At last, it seems like the veggies have started to grow! Here you can see one of my
Golden Sweet yellow peas. I picked up a packet of this old heritage variety whilst in the USA. I have it on good authority that it was this variety that Gregor Mendel used to carry out his original genetics experiments.
It looks beautiful growing up with the Victorian
purple podded pea. I don't mind if they cross pollinate this year, I look forward to seeing the results if I save seed.
The greenhouse tomatoes are starting to grow as well, these are the
Noir du Crimee, a black Russian variety I am trying this year.
And my
pineapple plant seems to be loving all this heat in the greenhouse. Today in London it was nearly 80 degrees outside, so you can imagine the heat inside the greenhouse.
If you look closely at the leaves on my
Invicta gooseberry bush you will see that some of them have been nibbled down to stalks! This is the surefire sign of a
gooseberry sawfly attack. If left untreated, within days these little green grubs will eat their way through the whole plant leaving just stalks. If you don't like spraying your plants then you will have to look for them individually and pick them off and either squash them or give them to your chickens... or both!
The broad beans are getting bigger each day. Don't they seem to hide in among the leaves where you can't see them? Only a few days ago they were just an inch long and look at these. I have grown an
Imperial Longpod variety this year.
The sweet corn
Conqueror is also loving this hot weather. I keep them well watered and have planted them in a group around my
Queensland Blue pumpkins. I have also just sown another tray of sweet corn seeds for a later crop.
I am trying to water my plants less this year, and to see if I can mulch more so that the plants are forced to grow their taproots deeper to find water. Water must be down there somewhere, my plot has been under water for the last 6 months!
It looks beautiful growing up with the Victorian purple podded pea. I don't mind if they cross pollinate this year, I look forward to seeing the results if I save seed.
The greenhouse tomatoes are starting to grow as well, these are the Noir du Crimee, a black Russian variety I am trying this year.
And my pineapple plant seems to be loving all this heat in the greenhouse. Today in London it was nearly 80 degrees outside, so you can imagine the heat inside the greenhouse.
If you look closely at the leaves on my Invicta gooseberry bush you will see that some of them have been nibbled down to stalks! This is the surefire sign of a gooseberry sawfly attack. If left untreated, within days these little green grubs will eat their way through the whole plant leaving just stalks. If you don't like spraying your plants then you will have to look for them individually and pick them off and either squash them or give them to your chickens... or both!
The broad beans are getting bigger each day. Don't they seem to hide in among the leaves where you can't see them? Only a few days ago they were just an inch long and look at these. I have grown an Imperial Longpod variety this year.
The sweet corn Conqueror is also loving this hot weather. I keep them well watered and have planted them in a group around my Queensland Blue pumpkins. I have also just sown another tray of sweet corn seeds for a later crop.
I am trying to water my plants less this year, and to see if I can mulch more so that the plants are forced to grow their taproots deeper to find water. Water must be down there somewhere, my plot has been under water for the last 6 months!