The first of
Ollie's Sunflowers have just ripened. This time I managed to save one before the squirrels stole them! You might notice that the bottom side of this flower has a few bites out of it already!
So I decided to save a few seeds for next year and wondered if the chickens might like the rest?
Chicken Pattie and Chicken Joloff are coming to stay with me for their Summer Holidays while
DaVikka is away on business in Kenya and Uganda.
These chickens will eat anything! They polished off a small handful of blackberries!
A bit curious at first about the sunflower head, but soon started pecking away!
Meanwhile elsewhere on the plot.. I'm
not really that impressed with my F1 courgette
'Soleil'. In my opinion, their texture is much more dense, hard even and they are not particularly prolific either. The skin is actually quite tough when compared with my usual green courgettes
'Defender' and
'Black Forest'. Worth trying new things all the time because new improved varieties are sometimes better.... but not this time!
San Marzano plum tomato seems to be ripening well. I've not grown a plum tomato before, but as some of them end up as sauce anyway I thought I might try a drier, meatier cooking tomato for a change.
We had our first good downpour of rain a few days ago. London has been as dry as a desert for months, and despite the ocasional watering with a garden hose, it is not really ideal for leeks. I gave them a little weeding, attention and watering to give them a boost. These are an F1 variety called
'Oarsman'. I have not grown these before but they were recommended to me by a nice man from the
National Vegetable Society... so he should know!
So I decided to save a few seeds for next year and wondered if the chickens might like the rest?
Chicken Pattie and Chicken Joloff are coming to stay with me for their Summer Holidays while DaVikka is away on business in Kenya and Uganda.
These chickens will eat anything! They polished off a small handful of blackberries!
A bit curious at first about the sunflower head, but soon started pecking away!
Meanwhile elsewhere on the plot.. I'm not really that impressed with my F1 courgette 'Soleil'. In my opinion, their texture is much more dense, hard even and they are not particularly prolific either. The skin is actually quite tough when compared with my usual green courgettes 'Defender' and 'Black Forest'. Worth trying new things all the time because new improved varieties are sometimes better.... but not this time!
San Marzano plum tomato seems to be ripening well. I've not grown a plum tomato before, but as some of them end up as sauce anyway I thought I might try a drier, meatier cooking tomato for a change.
We had our first good downpour of rain a few days ago. London has been as dry as a desert for months, and despite the ocasional watering with a garden hose, it is not really ideal for leeks. I gave them a little weeding, attention and watering to give them a boost. These are an F1 variety called 'Oarsman'. I have not grown these before but they were recommended to me by a nice man from the National Vegetable Society... so he should know!