As your Tomatoes grow, they’ll need to be supported, otherwise they’ll topple over from the weight of the fruits they produce. You only need to support the plants that grow tall, and not the bush varieties as they support themselves. Make sure you get a support long enough for allowing some of it to be pushed in the soil, and enough above the soil for the plant to grow up. This is how I support mine in the greenhouse.
Yes it’s the 2nd of June, but you never would have guessed it from the weather we’ve been having lately. Well at least it’s not raining today which is a bonus. Apparently the sun is supposed to make an appearance later on this afternoon, but I won’t be holding my breath for it. Still I’ve got loads to do in the greenhouse so this morning I’ve been busy in there. I’ve finally got around to potting up my Dill into 3 inch pots. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while, but other plants have required my attention first. Nearly everything is in 3 inch pots now, which is great. Lots of plants now need to be potted up into 6 inch pots, so I’ve got all that to do. The fun never stops in the garden, there is always something to do.
For me the 1st June is the start of planting all the tender crops outside, because the end of May is our last frost date. Today the weather was anything but Summery. I certainly hope this isn’t the weather we’re expecting for the entire Summer, otherwise I will be very pissed off!! Let’s hope this is just a very tiny blip in the weather and tomorrow the sun will shine and we’ll have the heat that I so desperately want. The kids are in the middle of the May/June half term, and Emily has been studying hard for her GCSE’s, and George has been…..well doing stuff. Being the middle of the holiday I decided that we were going to go out for the day. Now usually we manage to go to the beach in this school holiday, but clearly it’s not the weather for it at the moment. So instead we went to Standen House and Gardens.
Outside Standen House before we went and had a look around.
We’ve been before, and I think it rained that time as well, but then that was in February I think, so I’m not surprised. We all had our wellies and waterproofs on, and goodness did we need them. We firstly walked around the house, which is beautiful. We played the game of “Which bedroom would we like?” Loads of wonderful knowledgable people in every room, very pleased to give you any information you required. Nothing was too much for them. We wandered through the gorgeous bedroom, and dressing rooms, and other room they had wonderfully lid out. It’s difficult to pick a favourite, but I think the bathroom was my favourite, not because of the decor, or the history behind the bath suite, but the fact that even then they used to play with toys in the bath!
Rubber duckies were used even before Bert and Ernie had one in their bath!
Once we’d finished looking round the house, our tummies started to grumble, so we found a sheltered spot that we used last time to sit and eat our lunch. By this time the rain had really started to pour, but being robust people as we are, we weren’t going to let a bit of water spoil our day. We sat down in the dry (although it was rather chilly) and ate our lunch. Most of the time we wear our wellies, it’s the sensible thing to do, especially when the weather has been rather moist lately. We did see a man wearing shorts, I bet he was cold! Well if he wasn’t he should have been.
A place to shelter and have a spot of lunch!
The rain eased off and we continued to have a look around. We wandered through the vegetable patch and I noticed a typo of one of their plant labels. They had written “BEETROOT Bolthardy”. There’s no “H” in “Boltardy”. We wandered on to the Croquette Lawn and had a little game. They’re not the easiest of balls to hit with those long mallets. It was fun though. The area round the Quarry was closed off, due to the fact that it would have been too slippery on the steps down, and I don’t think anyone would have wanted to have fallen into the stagnant green water below.
The Quarry below, which you could only view from above.
After we’d had a bit more of a look round, we went to the cafe, and the kids had an ice cream (whatever the weather they always have an ice cream) and I had a decaf coffee. No caffeine for me, as it makes me go like a Meerkat in 10 minutes, and lasts for the next couple of hours. Then I get a migraine. Not good when you have to then drive home on the motorway. We then had a look round the shop and bought some treats, and a special pressie for Mark as he wasn’t able to come and is working in an office all day. I won’t tell you what I got him, as he’ll read this and then he’ll know. The it was time to drive home. As we were driving up the slip lane to get on the motorway they were playing the opening music to Star Wars on Classic FM. It was the bit when the Star Destroyer appears (1.55 approximately) at the top of the screen and the kids and I started making firing noises as we drove towards the M25. Perfect timing. Emily was in stitches in the back seat. So although it was wet, cold, and didn’t feel like Summer at all today, it was great fun.
This afternoon I potted up all my Romanesco Cauliflowers into 3 inch pots. These are wonderful little gems, if you can find them. None of the boring white cauliflowers for us. There are loads of different ones you can buy. If you’ve not had the chance to sow any so far this year, plants are still available to buy. This week I’ll take them down to the allotment and put them in the greenhouse there. In about 3-4 weeks time, I’ll then plant them out in the allotment. But I’ll keep you updated on their progress and show you when I do that. I also potted up some more Tomatoes. But I’ve got loads of plants to move to the allotment greenhouse before I find room to re pot all my tomatoes. It’s going to be a case of little and often with the Tomatoes, but I’ll get there…..hopefully soon.
This morning I popped into the greenhouse to pot up my Cucamelon seedlings into 3 inch pots. They’re a wonderful alternative to growing Cucumbers. They tend not to suffer from Powdery Mildew, or any other bugs and diseases, which is brilliant. They can be quite prolific when they get going so you’ll have to harvest every couple of days. I’ll keep you posted on their progress and in about 3-4 weeks time I’ll be transplanting them again, but this time into 6 inch pots.
