'Moonlight' nasturtiums and some pinks. No idea what variety the pinks are, I got a tray of mixed dianthus end-of-season stragglers from Homebase, which made it through the winter in their polystyrene tray - tough little buggers!
The Goldensweet Mangetout in full spate. I'll grow these again next year; bar the odd pea moth here and there, they seemed pest-proof. I also want to try the giant green mangetout, likewise from realseeds.co.uk. Splashes of orange are the French Marigolds - I got a tray of them from Tesco. They have been great value, flowering away since I got them, adding a lovely colour to the garden which has really gone well with the sweet peas, pinks, nasturtiums etc.
Turnip greens (mid-left), leaf beet, and beetroot (front). Some various cabbages and sprouting broccoli in the middle, some kale and leaf beet to the back:
The teepee of nasturtiums looked lovely for a while - but once it started to yellow and suffer from blackfly, not so pretty, so I pulled it up.
Two purple cranesbill geraniums, one that I cadged from my Mum, the other from my aunt's friend Ruth.
Cherries from the cherry tree. I found that if I picked them just before they turned fully red, then I could beat the birds and wasps, who have to wait till they're soft. Then I ripened them off on the windowsill; I got about 6 or 7 kilos! Nice and sweet, too.
Hi, so nice to see you blogging again. The garden looks like it has been very productive, are you growing crops for the winter as well?
ReplyDeleteThose cherries look scrumptious, is the tree still producing or is it finished now?
Hi Kella! I was away for 3 weeks of July, which didn't help the garden, though the bindweed loved it! :) I'm still 2 months behind with the blog, must get it right up to date...
ReplyDeleteThe cherry tree has finished now. I should clip it back a bit, but not as hard as I first intended, now I know what a good cropper it is.
Right now, I'm getting some beans (Goldfield) and have some more coming on (Anno Giallo) - also, some sprouting broccoli, beetroot greens; I had three 'Tondo' courgettes and am now waiting for it to produce some more. My tomatoes are a bit of a washout. :(
How's yours doing? Cropping away madly, I'm sure.
The weeds always take advantage of our absences don't they?
ReplyDeleteI can'tcomplain about my tomatoes, as of last week they have started to pick up production, my traditional tomato bowl is now permanantly filled on the kitchen's window sill.
Why have yours been a washout, did they get blighted?
PS Helen,
ReplyDeletecan you get into A4A I can't today at all????
I think the tomatoes had too many problems. Roots suffered from fungus gnat, so they grew very slowly; then potted up rather too late; when I went away, insufficient watering; and now I think they have 'early blight'. I'll try again next year, though! I do have some self-set tomatoes out in the garden that look much, much healthier, no sign of disease at all, and some clusters of fruit on them, though I don't think I'll get much. My others are in the lean-to. Perhaps it isn't really light enough? They're tall, thin and straggly as though they're light-starved. Next year I'm going to try some in and some out...
ReplyDeleteOh so sorry about the tomatoes but isn't it funny how the self set ones always look great, its just a shame they don't start till late May early June so they normally run out of time to give a crop.
ReplyDeleteI only grow my main crop tomatoes outside but this year I have some in the greenhouse from cuttings to see if I can extend the cropping time (3 of the eight varieties (one plant each) in the greenhouse already have some very young fruit), I'm aiming to eat my tomatoes for christmas. I'm not letting them get to tall either, they are stopped at three feet high, which allows the most of them to set at least three trusses (my outside ones are allowed to get to six feet before I nip out the growing tip).
If you are going to grow them outside have you thought about covering them with a polythene roof to keep the worst of the rains off. There is evidence that it works in preventing or slowing the onset of blight and it definately worked for me last year (very wet summer), so I'm repeating it this year.
Either way I'm sure you'll get better results next year as all good gardeners learn from their mistakes.
the garden's looking lovely here, helen.
ReplyDeletei love the cranesbill geranium. the colour is amazing, especially at dusk.
Please tell me what the tennis balls on the T/P are for!!
ReplyDelete