Monday 25 May 2009

Late May Bank Hols

It seems such a long time since I've posted and so much has happened with the veg pots! Here is a quick picture update.


The spinach and spring onion pot is going strong - we've already had quite a few harvests from the spinach and the later sowings are just starting to spring up on the other side of the pot. The spring onions are almost ready to harvest - hopefully we'll be able to use some next weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing the red variety.


I love the bright red stems on this spinach variety - looks and tastes just like normal spinach once it's cooked, tho!


I potted up the last big container this evening - this has 2 gardener's delight tomato plants and 1 moneymaker with three of the biggest courgette plants - these have been really easy to grow and I've been hardening them off over the last few days. Hopefully the cooler weather we've been predicted for the week ahead won't set them back too much! These tomatoes came from the Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago and had a major aphid problem - WH and I spent a great 20 mins picking and squishing. They seem to be much better, but having planted them out I'm now treating them with a spray of 1 tsp washing up liquid to a spray bottle of water - apparently it stops the aphids sticking! We'll see if it works! I also planted an empty plastic bottle with the bottom cut off into the middle of the container to act as a water funnel for getting the good stuff right down to the roots - I read somewhere that surface watering can dilute the flavour of your tomatoes - at the moment I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that we actually get some fruits....


After weeks and weeks of doing nothing, the dwarf beans suddenly shot through the soil this weekend - maybe it was the beautiful sunny weather! As per usual with my cautious sowing method (including 2 or 3 seeds per hole in case they don't all germinate) I seem to have ended up with multiple plants per space - some thinning out may be required.


The asparagus peas that will be joining the beans in the trough are looking healthy - I'm planning to plant out three plants next weekend as they're really getting big.

Finally, my tomato roma seedlings have been growing really well- I've been moving all of the seedlings out into the greenhouse (well ventilated) during the day and bringing them back in at night for about 4 days now, so that next weekend I'll be able to plant some of these tomatoes out into some small wooden troughs we picked up this weekend.