After a warm muggy night, early this morning was not as pleasant as I'd like. I gave myself just one task to do today at the plot, and if I felt up to it, a spot of weeding and watering. I had called in at the plot yesterday with the good intentions of giving everything a good watering before going straight off to do my Saturday shop, but the stupid hosepipe must have had a dozen kinks in Suffice to say, I had to go home and change before going off to the shops but at least everything got a drop of water of sorts.
This morning most pots in the greenhouse/polytunnel looked and felt moist so I didn't bother watering apart from the tomatoes and gave everything a good spray - a good drenching is one thing, over-watering is another. I sorted out some plants to take with me and loaded the car, getting to the allotment for 7.00am. Already it felt warm and sticky so I wasn't going to mess around and just got on with it. I cut 2 lengths of debris netting for the brassica cages and planted 6 Brussel sprouts (2 each Red Ball, Bedford Darkmar and Evesham Special) The cage was bigger than I thought so room for 2 more - I have a few spares at home to fill in the gap.
Next, the cabbages. A little bit more complicated as there was still some marestail along one edge so I had to dig that out first. Planted 13 cabbages (2 each Kalibos, Langedijk, Red Drumhead, Golden Acre, Primo and 3 Greyhound) I was quite pleased with the cabbage bed - last autumn I sowed a green manure, rye, and dug it into the soil about March. The soil didn't seem that wonderful and was heavy clay which dried hard. Even with hoeing and digging out weeds later, I wasn't happy with the soil but when digging the planting holes today, the rye grass has finally decomposed and made it much more workable. I'll certainly be doing another green manure sowing this autumn
I had several little breaks to get out of the sun and heat and was eager to finish as quickly as possible. The frames for the brassicas didn't seem that sturdy, and I still needed to weight down the edges to keep the pigeons and butterflies out. At this moment my neighbour turned up with his new shiny toy - a powerful petrol strimmer. Normally I get on with my neighbour but today I was really annoyed - he was all geared up with safety goggles and ear defenders, but I wasn't And he seemed determined to do a really good job of the strimming - so I retreated with the watering can and to give some of the container plants a drink from the water butts that I had filled up yesterday. It was a good half hour later before he finished but at this point, I was so hot, I wasn't feeling too clever. I managed to finish pegging down the netting then I threw the tools and crates into the car to come home at 11.30am for a cold wash and beer to cool off.
It's about 26oC at the moment, said to get as warm as 28oC by evening - too warm for my comfort (25oC is my maximum). The polytunnel is up to 36oC already - but those hot chillies are really basking in it. The annums (cayenne type) on the other hand look dreadfully wilted. And the pots feel a bit lightweight .... oops, maybe I will just give everything a good drenching every day while this heatwave lasts.
Have to confess I was starting to get a little worried about the toms ... the greenhouse toms were failing to set fruit, and the rest are all outdoor so at the whim of the weather, not to mention I was a little late sowing them but now with the warm sunny days, they are all producing lots of flowers and trying to catch up. First, I think I have a baby tom on the Burpees Delicious toms at last Of course, I won't know if it really was the magnesium sulfate feed or just warmer weather that helped to set the fruit, but I'm just happy that things are moving on.
Minibel flowers are so tiny:
compared to the Cherokee Purple I have in the hanging basket:
On the chilli front, the long awaited Lemon Drop (has very distinctive flowers):
Surprisingly, the overwintered Jalepeno has been taking its time to flower but they are coming on thick and fast now, and fruit set too:
The Black Hungarian fruit getting bigger:
as are the Aji Pulsar (there are loads of fruit set on these plants)
The hot Red Morouga in flower (really tiny flowers - very difficult to pollinate the traditional way which is to gently tap the flower head so that pollen is knocked around. I think this is going to have to be a little paintbrush job):
Meanwhile, Padron flower and fruit:
The Ancho fruit is getting bigger:
Espelette fruit:
Finally, the Thick Cayenne is looking a little odd - I was expecting long thick fruits like sweet peppers, not contorted like that. I did sow some Joe's Long chillies but I distinctly remember none had germinated, but the fruits look very similar to how these are progressing. I'm certain I didn't get the seeds mixed up because I sowed them weeks apart :
The hot chillies might be revelling in this heatwave, but I'm not It's too hot to even venture outside, never mind attempt any gardening. Watering everything seems to be taking priority and becoming a real chore now. The greenhouses/polytunnel/patio plants need daily watering and a lot more time than I really have but I'm pleased to see lots of fruit set coming on now. The Burpees Delicious tomatoes however, have turned into gigantic monsters and reached the apex of the greenhouse despite only 2-3 trusses per plant (the 1st lot fruitless) The chillies in the glass greenhouse have also reached the top of the roof and I really need to empty it and take the shelving down to the next level but I really needed to get down to the plot today putting myself in a real dilemna.
