Dwarf Beand, Tendergreen

I thought i had put this pic up but i missed it somehow...

These beans have done really well this summer, they love the hot weather and can manage drier conditions that the climbing beans. You got get as many beans on the dwarfs as they are shorter but they are well worth having a few. I didn't plant a second crop this year cos i couldn't be arsed if the truth be known lol. I have had to do everything on my own this year and what with my car crash in July everything else had to take a back seat but nothing died!!

Better late than never.


They are not producing many now but the climbers are taking over so its working out ok.

Bit of a catch up.

Today 21st August. Right, the weather has been pants for a few weeks now. Not too cold but no sun. Everything seems to have slowed down, nothing happening. This time last year and the years before were very different.
My runner beans were the most noticeably affected veg i think for me. They didnt start well because the weather was so hot, then most of the flowers didnt set cos it was so hot. I think it was too hot for them. But, there is a silver lining as now the weather is much cooler and wetter they are coming to life....better late than never!

I have got very muddled though. You may remember earlier that when i germinated the runner and dwarf beans i used big pots for the runner and the smaller for the dwarfs. Easy i thought, and i labeled the varieties. A while back i thought my dwarfs were runners as they were getting very tall. They were the right ones in the end but i am not sure what variety they are as i have a few packets open. I think Tendergreen though. Where the Scarlet Emporer runners are i also have a couple of the dwarf ones that are there for some reason. :o And another variety of climbing bean that have white flowers. My labling didnt work nor does my brain sometimes ha ha. The only clue i have is a full unopened packet of Blue Lake. I know they are not White Lady. They look like my dwarf beans, not flat and ugly looking like the Scarlet. I havnt eaten any yet, the proof will be in the pudding so to speak lol

Bit of a catch up.

Feel like a goosberry?

I am a bit confused.....I have a red and yellow gooseberry bushes. I waited for them to go red but they didnt. They are much bigger than the yellow ones and sweeter. They have all been going into my smoothies and taste lovely. The wasps have now found them so i can only pick them in the evening now.


I have had about 6 pots so far and there is still loads left.

Plum Toms (Roma), Peppers various.

I havnt grown these before so i was surprised to see that they grew a different shape. I think they look cute lol


None of my toms have gone red yet even though we have had shed loads of sun this year. I started them late but i dont think this is the reason.

I have a few different varieties growing and they are on target. They always take the longest to ripen out of anything i grow. From what i remember last year whey were still not ready when i came back off holiday in October. Shame they are not ready in the summer as they are great on the barbie.I have about 10 plants so its roasted peppers at mine!

Melons.

These are better than last year as they are so much bigger. This pic was taken over a week ago. They are Emir F1. They have got some powdery mildew but its not affecting the growth.


My melons have now got so big they need a bra!


They are looking more like melons now.

I am adding a picture taken on 18th August. I dont think they will grow anymore as the whole plats are covered in powdery mildew. If you touch the leaves the powder falls off. I think you can see from the pics that they are no bigger now.


I have cut most of the leaves off but i am unsure what to do with the melons. If i leave them on the plant will they ripen more? They feel very hard. I have got this far i cant ruin my melons now. Something will go wrong, i just know it will. :)

This is one of the plants on the 18th Aug.

Shallots and red and white onions.

This is the first year i grew these and am stunned! Initially i thought there was something wrong when they started to split into bunches. I thought they grew like onions but nooooo, each one split into up to 10 shallots. They are also bigger than shop ones. I will definitely grow these again next spring.

I have taken a pic using a 50p for scale but they are now bigger since this pic was taken.



I am more than happy with the red onions. They are still growing well and not much sign of them stopping yet. I will definately use the method of keeping the stems off the ground as it allows more sun to get to the bulbs. I think i have about 30 growing.


Here are my white onions, another success. Again i kept the stems off the ground and it seems to be the answer.

Garlic Harvest.

I harvested my garlic a few days ago and was surprised at the size of them! They made me laugh though as the looked like testicles hanging down lol.......You had to be there. :)

They are currently drying out so i am very happy with them.

Carrots

I have just pulled my second lot of carrots from the trough they grew in. Nearly every carrot was dead straight. No sign of carrot fly so i guess i am one step ahead again, being female helps with the cleverness :0

This lot in the pic is about half of the trough. I have two more troughs on the go so i will have carrots galore. I froze the last lot as there are only so many things you can do with carrots.


