Tomatoes doing good - at last!

Well at last my tomatoes have come good! (at leat those that survived) I've had sweet juicy cherry Gardeners Delight in my lunch box every day this week, with these Harbringers (above) ripenening up quickly too. I think it's all the dry weather doing them good. I've had to do a lot of watering lately though, seems very dry for September after such a wet July.

We've also been eating loads of runner beans lately too. Definately the biggest success so far, theres some to pick almost every day!


The bad news is that I'm fearing the worst for my Broccoli, which have been completely descimated by baby slugs. The Sprouts are hanging on in. Time will tell.

Day of little surprises

I got the train back from Rosie's today. She's still ill so I've been looking after her for the last few days while her parents are away. On the way back from the station I discovered a whole bunch of full sized rasberry bushes at the bottom of Leigh Hill. I never even knew they were there but will definately go back for more. When I got home I threaded the Fairy Ring mushrooms on string and hung them up to dry in the garage. Will use them in a Risotto when Rosie's better.


Another discovery was waiting for me in the back garden where my tomatoes have produced their first tiny little fruit! It was on one of the plants affected by the mosaic virus. Rosie's plants, which never got sick, already have a number of fruits on them.


Down on the patch, my courgette plants are really getting established. They're huge now. Henry says his have alreay got fruits a few inches long.

The final surprise of my day was being sked by my local Friends of the Earth group to take over as Campaigns Officer for the Big Ask Climate Change Bill campaign. Following all the havok being wrecked by flooding in Yorkshire this week, hopefully the UK government will take this problem seriously and bring in legislation to help reduce future chaos.

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.

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.

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.

Carrots and Coldframes

First thing I did this morning (well, after breakfast) was to weed the patch and thin out my radish seedlings. There's a lot of other stuff seeding intself as well as what I've put there. The good news though, is that the first of the onions are now coming through. They're in between the baby radishes, so I had to be careful what I was doing.

When I fnished, I dug a trough for my carrots in order to get all the stones out, before replacing the dirt and sowing the first row of seeds. I also did my last rows of parsnips and onions.

Merlin was out and about in the garden, sniffing flowers and rolling in dirt. Unfortunately (I was told later), this included the seed beds. The furry menace strikes - and not for the first time either I expect!
Mum got some Little Gem and Rocket seeds during the week, but I didn't have time to get any lettuce in because I'd agreed to go round and see how Henry was getting on before lunch.

He's sown his lettuce under an impressive cold frame, which he made out of a window and some skirting boards. The lettuce seems to like it, along with every other seed in the area! He's also been industriuosly sowing tomatoes and peppers which he's got in an outdoor propogater and his utility room. He's even got some courgettes on the go already, but apparently the're finding it a bit cold outside still.This got me excited about seeing my own Tomatoes get going, and when I got home I was surprised to find they have. The first little sprout and tom shoots have started poking up in the yogurt pots in the bathroom! Intersetingly, it was the pots I'd left damp paper on which have done something, so I've now applied this method to the others.

Spent the rest of the day practicing for a Burnt Toast routine with Strugz and Durbs, so now have a sprained wrist and am pretty spent. Time for bed and another week of work - with the prospect of an imminent four day weekend to get me through! :)