As today's weather forecast was for another hot day, I set off at 6.00am with just one task and that was to give everything a thorough drenching, particularly the peas, beans, onions and container plants. Despite the house and garden being warm and humid, it was surprisingly pleasant with cloud cover and a slight breeze at the plot. I had lathered myself with insect repellant before going after being bit on the ankle on Friday which is still itchy and irritating. As I arrived, several other plotholders had the same idea but luckily the standpipe nearest my plot was still vacant so I hooked up the hosepipe and got stuck in. I spent a good 2 hours and able to do the entire plot and top up the water butts.
As I watered, I assessed how things were coming along. The winter squashes have really got going and I'd say that they have now caught up from their delayed sowing. Several had flowers which is also a good sign. The butternut on the other hand are still tiny and not much bigger than when I planted them but their foliage look dark green and healthy so I think it's just been a delayed reaction to being planted out and then straight into a heatwave. Hopefully they'll recover and get going soon.
Peas - well, I must have had a brain fart when labeling the saved seeds LOL ... last year I grew Golden Sweet, a lovely yellow mangetout which I can highly recommend, and also Latvia Soup pea which is a dried pea for cooking. I needed to build up a stock of Latvia seed last year so that I could go for a proper harvest this year and as I had already got 2 other mangetout varieties on the go, I dedicated an entire row to them and left out the Golden Sweet. Only they are now in full flower and ... producing yellow pods So it looks like I'll be eating a lot of mangetout this year LOL. The Kent Blue (a few heritage seed I managed to acquire) are also in full flower and look so pretty. The Carouby de Maussane are also just starting to flower and gaining height too.
Broad beans - I picked a pod from one of the Express and munched on the baby beans. Not quite ready for harvesting but very close. The Dreadnought are turning into brutes and starting to tower over the Express but are a mass of flowers now. The climbing french beans have got about 4 feet up the canes now but no sign of flowers. However, the dwarf variety Yin Yan have started so hopefully will be cropping soon. The dwarf Borlotti and the Minidor are flowerless at the moment.
All the tomatoes are now flowering, and I saw the Roma have several fruit set. The recently planted courgettes are coming along and a couple had flowers on, and .... one of the Romanesco had the tiniest fruit set. The Kashmiri chillies look healthy, but the biggest surprise was the Strawberry popcorn. Soon after I planted them, we had strong winds and 8 out of the 10 had fallen over. I was going to pull them all up and fill the bed with the Golden self blanching celery but today I noticed all 10 were upright. I've never known that to happen before - normally when sweetcorn fall over they just stay like that and usually need staking. Well, I've given them a second chance and left them. That means finding another bed for the celery ...
Garlic - the Illico were definitely ready for lifting but when I tried to push the fork into the soil to lift them, it was as solid as concrete. With a bit of pulling and trying to get the fork in I managed to lift them up, and some nice looking garlic bulbs too so I'm very pleased. However, a lot of the other later varieties were looking very yellow so I lifted a couple of each up - but I think it is just sheer lack of water as the bulbs were healthy but small.
Finally, the potatoes. The sweetcorn at home really need to be planted out now but the only spare beds available are not only riddled with marestail but the soil has dried out and impossible to get the fork in, never mind a spade. As the Lady Christl have been in the ground for 14 weeks, they should be ready to lift and clear the bed for the sweetcorn. I did notice one of the second earlies, Vivaldi were dying back early and the reason seems to be a total lack of water in the soil. Even so, the potatoes were well formed and I'm really pleased with the batch I dug up. Lovely unblemished skins and have that new potato look. The Lady Christl on the other hand have not fared as well - some decent looking potatoes, lots of tiny ones but also a fair bit of slug damage which is unusual for first earlies so even if they are the best potato for flavour I will probably be reluctant to grow them again as slug resistance is high on my list when selecting varieties. A couple look like they had black leg too.
By 10.30am, the sun broke through the clouds and the heat soared. Within half an hour it became too unbearable to carry on or even take any photos, so I loaded the car with today's harvest and left. At home I cleaned up the garlic and have them drying - the photo shows the Illico on the left with a few of the others (Music, Cherokee and Tuscany) on the right (with the golf ball measure in the middle):
thank you. I tried the Vivaldi last night for tea and they were superb - perfect in every way (no slug holes, lovely "new potato" texture, tasty) so I'm very pleased with those. Tonight I'll be trying out the Lady Christl.
