The improvement in the weather has meant that we have been very busy planting on the plot. Details of exactly what has been planted are here.
The early, mid season, late and perpetual strawberries seem to have converged and are all producing flowers at the same time. These and the redcurrants will soon need netting.
The summer fruiting raspberries aren’t doing at all well - a few canes have a few buds but many of the canes look almost dead. On the other hand the autumn fruiting varieties are producing lots of new growth.
Much of the fruit blossom is now over so we now just need to wait to see how much fruit sets and remains on the trees to provide a crop.
The female kiwi has lots of flower buds but as usual this will be to no avail as the male is still not co-operating.
In the garden the perennials are growing really quickly and surprisingly the hostas planted in beds have still avoided the attention of the slug population.
One garden surprise is that a palm - trachycarpus wagnerianus- that we have had growing in a pot for some years now has several flower buds.
4 June - 8 June
The medlar tree in the garden has produced lotsof flowers which may give us a problem if they set lots of fruit. The problem being that we haven’t really figured out how to successfully blet and use the fruit. Other garden fruit tree aren’t as successful as both the nectarine and peach trees were seriously affected by peach leaf curl and have been almost denuded of leaf. Next year we will have to resort to a spraying regime.
The grapevine in the garden greenhouse is showing promise and the kiwi berry still has flower buds. We are watching out for red spider mire on both this and the fig currently residing in the greenhouse having set quite a lot of fruit for its size. Each year this seems to have been a problem for both of these plants and meant so far no kiwi Issai fruits.
As well as growing strawberries on the plot we have a few strawberry - Finesse - growing in troughs in the garden which are glowering well and I have also pricked out half of the alpine strawberry seedlings which will be planted on the plot. These are very slow to grow but will hopefully be large enough to plant out this year.
On the plot the bed of mint has become overgrown with hardly any mint in evidence and so we are going to start this again in a maybe more controlled way. We have already bought some varieties of mint but for now these are planting in a large tub. Read more on Martyn’s blog here
We’ve been very busy planting out on the plot - wherever possible using weed control fabric to hopefully cut down the weeding. An added bonus is that it seems to be also keeping the ground more moist and warmer at plant root level.
9 June
More peas have been added to the plot - this time they have been sown directly. The shorter peas are now beginning to flower but the taller mangetout and sugar snap seems to be struggling to grow.
The runner beans and climbing French beans have been planted up four came teepees.
I am also trying to seed a bed of hardy annuals although I am a bit late to sow these. I’m hoping for a bee friendly flower bed. Seed raised dahlias will join them in this bed but the plants are very slow to grow.
One of the beds in the garden is in need of renovation but for now I have direct sown a few annuals and also planted one or two dahlias grown from seed. We will decide just how we want to develop this area next year.
On a trip to a local nursery we bought a few lewisia and osteospernums. Read more about them here. The osteospernums have be used to replaced some that died in our tubs and the lewisia have been planted in containers alongside the pebble garden. Read more about them here
13 June
The radish are germinating well and there are the first signs of germinating beetroot.
More cabbage had been added to the bed that I started to plant up earlier this month in the bed covered by weed control fabric.
Courgettes have also been planted through weed control fabric on top of which is piled manure. The courgettes sit in a sort of manure well the idea of which is to offer them a little protection from the wind. We are also hoping that the manure on top of the black fabric will help warm the roots a little as well as hopefully conserve some moisture..
Every year our shrub roses develop blackspot and so this year we have treated then with a rose fungicide to see if this gives some protection.
Our Trachycarpus wagnerianus is flowering for the first time this year - something that we have never really expected it to do.
16 - 20 June
Our potatoes have been planted at different times with the latest only having been planted on 16 June. This was mainly as we hadn’t decided where to plant the leftover seed potatoes but it is going to give us the opportunity to find out whether late sowings produce a crop. Most of our varieties are either first or second earlies. The staggered planting means that the potatoes are all at different stages with the furthest on starting to produce flowers, Interestingly two varieties planted at the same time are showing quite different growth. Vales Emerald are flowering whereas Swift is less advanced. The third photo from the left on the top row shows Swift on the left and vales Emerald on the right.
The bed containing the runner beans and squash has now been completed with the addition of sweetcorn. It’s a sort of three sisters bed but where the sisters are not over familiar.
More squash have been planted, some as an experiment have been planted on mounds of soil and manure mixed which are piled on weed control fabric. Other squash have been planted alongside pea or sweetpea climbing frames and cucumber have been planted next to the support struts so we can train them to climb up them.
We also had our first tasting of strawberries and the alpine strawberries are also beginning to set fruit.
The alpine strawberries being raised from seed have been pricked out now - they are very slow to grow but should give us fruit next year. I pricked out three trays each with 24 cells so we should have plenty of plants which are needed to produce a useable crop.
21 June
The Carouby de Mausanne and Sugar Snap peas don’t look as though they are growing very well and so I have sown some more seeds alongside the straggly plants. I seem to remember that last year this encouraged the original plants to grow. I wonder will it work again? More radish and beetroot were also sown on the plot.
Although the weed control fabric is doing a good job, where seeds were sown in ‘trenches’ cut into the fabric some weeds do germinate alongside the seedlings so some weeding is still necessary. It is less time consuming and easier. When weeding a seedling stage it is easier to determine where the seedlings are as no weed grow between the rows where the fabric covers the soil.
I gave the carrots their second weeding today. This is mainly done by sticking my head under the enviromesh. According to what I have read on the carrot fly life cycle the egg laying females shouldn’t be about looking for sites at the moment but just in case they are like everything else and a bit late this year I was being careful not to uncover the carrots too much.
Bare patches in the rows show where slugs have feasted so I have resown a few seeds into these areas.
The strawberries are beginning to ripen. We have had two pickings but there are plenty of green fruit to come - I hope. The early Marshmarvel, mid season - Marshmello and perpetual - Flamenco all seen to have caught up with one another.
The raspberries are another story altogether and just look dead!
22 - 25 June
Despite a slow start thing are now on the move on the plot. The first of the potatoes are flowering and the first peas and broad bean pods have set.
The weed control fabric is doing a good job and I was fairly quickly able to pull out the weeds that had grown in the ‘trenches’ where onions and sweet peas were growing. These were only small annual weeds such as chickweed and creeping speedwell.
The photos in the album below were taken on 24 June.
25 June
Today was spent in the garden where I sowed some radish and spring onion seeds in a trough so hopefully we will have some to hand when we decide on a last minute salad.
I’ve also sown some herb seeds, - basil, oregano and coriander which are sitting on top of a bird cage in an attempte to deter slugs and snails
I also rooted some watercress bought from the greengrocer. I was going to just throw the rooted pieces into the pond but after reading various blogs I am going to have a go at growing it in wet compost.
27 June
The heavy drizzle didn’t stop us planting up the tomatoes in the plot greenhouse to supplement the ones already planted up in the garden greenhouse.
30 June
More peas and lettuce have been planted on the plot. The ground is very dry and was very hard where it had not been dug over. I’m hoping the predicted warmer weather doesn’t damage our chances of some sort of pea harvest this year.
As usual the female kiwi is producing lots of flowers but the make just refuses to provide the flowers necessary for pollination to occur! More here on my blog
Some activities are described in more detail on our blogs - links below