I used the 50p so you can see the size. I always use Early Nantes as these grow so well.

Cucumber heaven

Well as i expected i now how cucs coming out of my ears and if i get anymore they will be coming out of every orifice lol


The bent one looks interesting!
My plants are about 5ft tall and each one still has about 10 growing on each plant!
My neighbour is going to make cuc wine but she is away so i dont know what to do with them. Suggestions could be helpfull. :o
I have some melons growing in the greenhouse and they have got some powdery mildew. This has spread to the cucs but only a tiny bit. Last year i grew Telegraph cucs and they were covered in it from very early. The Marketmore, which i have grown are much more resistant to it.

I think i will grow less than 6 plants next year.

Cucumbers.

I have picked my first one today so i will celebrate by eating it later. I love cucumber but there is not a great deal you can do with them. I was wondering if i could use them in a smoothie.............maybe not lol.

My daughter seems to have an aversion to anything healthy at the moment so i cant even palm them off on her and as school ends tomorrow i cant give them to the cook either. I am going to be wandering up and down my road with cucumbers trying to find neighbours that want them........I have been seen doing worse. :o



I have 6 plants, oh no lol. I will grow less next year. I didnt mean to have 6 but i grew a few spares in case any died but i didnt have the heart to throw the rest away. lol

Runner beans not running much.

This is the first time i have had a problem with my runners. I didnt really notice anything was up till this week when i noticed that the beans on the left have not flowered. They are growing ok, just no flowers which means no beans. I have a feeling that the ones that didnt flower are a different variety. I am sure i saw a pink flower a while ago on one of the plants. I have confused myself lol



Normally the runners have beans before the dwarf beans but not this year, very odd. The plants that have flowered only have a couple of beans. This time last year i was giving laods away, now i dont even have enough for an anorexic to eat!

Leeks

Today we have finally had some rain! The garden was rapidly becoming a dessert but thankfully everything is growing really well. My leeks are looking nice and healthy and need earthing up a bit more i think. I have heard people mention trimming the leaves but i havnt a clue how to do it. :o
Some of the leaks are as really thick. I planted them out in the spring when they were no more than grass looking.



I planted about 30 and hopefully they will not be too close together. The front few were planted very late so they are a bit behind.

Red grapes....Wine. :)

My grapes are growing really fast now. When i went on holiday at the end of Sept last year some grapes were ready to eat. I thought they would be sour but they were lovely. When i got back grom my holiday in the October they were all ripe. That was the first grape harvest off my 3 year old grafted vines. This year things are a lot better and should produce enough wine to get me drunk lol.
At the moment they look like peas but dont be fooled they will grow very quickly. I think i have about 20 plus bunches!

Come on Tomatoes!!!

Its nearly the end of July and not a red tom in sight. Again i planted these late.... I have Gardeners Delight, Moneymaker and Roma, a plum variety. I also have a basket variety that i havnt grown before, Gartenperle. They seem to be doing the best so far and will be the first to ripen. All of the plants are growing well in my carport and will have millions of toms soon but I WANT FOOFING TOMS NOW!!! :)

Here is the basket ones so far..



I have noticed that the toms start of very green then go pale green before they start to go a pinky colour. They are just starting to lighten up so not too long now.

My daughter told me that i need to talk to them a bit more ha ha

Muddled up beans.

Everyone that knows me will not be surprised that i got very confused with my simple system. lol

Initially i used small pots to grow the dwarf and the larger pots to grow the runners. I labled everything too. But i got muddled with the variety i had planted and was not sure if i had got the 2 types muddled up ha ha.
My dwarf beans grew taller than i had ever seen making me think that i had planted the wrong ones. But today i have been out picking my beans, i think they are Tasman variety...Shit, i couldnt even get the labeling right lol



Hopefully i should get this amount every other day now. I think i might concentrate on growing more of these instead of the runner beans.

The runner beans have been a mare this year! I think i have Blue Lake planted. I started them later than normal as they grow pretty quick but i couldnt get them to grow. Over and over i planted the seeds but they just rotted. I have some growing up canes now but the beans havnt grown much. The dwarf are ready before these which is unusual. I think next year i will stick with the old faithful, Scarlet Emperor.