I had a restless night, the house stifling and in the end got up at 3.00am. At the first bit of light at about 4.00am, I got stuck in with the watering with good intentions of calling in at the plot later. When I got to the glass greenhouse, the plants were bending over as the tops were hitting the roof so I spent a bit of time moving pots around and dropping one of the shelves down a level but I really do need to do them all sooner rather than later. Many of the pots were bone dry despite my daily watering so I gave them plenty and flooded some of the trays. Interestingly, the tall narrow pots were the driest compared to the smaller wider squat pots.
In the polytunnel, I felt like I was walking into a jungle - oh my, everything has just gone bananas. In the end I decided to take out 3 trays (the African Birds Eye aka Piri Piri and the Bailey Pequins) which I'll move to the window in the back bedroom where they'll catch full sun practically all day. Even so, it didn't make an awful lot of difference - I hate to say it, but I think I need another 4M long polytunnel I noticed the Fatalli were starting to flower ... and clearly lots of the other chinense varieties like the Habaneros and the Butch T are just about ready too.
The pots were bone dry - with outside temperatures up to 28-29oC every day since Saturday, heavens knows how hot it must get in the polytunnel. So once again, every pot needed loads more watering than I've been giving them up until now. The fruit on the annums are coming along nicely - I think there's an Ancho that looks almost ready to harvest (I'll have to double check - some of the chillies I've got are picked when green rather than red)
In the big greenhouse, the tomato plants had got so big, the framework was collapsing under the weight and they desperately needed attention. So out came the secateurs and they've all had a severe chop, with the older lower leaves trimmed off too - this should hopefully reduce the water uptake as the compost like everything else was bone dry. It does mean that each plant only has one or two trusses, and even then, only one or two fruits per truss so not going to be the biggest harvest but I'll be happy with those rather than none at all. Most of the developing fruit are about 1.5-2 inches across. So lesson learned here - Burpees Delicious grow into monster plants (wish I'd known), so if you don't have room in the greenhouse, don't bother growing them.
The peppers and mystery chillies in the growbags look well with lots of flowers coming on. Some of the plants are easily 3 feet high now. They'll probably respond better with the extra light after trimming the tomato plants.
And would you believe after I finished watering the plants on the patio, that today's session actually took me 3 hours to do the watering I have plans to build proper racking for the polytunnel over winter - I think I'll also seriously consider putting in some automatic watering system too while I'm at it as this was a mammoth task today, and I just know it's not going to be the only one while temperatures remain this warm (I'm not really complaining as there's no doubt the heatwave has been what we really needed to get the chillies going proper)
Last night when I checked the chillies and the usual pollinating, have to confess I was starting to regret the drenching yesterday as most were not happy. Thankfully this morning they looked fine and better still, no need to water! Just as well as I was late getting up and a visit to the plot was feeling like an emergency.
There are lots of fruit set on the chillies now, but the Naga Morich and Red Morouga seemed stubborn despite flowers for several days now - worryingly, the flower buds kept dropping off. However, this morning ... (we need a dance emoticon here LOL), there was a distinctive "lump" on one of the faded Naga flowers - a fruit has set! And there are many more chinense plants flowering now.
I set off to the plot just after 6.00am and I couldn't believe it, but there was a queue waiting at the gate to go in. So many people were at the site at that time with the same objective - watering. It's been so hot and dry for a while now, even the grass has gone a straw colour. Luckily my standpipe was once again vacant so I hooked up the hosepipe and didn't mess about. Not as thorough a watering as I'd have liked but everything got at least a drop or two, the peas, beans and onions getting a lion's share.
Not much time to do an assessment of the plot other than I really need to do some serious harvesting - early potatoes, broad beans and mangetout, all the currants have ripened (blueberries have filled out and just about to turn) and in a day or so, there'll be a fair few courgettes (oh I am looking forward to these - they are almost a staple food for me throughout summer ) I did notice several winter squashes and tomatoes have set fruit , the cabbages and sprouts look really good despite a late planting out and the borlotti beans are flowering. I really must take some photos, but they'll have to be carefully shot so that you don't see the towering weeds everywhere
davina112 wrote:Ohhhh LL, I am so glad you also have triffid weeds, I thought it was just me
I know what you mean lol
"Remember as you go through life that a rich man is just a poor man with an incredible amount of money" - Smith & Jones Stewpots DTL Allotment Diary 2013
With the ongoing heatwave, everything on the plot has decided to ripen together. I just knew I would not have time over the weekend to cope with watering, planting, weeding and harvesting (not to mention dealing with the produce once it was picked), so I decided to book today off work. First thing this morning a quick watering at home, then off to the plot just before 6.00am to give everything a thorough drenching. Despite the warm night and clear blue skies and hot sun, there was a slight cool breeze which was welcomed. At 8.00am I went home for a quick breakfast and to shut all the windows/doors to keep the house cool, then off again at 8.30am.
