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Friday and Saturday 08 & 09 June 2012
Tomato Planting
Friday and Saturday weren’t very June like. Friday was dull and drizzly and Saturday was dull and breezy. Both days were on the cool side with below average temperatures, the story of the growing year so far.
I’ve at last got some tomato plants a suitable size for planting out into pots and grow bags. It’s been a real struggle in this cool weather to produce some good plants.
On the left last year’s plants on 8th June 2011 already had their first flower trusses whereas this year the plants have only just been planted into growbags. I think it’s going to take a spell of good weather in autumn or we will be having lots of green tomato chutney.
Sunday 10 June 2012
Green Manure Chop
Sunday was much more like I expect June to be with some pleasant sunshine and the temperature just nudging the 20°C mark. Of course it couldn’t last all day with rain setting in late afternoon.
On the plot, our green manure crop of Phacelia had come into flower and, following the advice regarding it being a prolific self seeder, I thought it should be chopped down ready for digging in.
The final crop has grown well despite its very slow start when I thought I’d sowed the seed too sparingly.
Phacelia Flower Head
I did have some second thoughts when I actually had the strimmer revved up and ready to go. The bees were making a plea for me not to devastate their pollen rich seed heads. Everywhere I looked the flower heads looked alive with bees but after a moments hesitation I set the strimmer to work and in a couple of minutes the crop was cut down.
I’ve left the bees a few plants at the far end of the bed until I get around to digging in. Our comfrey is starting to come into flower so the bees will have a ready made replacement. What’s more with the flowers left on the ground the bees still had access to the pollen and were making the most of it.
Monday 11 June 2012
Keeping Warm
Just one mild day yesterday and Monday was back to normal for this June, cool and cloudy although we didn’t get any rain.
We visited the plot in the afternoon with the intention of doing some jobs that would keep us warm. It seemed like a good idea to dig over the bed of phacelia which had been cut down yesterday. The ground was a bit heavy but just about passable for digging over.
We had a short row of “Meteor” peas which had been sown in pots on the 5th April and planted out on the 22nd May. They certainly hadn’t appreciated the conditions in the plot and weren’t giving any signs of growing away.
I decided it was time to cut our losses and start again. These pathetic specimens were pulled out and a new row of “Meteor” peas sown. The old peas pulled up easily and didn’t seem to have made any roots at all. I’m hoping the new sowing will do better.
We’ve also had a struggle with our tomato plants this year. They haven’t appreciated the cool conditions refusing to grow at all for weeks on end. I’ve eventually planted out the resulting plants into grow bags in the plot greenhouse. Only time will tell whether this rather motley looking collection of plants will provide us with some tasty tomatoes.
Each of the six grow bags has three tomatoes of the same variety in it. Going around the greenhouse in a clockwise direction, starting in the bottom left hand corner, they are Gardener’s Delight, Moneymaker, Jakarta, Amish Gold, San Marzano and finally Alicante.
The plants are in Levington’s giant tomato planter bags. I used one extra bag to fill up the rings that the tomatoes are planted in. There’s no telling these days what you will find in compost. This rather large piece of timber came out of this Levington’s bag.
It’s not what I expect to find in compost and it makes me wonder what else is in there and how the contents have been produced. I’d expect rubbish of this size to be removed in some sort of sieving process but clearly my expectations are too high. Compost isn’t cheap and I reckon it’s about time some form of control is introduced so we know what we are buying in our bags of compost.
Tuesday 12 June 2012
Here Comes the Sun - I Wish
It’s a sign of how poor the weather is at the moment, that at times, Tuesday seemed really rather pleasant. It could have been that the sun came out from behind the clouds for a few minutes and the temperature shot up to 15°C. That’s as good as it gets at the minute!
The lack of sunshine prompted me to put together a little chart comparing the numbers of hours of sunshine I’ve recorded over the last couple of years.
If there’s no change to the weather pattern for the rest of the month then the hours of sunshine recorded will be more like February than June. Surely it’s got to improve soon.
Wednesday 13 June 2012
Woody’s Routine
Wednesday’s weather was just as dismal as the last few days with the sun refusing to make any sort of appearance so we had yet another dull and cool day.
Our resident wood pigeon now has his morning routine sorted out. If it’s a still day then the preferred position, to check out if it’s safe to breakfast from the left overs on the bird table, is from the highest point on my weather station .
If it’s windy and the anemometer is whizzing around then the top of the post supporting the weather station is the lookout spot of choice. After a few minutes checking that the coast is clear woody will swoop down and clear the bird table of yesterday’s seed.
All this leads me to wonder whether having moving devices stationed in amongst beds of crops actually is an effective pigeon deterrent. Maybe pigeons just get used to such devices and learn that they are not really a threat. Our visitor certainly seems comfortable when the anemometer is whirling round!
At least woody’s not fouling up my rain gauge measurements sitting on top of the wind vane.
The flimsy nature and rather sharp ends to the plastic netting fixed around the rain gauge do seem to act as a deterrent to stop birds perching around the rim and doing what birds do naturally.
Thursday 14 June 2012
Out With the Old
Thursday brightened up a bit in the afternoon but not for long. By late afternoon it had clouded over again with a brisk cool breeze. The rain began in the late evening.
Last year’s leeks that were still growing were dug up and consigned to the compost bin and our new crop of leeks planted out. (Not in the same place of course!)
They look a little bit sorry for themselves in their individual holes. We’ve spaced them out more than recommended so that it will be easier to hoe around the plants and keep the weeds under control.
Despite our best efforts at carrot protection the last carrots to germinate have been eaten by slugs. This in spite of the whole area being treated with Nemaslug which doesn’t appear to have been very effective in this case. Perhaps the soil temperatures have been too low as we’ve had some cold nights and plenty of rain which may have reduced the soil temperature below the recommended level of 5°C. I’ll just have to re-sow the patches and try again.