Well of course it's raining. It's Wimbledon! that can be guaranteed! This morning I tended to my strawberries. When the plants have finished fruiting you must cut off ALL the foliage. Commercially they do it with something like a lawn mower. Strawberries have two sets of leaves each year. The leaves which grow after fruiting are the set that will feed the crown of the plant to produce strawberries next year. If you do not cut off all the leaves you will not get such a good crop next year. The foliage dies back in Winter and the second Spring leaves will grow next year. This time of year give them a high nitrogen feed to get the green leaves growing well.
I thought I would have another go at growing cabbage this year. I suffer terribly with slugs and cabbage white butterfly and anything I grow ends up like a paper doyly, a crochet blanket, a fishermans net... you get the picture. When I was little I remember growing
January King cabbages which were the size of basketballs! I am going to build myself a little fort knox this year and no sucker is getting in there. I'm talking CCTV, electric fences, guard dogs, motion detectors and the full monty this year!
The courgettes are doing well. While the plants are still fairly small I do not let the courgettes grow too big, the plant cannot really support too much fruit. Later in the season I will let them grow bigger. These are just perfect and you can eat the flowers too!
Well of course it's raining. It's Wimbledon! that can be guaranteed! This morning I tended to my strawberries. When the plants have finished fruiting you must cut off ALL the foliage. Commercially they do it with something like a lawn mower. Strawberries have two sets of leaves each year. The leaves which grow after fruiting are the set that will feed the crown of the plant to produce strawberries next year. If you do not cut off all the leaves you will not get such a good crop next year. The foliage dies back in Winter and the second Spring leaves will grow next year. This time of year give them a high nitrogen feed to get the green leaves growing well.
I thought I would have another go at growing cabbage this year. I suffer terribly with slugs and cabbage white butterfly and anything I grow ends up like a paper doyly, a crochet blanket, a fishermans net... you get the picture. When I was little I remember growing January King cabbages which were the size of basketballs! I am going to build myself a little fort knox this year and no sucker is getting in there. I'm talking CCTV, electric fences, guard dogs, motion detectors and the full monty this year!
The courgettes are doing well. While the plants are still fairly small I do not let the courgettes grow too big, the plant cannot really support too much fruit. Later in the season I will let them grow bigger. These are just perfect and you can eat the flowers too!