First, the blackcurrants. The smell while picking was so mouth watering. All 3 bushes were heavy with fruit and I'm sure I only picked about a tenth of what was still there:
Next the white currants - again, all 3 bushes were full of fruit. It was hard work picking these - I really ought to invest in a berry picker:
The Golden Sweet mangetout needed picking too so that I can get another crop in:
and while at it, I picked some of the Kent Blue to try (of course I had a munch while at the plot as well) but the next flush of pods will be allowed to go to seed now so that I can save the seed (I only had a few seeds that were grown by a fellow gardener who was helping to preserve this rare heritage variety)
Some of the Express broad beans were ready - some beans just getting a little bit big but generally most should be baby beans:
And finally, the weather had encouraged the flower heads on the hardneck garlic to grow faster than I realised so was an urgent trim. These (called scapes) will be used for cooking in place of garlic until the bulbs are ready:
With those out of the way, time for some piccies of what else is happening on the plot. First - weeds. Lots of them, and all getting out of hand but no time to deal with them today so avert your eyes from anything that looks messy LOL. Looking at the plot with the squash beds in the foreground:
The Brussel sprout bed:
Cabbage bed:
Peas and beans beds:
Some of the pea flowers are just so pretty:
Even the borlotti beans are a lovely shade of pink:
Blueberries heavy with fruit - some are just starting to ripen:
The late sown courgettes have really got going in this heat:
Of course I had to pick that one, but I feel cheated - one courgette for the price of 2 flowers Nevertheless, I'm sure it'll taste just as good:
The oca in the sleeper bed with some tomatoes and celery in the bed behind:
Fruit set on the Roma (I also noticed fruit set on some of the other varieties too):
The Strawberry popcorn - it's hard to believe that only a couple of weeks ago, 8 of the 10 plants had been flattened by the wind and I was contemplating on pulling them out! Some chillies in the same bed further on:
One of the non-cultivated beds (was going to be for sweetcorn) that is too far gone now to attempt to dig over and clear - you'd never believe that last year I had dug in loads of sand and compost. Last year's wet weather really did take its toll on the soil.
And finally, the yucca plant - on Wednesday it was at its prime and so beautiful but although it still looks impressive, many of the flowers are just going past their best:
Today was lovely and cool - cloudy with light drizzle on and off most of the morning. Surprising how I got wet but the parched soil stayed stubbornly dry. Task this morning - to finally plant the sweetcorn. I have a feeling the heatwave will quickly give way to rain (worryingly) but I'm still hopeful they'll catch up. Providing that is, the forecast thunderstorm and deluge don't damage them.
I used the first early potato bed - it was so dry, even walking on it didn't compress the soil. Dug a planting hole, a good handful or two of compost with a handful of chicken manure pellets, planted and gave each plant a good drenching of water. 31 in total:
The forecast rain started to worry me - I've found that when it rains at this stage, onions, garlic and shallots tend to get rot on my plot. The onions were planted late so are still green and slowly bulbing up, but the garlic was starting to die back. So my next task was to dig them up. Some small bulbs, but some good bulbs as well. I harvested the Music, Chesnock and Picardy, but the Tuscany was no where near ready so I've left them in (fingers crossed):
I glanced at the shallots and decided to lift those too (Golden Gourmet and Red Sun):
There was another crop of Golden Sweet mangetout and some of the Carouby de Maussane were pickable too. Some more Express broad beans, and a couple of Dreadnought were ready too.
I've spent the afternoon washing and tidying up the garlic. They are now on the shelving drying off. Still to sort out the shallots ...
What a strange day - cloudy, bordering on cold first thing, pleasant for much of the day of around 20oC until the sun came out and then it felt like the sun was bearing down through a magnifying glass and temperatures shot up to about 29oC. With much talk of thunderstorms and heavy rain, thought I'd make the most of the evening sunshine and take some piccies of what's happening in the greenhouse and polytunnel. The humidity in there was phenomenal - I thought the view finder on the camera was misting up because I was getting all hot and sweaty, but it was the condensation on the lens LOL! Thank goodness for photo editing software, I think I've rescued some piccies ....