This afternoon I started to pot up my Tomato plants into 6 inch pots. I’ve got 226 tomatoes to pot up, I hope I have enough pots? Oh well, I’ll soon find out. If you’re planting your Tomatoes outside, make sure all frost has gone in your area before you put them out. You can also grow them in grow bags, and containers. I used to grow them outside in the allotment, but if someone gets blight, then we all do. And you can never tell what the weather is going to be like. Damp and humid bring on Blight!! So I now grow them in my greenhouses and some in my garden. So far my garden is a blight free zone. I’ve started with “Caspian Pink”. But you may remember I have loads of other varieties as well. I’ll stake them in about a weeks time, but I have to move more plants down to the allotment first. I’ll keep you posted on how I get on.
Today I spent 4 hours on my allotment, which was so much fun. I know to some people it would sound like the worst thing possible, but not for me. It was a very warm day today, and I wished I’d not worn tracksuit bottoms. Yesterday was really cold! The weather is up and down like a yoyo at the moment. I dug over the rest of the bed that I didn’t have time to finish yesterday, and have now bordered that bed with wood, so hopefully it’ll keep it neater. I also weeded a load of grass and other weeds off the wood chip paths, and then laid some more black fabric over some more paths. All I need now are a load of wood chips, then I can barrow a load between the beds. Some more should be delivered to our site next week. One of our plot holders knows a tree surgeon, and we get them for free, which is excellent!
All ready for the Bean canes and the Squash and Pumpkins.
I left my plot about 1.45pm to drive to the cinema. Today I was watching “The Big Short” at the Silver Cinema showing. This time I got a free cup of tea and some biscuits from the table outside, usually I take my own, but I’d already drunk it. An excellent film. Lots of complicated phrases regarding mortgages and investment, but it’s a bit like reading Shakespeare, you don’t understand every word, but get the idea. The cast were superb, especially Christian Bale (“I’m Batman!”) and Steve Carell (“I love lamp”). Then once I got home, I said “Hello!” to my children and asked how their exams had gone today. Emily is in the middle of her GCSE’s and George has end of year tests. They both seemed to think they’d gone well, so that was great news. I popped into the greenhouse this afternoon to pot up 3 Sweet Peppers, 8 Hot Chilli Peppers and 1 lonely Aubergine into individual 3 inch pots. They’ll stay in these pots for about 3-4 weeks until they’re large enough to move into 6 inch pots. So a very busy day. I’m dirty, smelly and really need a bath, but I’ll have dinner first.
I was on my plot this morning for about 2 and a half hours, before I had to be somewhere else about 1pm. Still even in that short time, I got a huge amount done. The aim of today was to see how much of the bed at the end I could get done. Last year I’d grown a load of Sprouting Broccoli in part of that bed, and the other half was where I dumped a load of manure. The grass seemed to enjoy the manure, as there were lots of large clumps that had grown. They were very easy to remove, as was a large stinging nettle plant that was growing in the corner. There were loads of couch grass root under the soil, so I had to make sure that I removed all that I could see.
We all have at least one messy area on our plots. But it’ll be tidier soon.
It took me all morning, and to be honest, I’m a little embarrassed about showing you the photo, but no one’s perfect all the time. I ended up with 4 wheel barrow loads of green waste, and I’ve still not quite finished, but I managed to get over three quarters done this morning. The rest I’ll finish off tomorrow.
Not completely finished, but very nearly there. That looks much better now.
With all the manure that’s in the soil, I think I’ll plant my Runner and French Beans in this bed this year. They’ll thoroughly enjoy all the extra oomph the manure has given the soil. Then just before I left, I had a little look to see how my seeds are growing. I noticed that the last lot of Radish seeds I’d sown last week have started to come through. I also harvested my first Radish which I’m very pleased about. I’ll give it a clean and have it with my lunch tomorrow.
The first Radish of the season showing the newly germinated ones how it’s done.
This morning was another split morning. I was at my allotment for about 50 minutes getting done what I could before I left to go and see another film at our local Odeon. Today I went o see “Our Kind of Traitor”. Not a bad film. It wasn’t part of the Silver Cinema, so now tea and biscuits before you went in, but I had my flask of coffee which they don’t mind you taking in. There were about 10 of us in the cinema. The seats at our Odeon are the new ones and are very comfortable, and there is loads of leg room. When you have legs as long as mine (33.5 inches, yes you heard me correctly, bloody nightmare buying trousers!) it’s very important to have enough space. To me Stellan Skarsgard was the best thing about the film, although Naomie Harris and Ewan McGregor were very close behind. After the film, I went back to my plots and continued where I left off from. I spent my time on my plots cutting grass, weeding and re planting Strawberries in tyres, and having a bit of a tidy. I managed another 3 barrow loads of green waste, so that was a good feeling. Once I got home and had a little sit down with the kids, I then went into my greenhouse at home to plant some Pak Choi “Colour & Crunch F1”, and Mixed “Lettuce Red Leaves”. The greenhouse is now completely full, so I’m going to have to do a bit of shuffling about over the next couple of days and move some stuff down to the greenhouse on my allotment. I’m so glad I’ve got 2 greenhouses, I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. So a fun filled day. Dinner, beer, bath and sleep and then repeat again tomorrow, although no cinema tomorrow, bell ringing in the afternoon instead.
I had a great time on my allotment this today. It was full of the joys of cutting grass, weeding, clearing out one of my compost heaps and putting the contents in old tyres and then planting Strawberries in those tyres. I also harvested some more Asparagus, brushed my lower leg up against a stinging nettle (don’t do that, it’s rather painful), and had a sort out of my bamboo canes and plastic bottles. So I got lots done in 4 hours! I ended up with 3 barrow loads full of green waste, so you know you’ve had a good day when you manage that amount. As I was harvested some more of my Asparagus. I noticed some Asparagus Beetle on them. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, but now I’ve found out, I’ll have to sort them out tomorrow.
Asparagus beetles. Little buggers, I’ll have to sort those out tomorrow.
Clairesallotment's Blog 