My rhubarb has been the best ever this year. The crowns are now 3 years old and I have not picked too many in past years. Each Winter I have mulched them with several inches of horse manure compost and now they are paying dividends. The stems this year are about an inch and a half thick!
This is also the best year so far for my
gooseberry Invicta. After a couple of years of a devastating attack of sawfly larvae, this looks to be the best year ever. Tikka and Korma the chickens are visiting again next week so I will be sure to put them to work in this area to clear some of the visiting critters in the soil below.
The
New Zealand spinach has really put on a good growth spurt since I pricked them out into individual modules. The large seeds were multigerm seeds - there being up to 5 plants coming out of one seed. Individually they are doing much better but I have been reading that they dislike cold climates and prefer to be baked in a dry soil. I will wait a couple of weeks more before planting them outside.
I left one of my broccoli plants to go to seed this year. These broccoli spears will blossom into a mass of yellow flowers in a couple of weeks, this will be covered in bees!
Yet another success story on the fruit front.. these
Victoria plums are just incredible. In fact, it looks like I am going to have to thin these plums considerably if the plant does not drop a few excess fruit itself. There are just too many here.
Meanwhile back in the greenhouse, I have set up my automatic watering system from Autopot. Here you can see a water tank which is connected to a series of pot trays; each tray has a valve which regulates the amount of water allowed into the trays. This is a great way of managing to water plants evenly throughout the hot Summer.
I have also planted out quite a few tomatoes today. I must bite the bullet some time and decide when it is safe to plant outside. I rekon the soil here must be warm enough and I'll take a chance that we won't get a late frost now... but you make your own minds up folks!
I planted a couple of
International Kidney new potatoes in a plastic sack in the greenhouse. In a few weeks' time I look forward to an early feed of new potatoes. I wait until you can see flowers developing on the top of the plants and then wait a couple of weeks more.
This is also the best year so far for my gooseberry Invicta. After a couple of years of a devastating attack of sawfly larvae, this looks to be the best year ever. Tikka and Korma the chickens are visiting again next week so I will be sure to put them to work in this area to clear some of the visiting critters in the soil below.
The New Zealand spinach has really put on a good growth spurt since I pricked them out into individual modules. The large seeds were multigerm seeds - there being up to 5 plants coming out of one seed. Individually they are doing much better but I have been reading that they dislike cold climates and prefer to be baked in a dry soil. I will wait a couple of weeks more before planting them outside.
I left one of my broccoli plants to go to seed this year. These broccoli spears will blossom into a mass of yellow flowers in a couple of weeks, this will be covered in bees!
Yet another success story on the fruit front.. these Victoria plums are just incredible. In fact, it looks like I am going to have to thin these plums considerably if the plant does not drop a few excess fruit itself. There are just too many here.
Meanwhile back in the greenhouse, I have set up my automatic watering system from Autopot. Here you can see a water tank which is connected to a series of pot trays; each tray has a valve which regulates the amount of water allowed into the trays. This is a great way of managing to water plants evenly throughout the hot Summer.
I have also planted out quite a few tomatoes today. I must bite the bullet some time and decide when it is safe to plant outside. I rekon the soil here must be warm enough and I'll take a chance that we won't get a late frost now... but you make your own minds up folks!
I planted a couple of International Kidney new potatoes in a plastic sack in the greenhouse. In a few weeks' time I look forward to an early feed of new potatoes. I wait until you can see flowers developing on the top of the plants and then wait a couple of weeks more.