Chilli flowers - the Bolivian Rainbow are actually outside. Small flowers so I wasn't aware of the harlequin pattern:
The Indian PC-1 is starting to flower:
The Bulgarian Carrot are also flowering - interestingly, the flowers look very similar to Lemon drop:
Talking of which, the Lemon Drop is very productive with masses of fruit:
The BeaverDam were a little hidden behind some other plants and I hadn't realised just how big the fruit have got:
Satan's Kiss - I can now see how it gets its name (aka Ciliegia Piccante):
I think I've identified one of the chillies growing in a growbag in the greenhouse - looking a lot like a cayenne, I did sow some Golden Cayenne but the labels in that tray had got all smudged (despite using a permanent ink marker) so I couldn't identify the germinations. So, that's what I think these are:
The Red Morouga getting bigger:
The overwintered Fresno/unknown now starting to ripen - this is one of the mutant fruits:
This next one really is a mystery - I genuinely thought it was one of the Ajis even though it had no label, but definitely not looking Aji-like. It looks like none of the chilli seeds I sowed but I'm wondering if it is a sweet pepper called Kaibi Round (?):
A baby minibel tom - I am disappointed that despite loads of flowers, this is the only one to set fruit. The Minibels have been in pots on the patio:
In the greenhouse, the Burpees Delicious tomatoes are growing well. I counted a total of 14 fruits which is not bad considering the earlier poor fruit set:
Barely a half hour of posting the last entry, we had a tremendous thunderstorm I had the tv on in the background while on the computer when it went silent to find the message "no satellite". I knew this meant that there were some heavy rain on its way and sure enough, it was very dark outside with a heavy feeling of foreboding. Spent the next half hour running around the patio moving trays of stuff into cold frames and shutting lids and retrieving the crates of drying shallots back indoors, closing down the greenhouses to the constant sheet lighting and rumbles of thunder. When it arrived, it really was quite intense and I won't be at all surprised if there's local flooding as the rainwater gushing down the street looked like a river.
Woke up to another thunderstorm at 5.00am and it's still rumbling and lots more heavy deluges. Some of the bigger plants especially by the polytunnel are sitting in full trays of water - must have had several inches of rain in the past 12 hours! The seam in the polytunnel has once again sprung a leak
It's been a week of thunderstorms and some seriously heavy deluges with a slight drop in temperature to around the 25-26oC highs when the sun came out, but with the higher humidity, it hasn't felt cooler. Watering the greenhouse and polytunnel is taking a good hour and half every morning - not so much the trips to and from the house with the watering can, but going around pollinating the chilli flowers and then giving the plants a daily misting. This means I've never had time to pop round to the plot in an early morning for a 20 minute stint. So, after a week of absence, I already had a feeling of what to expect when I got there this morning.
Well, the sweetcorn I planted last week have not only survived but put a few more inches on and looking good. I happen to pass a plot with sweetcorn growing and mine are about the same, so hopefully on target. The squash bed is one mass of plants, many trying to escape LOL. Loads of flowers and fruits too, some the size of a large grapefruit. No flowers on the butternut but they all looked much better for the rain and starting to take off which is a relief. However, both beds are riddled with weeds and now nigh impossible to take out without stepping on the vines so I'll just have to leave them (now there's an excuse not to do the weeding if ever I heard LOL) Next year I'm going to put a weed suppressant cover over the bed and plant through it. The rest of the plot looked equally weedy but there are lots of veggies doing well too. A couple of broad beans had fallen over as had a JA, and one of my brussel sprouts had drooped over which I'm not sure why. All the others and the cabbages looked splendid.
Today's task was to finally plant the Golden self blanching celery. Now that the soil is moist, digging the triangle bed was a doddle compared to last week's concrete when trying to lift up the garlic. Just a few marestail to dig out, then heavily forked over to break up any clods. I went for digging planting holes, filling with compost and chicken manure and back filling with the soil. I felt rather silly watering them in with the forecast of rain later but it had to be done.
