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.