-watching.

The courgettes were getting rather large so I’ve popped two of them into pots. The growbag between them is for two of the aubergines once they’ve hardened off a bit more.

I’ve prepped the growbags outside the greenhouse, ready for the tomatoes. There’ll be three different varieties, some of which will go inside the greenhouse.

The inside is still looking full, but I was able to spread the plants out a little so they’re not crowded now.

One of the growbags is planted up with one Tigerella tomato and two Red plum tomatoes. the green pots have some of the Patio mixed Aubergines in them, and the brown pot is full of Dill.

There’s still a lot to do but I’m pleased with how it’s coming on and I’m looking forward to seeing how the Aubergines and Mini corn do as I haven’t grown them before.

Raised beds

We’re going to try something new this year. Now that we’ve cleared most of the weeds and junk, we have a reasonable sized area to grow veggies in. Reasonable for a small house in the city, that is.

I wanted to try raised beds and after reading about it, decided to have a go at Square foot gardening. I like the idea of mixing different veg in the same bed and using companion planting to help with pests. I like that it uses the space to the best advantage too.

We’ve set up five beds and will use various other containers to grow in as well.

The seeds that were sown in the greenhouse are all coming on nicely. I’ve started to harden some of the plants off so will be able to start putting them in the beds soon. I shall get some other veg started from seed straight into the beds too.

We’re hoping to get some more done to the mystery construction this week, weather permitting. It’s had to take a back seat for a week or so as we needed to build those raised beds.

Growth in the greenhouse

I’d forgotten how much I loved gardening, and how satisfying it is to grow from seed. It’s such a thrill to see the tiny plants pushing up from the surface of the compost.

So far in the greenhouse I have marigolds and nasturtiums coming up. I’m growing those to plant in with the veggies to help to ward off pests. Those and some of the herbs should help nicely.

I also have some tiny chilli peppers and tomatoes. The bell peppers aren’t up yet, but I’m hopeful. The best results so far have been from the cucumbers.

The courgettes.

And the butternut squash. I was chuffed when four of these came up and thought that’d be plenty but every single seed has sprouted so I’m going to have lots of lovely squashes if all goes well.

I’ve got some beans in as well. Two types of French, and one runner. I’ve also got some herbs sown although only the tarragon has come up so far.

We’re doing lots of work in the garden to make places for all these to grow. I’ll share some photos of where we’re up to so far later in the week.