Rain, grow bags and bean frames

On Sunday I swung by the garden centre on the way home from Rosie's, to get grow bags for tomatoes, along with canes to prop them up and make a frame for my runner beans. Before getting to work though, Mum, Dad and I tucked into some more tasty radishes with our lunch. Mmmm....
The first thing I did after lunch was some weeding. There's all kinds of things trying to seed themselves in my patch at the moment, so I got quite a handful of seedlings! Then I sowed another row of carrots and thinned out my lettuces and onions. That means picking some seedlings out so that the others have got space to grow. I replanted the thinnings around the edges of where I'm going to put the purple sprouting broccoli, which is beggining to sprout on the window sill.
I then turned my attention to my tomatoes. I watered the grow bags before transplating the three biggest ones in from their pots and putting in canes to hold them up. I then set up the portable greenhouse that Rosie's parents gave me for my birthday, which should protect them from the high winds this weekend. I had wanted to plant some more tomatoes out, but seeing as I only have one greenhouse I don't want to risk it! Instead I re-potted the others, along with the dying brussels sprouts. The bathroom window sill is now jam packed with plants.


After a busy day gardening, I met up with my some mates from uni for a drink in Victoria - although I turned down the offer of Infected Mushroom afterwards so that I could use my Bank Holiday Monday to do some more vegginess.

As it was, it rained for quite a bit on Monday, with the wind gusting quite hard. Good for the thristy veggies. In one of the sunny spells I managed to make a frame for my runner beans, using 7ft canes crossed over and tied together with one across the top. I then planted a row of beans, the rest of the peas and some courgette seeds in little pots. The patch is really starting to take shape now. Once the broccoli and courgettes are in, and everything's grown a bit, it'll be looking pretty full!

(Photos this week mostly courtesy of Mum)

Ravishing radishes

I got up on saturday morning to find my radishes bigger than ever, and some of them even ripe for pulling (the size of a 10p piece). My first produce! Eight weeks after I sowed their seeds. Six gorgeous little red globes. I've manged to grow the easiest vegetable that apparently even a small child can handle, despite their suffering at the mouths of the slugs. I'm dead chuffed. (Cue raddish montage \/)

Mum and Merlin were also present for the occasion...

The first set of Tomatoes have survived the transplanting and are doing well. This was taken on Saturday, but it seems like they're already twice the size!

After sampling my produce I took some down to Rosie's, and we enjoyed them with salad and beer after a walk through some bright yellow Rapeseed fields. I can't believe how dry the ground is still. In the field below it had deep cracks running all over like a desert. We watched Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth in the evening, and it's hammered home even harder to me how we all need to take action on climate change as soon as possible. It's possibly the biggest challenge facing the human race in our entire history (linked in with resource management and over population). To oversome it is going to involve an altogether different way of thinking and acting together.

After getting back from another hot (felt like July), lazy day at Rosie's, I watered my plants and made my slug beer traps. I also planted some Mange Tout, more Little Gem and some parnsips where there should be some but aren't - although the horse may already have bolted for those. I prepared a seed tray of Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Calabrese too. Mmmm....

The plan for next week is to get my first Tomatoes outside in a makeshift mini greenhouse Rosie's parents gave me for my birthday.