While in the digging mood, I cleared some marestail out of the end of the cabbage bed, then moved on to the garlic bed. Last week I left the Tuscany garlic in the ground as they were nowhere near ready to lift, but today most had fallen over a lot like onions do when ready to lift - I've never seen it happen before, but these are soft necked type unlike the hard neck where I take off the scapes (flower heads) so perhaps it's normal (?) Anyway, I decided to lift them, and just as well because I also came across a few that were rotten. The good ones were perfectly formed, but still on the small side and nothing like the photos of huge garlic you see in the catalogues. As I need a bed for the swede, I carried on digging it over and taking out some rogue marestail. The other reason is when I was trying to harvest the bulbs last week, the soil was so dry and rock hard, I ended up pulling most of them out rather than lifting them and I knew there were a couple of bulbs still in the ground. I dug out a good dozen of the Illico and all were fine so I'm very happy with this year's garlic.
After a break, the broad beans were begging to be harvested. I picked a fair few kgs of pods and could have lifted the plants out but time was ticking and the dark clouds were rolling in quickly. I had taken along my new berry picker to try out but I was too tired and probably wouldn't have had the time to deal with the red currants when I got home anyway. Instead I walked the length of the plot for a final check when I spied the courgettes ... or should that be baby marrows LOL. I half expected it with all the rain. I picked 9 courgettes, and interestingly, the same Romanesco had produced another "twin" courgette (1 courgette with 2 flowers on it) but at least the other had produced a decent one.
A quick check on the onions - bulbing up nicely and not quite ready but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the leaves flop over in the next week. A lot more tomatoes had fruit set (looking skyward ... with the wetter weather, will this mean we might get blight?) The Charlotte potatoes have died back, the Kestrel just starting to show signs that they are ready for lifting too. I didn't have time for the mange tout - the Golden Sweet have decided to finish producing and the plants are dying off. Last year with all the rain, I seem to be picking pods over several weeks but I suspect the hot dry weather was too much this year. The Kent Blue are a mass of pods so I'll have plenty of seed for next year - hopefully enough for myself and to pass some seed on to somebody else interested in growing a heritage seed.
At home, nearly all of the extremely hot chillies are bursting into flower and there are several fruit set now. Meanwhile, many of the others have gone into overdrive and even more flowers than ever. Not surprising it takes me so long going round playing bee. I am expecting a lot of chillies this year so already looking up chilli sauce recipes. The peppers on the other hand are only just starting to flower, yet the plants are easily 4 feet tall now. This is the first time I've put them into grow bags which are at floor level, so it may be why they are getting so tall. The mystery chillies that I planted in the growbags are fruiting well - I think there's a Hungarian Hot Wax and a couple of Jalepenos as well as the Golden Cayenne.
On the patio the swede have been visited by the cabbage white butterflies. I couldn't see any caterpillars but a few holes are appearing, and I found eggs on a couple of leaves
I've removed the eggs but I'll have to keep a close eye on them. Meanwhile, I found this little fella on one of the hanging basket tomato plants. He seemed strangely quiet so I was able to take a couple of piccies:
Suffice to say, I had to go home and change before going off to the shops but at least everything got a drop of water of sorts.
- but those hot chillies are really basking in it. The annums (cayenne type) on the other hand look dreadfully wilted. And the pots feel a bit lightweight .... oops, maybe I will just give everything a good drenching every day while this heatwave lasts.
Of course, I won't know if it really was the magnesium sulfate feed or just warmer weather that helped to set the fruit, but I'm just happy that things are moving on.
:
It's too hot to even venture outside, never mind attempt any gardening. Watering everything seems to be taking priority and becoming a real chore now. The greenhouses/polytunnel/patio plants need daily watering and a lot more time than I really have but I'm pleased to see lots of fruit set coming on now. The Burpees Delicious tomatoes however, have turned into gigantic monsters and reached the apex of the greenhouse despite only 2-3 trusses per plant (the 1st lot fruitless) The chillies in the glass greenhouse have also reached the top of the roof and I really need to empty it and take the shelving down to the next level but I really needed to get down to the plot today putting myself in a real dilemna.
So it looks like I'll be eating a lot of mangetout this year LOL. The Kent Blue (a few heritage seed I managed to acquire) are also in full flower and look so pretty. The Carouby de Maussane are also just starting to flower and gaining height too.
thank you. I tried the Vivaldi last night for tea and they were superb - perfect in every way (no slug holes, lovely "new potato" texture, tasty) so I'm very pleased with those. Tonight I'll be trying out the Lady Christl.
) I did notice several winter squashes and tomatoes have set fruit 
, the cabbages and sprouts look really good despite a late planting out and the borlotti beans are flowering. I really must take some photos, but they'll have to be carefully shot so that you don't see the towering weeds everywhere 