Peaking at my melons

Second time growing melons and so far so good. They grow so fast in the sun and in my carport is perfect. I just need to find a way to grow more than 4 on each plant. I planter Emir F1, same as last year. I have used the wire racks from the shelving system and canes and wires to support the plants. At first it looked like i was going to have 20 melons per plant but most of the baby melons dont carry on growing. Maybe the plant cant manage more than they do.AND, no mildew this year, Yay lol

Grapes equals wine..

Here are my red grapes. They are doing very well so i got the pruning right last year i think. They dont really need any looking after but i have been taking all the 'feelers' off them so they dont waste any energy. I have also pinched out the growing tips on the laterals that have the grapes. This is the second year of grapes as the vine is only 3 years old. I also have a white grape vine too but it is not as impressive as the red! They may look like peas at the mo but they will be very purple and sweet in a couple of months. Do i eat them or drink them? :o
They are very sweet, or they were last year. This vine is a Boskop Glory and is good for wine or desert. I got it from Wilkinsons.....most of my plants are from there and i have never had any probs with anything.

Cucumbers and Melons.

I didnt do anything to my greenhouse for a whole weekend and everything grew like crazy. I gave the plants their first feed a week ago. Its been hard work tying all the shoots and removing the bits that wind round the supports. I am going to grow less plants next year. Oh, and NO POWDERY MILDEW this year at all. I wont grow the Telegraph cucs again as they start the mildew. Marketmoor are what i have growing and they are very happy in my greenhouse.



This cucumber is about a week ago.



I am going to have to find some alternative ways of using cucumbers as i am going to have a lot. My neighbour says she is going to make wine from hers.....Watch this space for that one lol

Middle garden and new step

Here is a catchup of the middle section of my garden. I have spent the entire spring and summer on my hands and knees sieving the evil clay soil but as you can see, its been well worth it. I tried to do a row at a time and for every bag of soil sieved more than half of it was stone. it has been incredibly hard going and when the weather has been hot i haven't been able to do anything.
I mixed the sieved soil with compost, raked it level and then used boards to compress it, then it was watered.The boards were vital as i needed to soil to be compact or it will sink when its finished and be lumpy. I have had to add layers of compost, water it then flatten it over and over again until it is pretty solid underfoot. I think i have used around 20 bags of 125 ltr compost. Its going to be a very expensive lawn by the time its finished!!!



The cobbled pathway is in place and will be the same height as the turf so i can mow straight over the top. I am going to plant Thyme in the pathway and see what happens...should be interesting.

Today i am going to liberate myself and throw away my sieves!!!! lol

Reaping the rewards...

Since i last posted loads has happened in the garden. The heatwave we had for weeks was well timed but hard work. I somehow managed to keep my grass green and everything watered. I picked some shallots yesterday. The ones i harvested were loose on the soil so i am starting to dry them now. I am really amazed at how well they have grown! This is the first time i have grown these but definitely not the last. I will plant twice as many next year as i will replace the white onions with them.
I dont know if i am doing it right but who cares, its working for me :o




I am going to let the rest grow a bit more and see what happens as they all still have very green stems still.

I have seen loads of people saying that their red onions are very small. Well mine aren't...i think they are tennis ball size and bigger, the white ones are good too. All i did before i planted them was add manure to the growing area a couple of weeks before i planted and nothing else but water since. I think that using the wire system has helped them grow as it has kept the green stems off the ground allowing more sun and air to the bulbs. They are still growing well so i will leave them for a bit longer. I planted them in the spring.

Here is the middle part of my garden that i have been preparing for turf. You can see from the first pics that my garden was a grassy slope to start with.........not any more!! Bladdy clay soil!!! I hate it with a passion but its nearl done now. You can see by the step how much soil has come out to get it level. I have done it all by hand and sieved everything. The amount of stones i have removed is astonishing. More than half is stones and crap so i am having to mix the sieved soil with compost to get it right. They sieved clay soil is then mixed with compost and raked in, watered them more compost is added. I have one last bit of digging and sieving to do and that is the top left part near my shed door and step. I have done the left side in the spring and and have now finished the right. I have wooden stakes in the soil to show me the height i need to go to. The step was done a couple of weeks ago and i did it myself! I still need to make it look nicer but that will be after the grass is laid. I have also noticed that the bamboos i planted are offering a lot of protection from the wind which can be a problem in my garden so its all going to plan.

