More rain, more spuds and some flowers

Its been raining solidly for weeks now. Today saw sunshine interspersed with heavy showers, crashing thunder and lightning flashes on all sides. I can see a rainbow out my window at the moment.


Last night we had some more fresh epicure new potatoes for dinner with quiche. They were really nice with butter and parsley. They just melt in your mouth!


Today I've found the first flowers on my peas....


...and my rocket which I guess means its gone to seed. The rocket has been a great success so far, we have it with almost every meal! It's really tasty and easy to look after.

With all the rain everything's been growing like mad. These Bolthardy beetroot are looking good.

Lucious lettuce and pro-active peas

Bit of a photo update this eve (taken yesterday). First of all, the patch overview. the first spuds should be ready in the not too distant future so this could all look a bit different soon.

My courgettes have been looking a bit dry, with some leaves really patchy white. I took them off and fed them with fertiliser and they seem to have recovered well.



My lettuce which survived the slug assualts have been doing well after the recent rain. Looking quite big and fresh. Not long now. I need to get some more planted in fact!


Some of my Runner Beans have taken a real battering from the slugs, but this one's doing well. Need to tie it to the cane tommorrow.


My peas get veg of the week I think, if only for their little feelers that they wrap round the frame to pull themselves up. They're incredibly strong tenticles that creep up before winding themselves tightly round the first thing they find. I had to help them find the net initially but now they're going great guns. (Click on the picture for a close up!)


And finally, despite their disease and subsequent de-leafing, some of my tomatoes outside are recovering and flowering at last! The ones inside are getting really big and also ready to flower so need to go out this weekend really.

Wet wet wet

What a wet weekend it's been. Started off by picking some of the first rocket for salad on Friday night (as modelled by Rosie). Did most of the work on Sunday. It didn't stop raining all day so I got quite wet and muddy. The first job was to secure my tomatoes. For each growbag, I tied a small stick across the three bamboo poles and then used 4 bricks to weigh it down. They've survived the winds so far so they seem quite sturdy.

Next up I took advantage of the soft soil to push in two stakes and attach the plastic netting for my peas to climb up. I also used small sticks to prop them up in the meantime and keep them away from slugs.

Before lunch we nipped down the garden centre where I got some natural sand slug barrier. I put this round my courgettes after I planted them out in pockets of compost. I also used some round my lettuces and peas. It seems to be working so far - although I did catch one fat slug munching on a leaf that had fallen over it in the rain. I've stepped up the patrols recently and after finding quite a few of the pests on Saturday, numbers seem to be down a bit.

Meanwhile my first runner beans have emerged and my potatoes are beggining to flower. I earthed up around them a bit more.

Finally, if anyone remembers the grub I found in my first post (here) - I found the end product while digging around the spuds. Its a bit worrying though because apparently they eat through things and I thought I'd got rid of them all as I dug the patch over.

Tomatoes on travels

This week I have been trying give away some of the tomato plants which have formed a forest on my bathroom window sill. This led to taking some to work with me for my last day in Westminster. I got a pic of their big bay by Big Ben. Rosie also took some home with her. If you want any, get in touch. They're all getting pretty big.

The big news is that both my peas and courgettes have sprouted. The peas are under some plastic mesh to protect them from birds.

I haven't had a lot of time to garden this weekend as have been busy out partying, (Special shout out to Lauren and Adam for their veggie enthusiasm!) so thought I'd just post a few pics of how my gem lettuce, beetroot and carrots are getting along.

I start a new volunteer job tommorrow with Unlock Democracy, then Rosie and I are off to see The Entertainer at the Old Vic.