Midsummer growth
Well, the broad beans are doing well (despite the slugs' best efforts):
As are the potatoes, which I think I've now finished earthing up:
And the cabbages:
but the peas and the carrots didn't appear this year at all. I don't know why this is, but I know other local gardeners have had the same problem with theirs. Slugs have eaten all of the cauliflowers, but gardening organically without living right on-site is bound to result in some of those kinds of casualties, I think. Two fields away is just too far where slugs are concerned, but perhaps we could have done more with beer traps etc.
In the field I didn't have space to plant pumpkins, garlic, asparagus or artichoke, which I plan to remedy in time for next year by making some new terraced raised beds.
In the garden room, we've got cucumbers:
And tomatoes, setting nicely:
- both of which are getting a lot of liquid feed at the moment.
And some squash/pumpkins (not sure which) waiting to go outside:
I'd have liked to have got some aubergines in there as well this year, but space and time didn't allow for it. Hopefully next year they will.
On the drive there are more pumpkin/squash kind-of-things:
I'm not quite sure how big these are going to grow, or where we'll put them if they grow beyond a certain size but I don't think they will, in pots.
Also strawberries, which are now struggling to find enough sunshine to get ripe:
And the usual old dustbin full of potatoes:
- which I've actually planted up properly this year, layer by layer, so hopefully we'll get a better crop than we got last year. Actually, all of the crops should be better this year because we've put so much more effort in.
We've worked out a good watering system for the field, with the help of a kind neighbour's hose pipe and water supply and everything on the drive and in the garden room is having good care taken of it too. The only problem for the crops on the drive is the wind, which gets channeled through there in a kind of tunnel effect, between the house and the garage.
The key thing is to plant lots, I've found, so there are always more to take the place of the slug-eaten and the wind-blown.
As are the potatoes, which I think I've now finished earthing up:
And the cabbages:
but the peas and the carrots didn't appear this year at all. I don't know why this is, but I know other local gardeners have had the same problem with theirs. Slugs have eaten all of the cauliflowers, but gardening organically without living right on-site is bound to result in some of those kinds of casualties, I think. Two fields away is just too far where slugs are concerned, but perhaps we could have done more with beer traps etc.
In the field I didn't have space to plant pumpkins, garlic, asparagus or artichoke, which I plan to remedy in time for next year by making some new terraced raised beds.
In the garden room, we've got cucumbers:
And tomatoes, setting nicely:
- both of which are getting a lot of liquid feed at the moment.
And some squash/pumpkins (not sure which) waiting to go outside:
I'd have liked to have got some aubergines in there as well this year, but space and time didn't allow for it. Hopefully next year they will.
On the drive there are more pumpkin/squash kind-of-things:
I'm not quite sure how big these are going to grow, or where we'll put them if they grow beyond a certain size but I don't think they will, in pots.
Also strawberries, which are now struggling to find enough sunshine to get ripe:
And the usual old dustbin full of potatoes:
- which I've actually planted up properly this year, layer by layer, so hopefully we'll get a better crop than we got last year. Actually, all of the crops should be better this year because we've put so much more effort in.
We've worked out a good watering system for the field, with the help of a kind neighbour's hose pipe and water supply and everything on the drive and in the garden room is having good care taken of it too. The only problem for the crops on the drive is the wind, which gets channeled through there in a kind of tunnel effect, between the house and the garage.
The key thing is to plant lots, I've found, so there are always more to take the place of the slug-eaten and the wind-blown.
posted by Gill at
12:37 PM
2 Comments