The cobbled path will hopefully sit at the same height as the grass and i will be able to mow over the top of it. I dont know whether to plant herbs in the cobbles or something so if anyone has any ideas i am listening.

Tomatoes.

These are in the carport and are doing well. They are a bit behind i think but they are in flower now. The beauty of being late is that they are not all leggy and tall. They are very compact and sturdy and the trusses are very low to the ground. Usually the first trusses are much higher.



The peppers are forming the flowers and are nice and short in height so hopefully they wont get too tall.

Potatoes in bags.

I grew these last year but the wind made a mess of them and they were in the way. This time i have made a structure that keeps them tidy. I have 3 bags. I couldnt believe how tall they can get. They flowered a couple of weeks ago but look so well i am leaving them to grow on.The carport is a god send as it stops everything blowing and snapping.



I love discovering the pots. Its a bit like opening a present lol. You just dont know what you are going to get.

Things are starting to happen with the onions and stuff. A week ago they were all very upright and strong and now the shallots and white onions have started to want to lay down. You may remember that i used wire to keep everything upright for as long as possible so that the sun was on the bulbs all the time............................its working. Another sucess! :) The odd thing is that the red onions are still going strong.

Red Onions

I have no idea when these are ready but from what i have read they will be a while yet as they are still very green on top

Shallots.

They were very upright then about a week ago they started to look untidy. They are still pretty green on top but the bulbs are the right size. I have taken a couple off, they just pulled away very easy and left the rest undisturbed. this is the first time with shallots for me so i am learning.



The white onions will be ready soon hopefully. I wont grow white onions next year as the shallots seem a better idea as they take up less room and are a better size. Because i have the support they havnt laid down properly and the sun is able to get to them still.

White Onions.



My leeks are looking nice and strong. I earthed them up a bit a while ago and it seems to have made them grow thicker. A nice easy crop to grow.

Leeks

I seem to be having more sucess in the g/h this year with the mildew. Last year and the year before it started early on the Telegraph cucs and spread but this year i havnt got the Tels, just the Marketmore and melons. I took off a couple of leaves that looked a bit suspect as its the weak leaves that get it i think. The plants are all doing well and the canes and wire set up seems to be working so far. Its been hard work tying in all the shoots and as its been so hot its been even harder. On some of the plants i attached the wire shelving that makes up the growing system (cant think of the name lol). I have so many shoots i will have cucumbers coming out of my ears soon!



I have more ventilation in the g/h this year as i have taken out two panels on the side where i have an extra bit of room. There is a poly roof and it is open at the front but i dont know if you can see how it works from this pic. I think this is the reason for the lack of mildew and the fact i excluded the variety that gets it first, fingers crossed.

I must post pics of my lilies. They are amazing! I have managed to keep the lilly beetle off them so they look fantastic. Well worth the wait.





I havnt had to give them any special treatment other than water.

PHEWWWWWWWWW, at last the weather is cool today. As much as its great for growing the heat is too much to any gardening so this is a welcome break!

I am happy to report that my runner and dwarf beans seem to be doing the right thing. I was a little bit worried that i had muddles the two up as the dwarf were growing upwards. Some have reached about 2.5ft which i have never seen before. But i can see pink flowers and not red so i am now looking forward to watching the pods form.

The runner beans are running..................no beans yet yet i am late with everything this year so i am not worried. They are in flower so all is well.

I have been trying to get the middle part of my garden prepared for turf. OMG is this hard work!!! The clay soil has been baked solid by the sun which we have had constantly for weeks. More than half of what i dog is thrown out as its mainly stones.
My hands are so painful from sieving and digging out stones. I cant use my hands in the mornings as they hurt so much so to be able to see an end in sight is fantastic. I will definitely open a bottle of drink to celebrate. *cheers* lol

I will get out today if i can and take some pictures of the garden so far.

So far, this year has been fantastic, weather wise, for the garden so fingers crossed it will continue.

Dwarf Beans becoming giants?

Hmmmn, I am not sure what is going on here. I planted a different variety of dwarf beans this year and planted Tender Beans, whatever that means. They have been planted out for a few weeks now and are growing well, but I have just noticed that some of them are growing very tall, at least 2ft and still growing. I was very careful to make sure I did runner beans in the bigger pots and the dwarf in the smaller pots so I don’t see how I can have got muddled up. (For those that know me they will be sighing now lol). I seem to remember last year that the beans wanted to be down and not up but this year they look very different, heading for the sky. I have just started adding some canes for them to be tied to as the are taller than the green sticks.I have netting above them to stop the pigeons landing on them so I am going to have to think of something soon if they don’t stop.

