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Something about a flower show?

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Apparently, somewhere in London, there is some kind of flower and garden show going on. People have been working hard to create exhibition gardens, that even Her Majesty The Queen has visited with her family. The general public will also be in attendance.

You know. gardening and horticulture is no longe the enclave of the old as the hills flat capped fella. If you see the twitterati photos, the fellas are younger, prettier, and wearing rather nice suits. Didn’t see many ladies though, strangely, though they do exist in this particular world.

I have to confess though, I have no watched the television coverage. I have yet to watch anything like that on the box. Whilst I was quite happy to watch the big allotment series, I don’t even watch whatsitcalled, Gardener’s world. It simply doesn’t speak to me.

The garden’s are epic, there has been alot of work done; alot of crafting. You cannot doubt that. There was even some drama and contraversy, with one company flying in a bloom. I won’t wade into that, personall I’d try and grow my own. I cannot imagine the hardwork and of course money, that goes into such a scheme. I did suggest to the British Psychological Society (they are very good at listening to their members, I got a quick response and a fair hearin), that there could be a Psychology garden-now that would be fairly fabulous-but funding would be an issue. This saddens me, tha money always talks.

I do believe Thrive were there, they work like titans to promote horticultural therapy. So there is a definitely a link between horticulture and talking therapies. It is just not in the public domain in the heavy weight way it could be.

 

Soft fruit

soft fruit flowers

Are my autumnal raspberries meant be flowering, or are they like me, a tad confused?

There over forty canes sunk on the plot. Thirty two of them, are the typical pink ones, the others are yellow. This particular variety, is the fall gold autumnal raspberries that were sunk early this spring. I was not expecting to see an awful lot a this stage. Even then, I had expected the pink all season raspberries to be further on compared to where they are. Not many are green and leafy; they are largely still brown and sticky. There are still very few green runners visible.

So I am little surprised to see the flowers.

The unknown variety of redcurrant appears to have some fruit. This particular plant. is one of two, bought from pound land about four years ago. It is only just getting leafy, and as you can see, having blossom that is fruiting.

Runner and climbing beans

Sowing beans

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beans

Mum has been telling me for some times to sowing ‘running beans’ so that was happened today. A batch was sown previously, but as the seeds were too cold and wet; these have more or less rotted away to pulp. A fresh batch has been sown, and placed onto a warm and well lit window sill. These are

  • Cobra Climbing French beans
  • Blue Lake Climbing French Beans
  • Scarlet Emperor runner beans

I have sown all three of these previously and with fair success, so I am sowing them again this year. I think we have only just finished the last of last summers runner bean crop.

I have observed that the Climbing French Beans are far more productive then the dwarf varieties. The dwarf varieties, in my experience, get munched on by slimers. They eat the crop, before you do. I have sown these today, which means I will have to construct the supporting structures for them to grow up. In the past, I have use two types of structure. Climbing french and runner beans, have been grown up either wig wams, or criss-cross frames. The wig wams are meant to be space saving. I can see how the criss cross frames might take up more space. All being well, these will germinate, the seeds won’t get too damp and rot away.

One thing that is certain, is that once you have grown your own climbing french beans, you will see supermarket produce in a different way. Especially, when they don’t grow straight, but curly as the dwarf beans do.  They all crop abundantly, when you have the appropriate conditions for them to grow productively.

aubergine analogue 2015

Aubergines surviving…for now

IMG_4452

With the aubergines sending out their first set of true leaves, it’s time to pot them up. They have been removed from the cold propogater, potted up and placed onto a warm window sill. They are tiny, compared to the tomatoes to whom they are related. Then again, I did sow them a lot later. The plants themselves are delicate looking, and it’s probably going to be a while before they end up in the poly tunnel. All being well, they will get a wiggle on, get a bit taller and stronger.

tomatoes

Tomato transfer time again

Window sill shuffle is happening once more. The tomato plants, the first batch, had been sat in the four tier blowaway for some time. They have largely been growing quite vigorously, were becoming quite large for the small green house. There is a second, more diminutive batch remaining. The larger ones have now been transferred to the wendy house, the larger green house on the plot. They are still fleeced, as I really don’t want to take any chances at all. They are eventually going to go into the poly tunnel, once the red duke of york potatoes have been dug up. That might not be too long, since the leafy red and green foliage is quite rampant at the moment.

Five of the remaining habanero plants that are at home, have now taken the place of the larger tomatoes. There are still about half a dozen smaller tomato plants, that have yet to get a wriggle on.

cabbages and brassicas

Caging cabbages once more

One of the plot neighbours kindly gave us some cabbages today. Naturally, we had to sink them, and this became Ma’s project. She had already moved around some self seeded kale, so these went it with that. Didn’t lime them, or pop cabbage collars, so fingers crossed they will be okay. They were however netted over, to stop flying foes.

Experimental Chillies and be;;s

Re-homing the habaneros

Whilst the larger chillies are now in the poly tunnel, there were still eight habanero plants loitering on the window sill. Of these, three are now of an appropriate size to be transferred to the polytunnel. We have today taken pumpkin, chocolate and orange habanero down to the poly tunnel. These have been potted up into larger pots with some multipurpose compost. Pots have had some slug tape stuck around the edges, and the plants watered in. They are draped with fleece, as there is still a chance of frost until the end of May. That said, the poly tunnel was at 30 degrees today, but there is still going to be a dip at night time that could nip them.

Potatoes

Polytunnel potatoes: triffids arise

spudpoly

In the last two weeks, the Red Duke of York potatoes have taken on a life of their own. They have been fleeced as there is a chance of frost until the end of the month, Whilst the poly tunnel might reach the heady heights of 30 something degrees, it can still suffer a rapid drop in temperature at night. So all the shoots have been tucked up under fleece. And they really have taken off. They took a while to take off, the clay is horrible, and it was still quite cold when they were first sunk.As the weather picked up, and April was relatively calm; we didn’t have that many showers. The shoots have become more vigorous. My next thought would be when these are going to be harvested. These are to be taken up at the appropriate time, and tomatoes to be plugged in. The tomatoes are getting taller still in the 4TB. I have had a handful of RDOY potatoes previously, those were outside in the clay. Inside, there is a distinct difference. I have yet to furtle beneath the soil, I don’t want the potatoes to be really very diddly. Might give it another week to fourteen days, before seeing what lurks beneath.