I just have to share a picture of this wonderful little Dahlia which did require a little bit of TLC to reveal it's true beauty. We bought it in the end of season sales last year when it had no flowers left and was in a pretty bad state. After a winter spent in the greenhouse we had lots of rich dark foliage appear in late spring, it went outside in early May and, despite the wet month, the flowers have opened. It is a gorgeous colour and if we were brave enough we'd love to use it in our living room colour scheme.
Patience, patience
In general I have never been a particularly patient person but waiting for the flowers to bloom or the fruit and vegetables to be ready for harvesting is really putting me to the test. The flowers, fruit and vegetable plants are all growing well but it may be some time yet before we see any real results from all our hard work earlier in the year.
The veg patch is starting to look quite full in this picture from a couple of weeks ago. You may just be able to spot our rogue potato plants infiltrating the onions on the left side. Despite our best efforts last year to harvest all the spuds it looks like we must have left some tiny bits in the ground. Initially we decided to just leave them to their own devices but they soon took over and the poor onions were lacking their fair share of light and space. So after much deliberation and hesitation I went forth to try to remove the potatoes without disturbing the onions.
Well, tiptoeing through the onions I managed to dig out most of the potatoes although I reckon there are probably still a few deeper in the soil. Thankfully only a couple of spring onions were disturbed in the process and stuck back in again to hopefully finish growing. (You may be able to spot a newly planted row of brassicas between the onions and beans. We had quite a few spare cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage plants so the hope is that they will not be too big before the beans and onions are harvested and will then have loads of room to grow.)
We are trying to squeeze in as much as possible and have two sowings of sweetcorn, leeks, leftover sweet potatoes, a late sowing of broad beans and direct sown peas. Much of this is an experiment so we'll see what survives.
This is the harvest from the rogue potato plants. Lovely though they are (we had some cheesy mash last night - mmm really tasty) I'm getting a little worried at the possibility of having more potatoes than we could ever possibly eat.
These are the potatoes we actually planted and if they are all healthy then we will definitely be eating spuds every day for the next 12 months.
As this is the first year for the polytunnel we are both intrigued and excited to see how the plants are growing in this micro climate. Although we are planting our usual range of veg we have had a go at a few new varieties. So a quick update on what is in here: closest to the camera, just poking into the picture is a bed with 4 cabbages (one red) and some beetroot. Centre left bed we have 2 summer squash plants, 2 winter squashes and 2 pumpkins with a few nasturtiums. Centre right bed: swiss chard, kale and pak choi with some newly sown spinach.
In this picture you can also see 3 new (half price leftovers from the garden centre) hanging tomato baskets. They don't look great just now but I'm hoping we can reuse them next year either for hanging tomatoes or maybe some strawberries.
From the other end it's easier to see the brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflowers in the raised beds, cucamelons are in the canvas pots and 3 types of sweet potatoes in the grey coal sacks.
On the other side of the polytunnel we have 4 grow bags containing a total of 12 tomato plants of 9 different varieties. At the far end we removed the patiogro for now so we could squeeze in some new grow bags which have more brassicas from a later sowing.
We have also managed to squeeze one lone gherkin (above left), a single herb chicory, one little aubergine (no picture yet) and our little fig (right) isn't quite so little any more.
M says it is not a competition between the greenhouse and polytunnel produce!! From an impartial standpoint it seems only fair to give you a tour of the greenhouse. Purely in the interests of experimentation and learning we have tried to replicate the varieties of tomatoes here. They are growing well but have been suffering a little from some recent cold nights and the vast difference in day and night temperatures.
On the other side of the greenhouse I have some more green canvas pots with 2 tomato plants in each and a single gherkin in the small one.
As last year the sweet peppers and jalapenos are on the bench at the end of the greenhouse where they get the majority of the sunlight available. Some of the later sown ones are still tiny but we already have flowers appearing on the tallest jalapenos.
Just like in the polytunnel we have used some grow bags for the surplus brassicas. I had hoped to keep them going in pots for longer but they were growing too quickly so this is yet another experiment.
Off we go now, full steam ahead into July, praying the sun is coming and anticipating the busy time of harvesting, preparing and storing our harvest. Soon we will have garlic, onions, carrots, peas and beans filling the kitchen before filling the store cupboards and freezers. Now I just need to work out what to do with cucamelons, gherkins and all that kale! Happy holidays to you all and next time I hope to have lots of beautiful flowers to share with you.
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