Updated fruit and veg.

I think now is the time to bring the grow up to date and then i can fill the gaps in for my garden project, which is looking good.

It has been so hot this last week, too hot to do anything in the garden but its great for everything growing. The weekend just gone reached 30 degrees! I have been taking a look at my shallots. Never grown them before and what a surprise. I didnt expect them to split into multiple bulbs. I thought something had gone wrong. Again i made up my own mind about how far apart to plant and got it wrong again. but they are looking fantastic now.



I used a brush and swept soil away from the bulbs so they can get all the sun. Nothing shades then at all. I dont know when they are ready but it cant be long now.



My red onions are lovely and healthy. It looks like my support system i made has worked. They nearly all stand up straight and nothing touches the ground. The same with the white onions though they are not as big and sturdy as the red. I have picked off loads of little flower heads but none have grown on the white onions. The shallots have had the odd one or two. I dont know why this is.





I earthed up the leeks at the weekend using the soil i swept from the onions.

I planted them in rows with mounds of earth behind and in front of them. I had the idea that I would use this earth to build up around the leek but watering has made the mounds flatten out so that didn’t work well. Last year I used really thick tubes of card, bit like loo rolls but the leeks started to get strangled as they expanded. I had a mare trying to get the tubes off the leeks but no harm done in the end. I pulled the last leek from that lot about 10 days ago!!

I have about 30 leeks.




This is how it all looks today.



The garlic and shallots are starting to get yellow tips so i assume these are going to be ready soon. I cant wait!

Yum Berries.

Redberrys and Blueberry are in with the goosberrys. I also had a cranberry but it hates tap water so that is withering away now.

I planted the redberry last year and this is the first time it has fruited. I didnt realise it had bit i was looking for a ball and found the tiny green berrys hanging all delicately under the leaves, hidden. I bet the birds know they are there. :)

The blueberry is fruiting for the 2nd year this year. The plant needs to be bushier but i did have loads of blueberrys until i had a bit of an accident lol. I laid some netting over the bush to see how much i needed and when i lifted it off loads of berrys went through the net holes and got ripped off when i pulled the netting off. :(

Feel like a Goosberry?

I have 2 bushes growing, one red and one green. They are both fruiting for the 2nd time. The red bush is definitely better than the other one. It has more fruits and they are bigger than its poor relation.

I have sort of worked out that RED is better than green when it comes to growing fruit or veg. My ed onions, red grape and red gooseberry have all gone better than the green variety's. Maybe someone can explain this to me. :0

The red ones are not red yet but they are huge. They are definitely bigger than a big grape.
Pic taken in May


I had caterpillars eating all my leaves a while ago and had to spray the plant to get it sorted. Its ok now. The plants are in an area behind my greenhouse which is too small so i am going to have to move them at some stage.
Hindsight is great if you have it.

Fruity All The Way.

Where do i start?

I have 2 grapevines, one black/red the other white/green. The red one is a Boskop Glory, it can be used for wine and desert. Last year was the first time the red one produced grapes and it was planted the year before. The white one was planted the same time but it didn't have grapes last year, it has now.

I managed to train the red into 4 canes/cordons across the top of my pergola last year and i got grapes on the vertical sections. They were edible! I pruned back the 4 stems to about 30 bud points on each stem. This spring when it all came back to life the 4 canes have all got grapes growing from every lateral, even across the top.


Month old pic





I have found it extremely confusing trying to find what to do next. I have pinched out the top of each lateral 5 leaves about the bunches of grapes so as not to waste too much energy and divert it to the grapes but it looks like the laterals will shoot off all over the place, HEEELP, what do i do now?

The white grape has been more like a naughty kid. I didnt manage to get 4 canes growing last year and so i am all muddled up with it. It has grapes forming this year for the first time. I am going to let this one do what it wants. Plenty of people do and they get loads of grapes.

I have a vine at either end of my pergola. Hopefully this will give me some much needed shade too. I have planted a Montana Clematis in the middle of the pergola on some wires. I only bought it last year so this year its really growing. I have one on the front of my house which was planted a year earlier so i know its going to look great when it does its job.