Once again, a really warm day at the plot, although there was (thankfully!) some cloud cover early on. It was a really productive day today, and we achieved a lot. The plot is really starting to take shape now, and it’s great to see the plants growing and fruit/veg starting to form.

Brassicas

Update on the brassicas, they have managed to survive an initial onslaught of slugs and are starting to form the heart in the middle. The heart is really what we will harvest when it’s ready, so it is important that it’s protected.

Tomatoes

It was time for some tomatoes to make their way outside. There are a lot of varieties to handle this year (I think we have 40 different types!) so we’ve decided to house some of the more common ones (Gardeners Delight, Heinz, etc) outside and keep the greenhouse space for the ones we want to protect more (like Black Krim, Atomic fusion, Marmande, etc).

We’ve also companion planted some marigolds with the tomatoes, the idea here is that the marigolds will attract the pests and leave the tomatoes alone… hopefully.

Fruit around the plot

I like seeing the fruit start to form around the plot, there are real bursts of colour on the way, and they are also pretty nice to pick from the plant and eat as you walk around, kind of “one for the pot, one for me” scenario!

Somewhat a failure

I wanted to share this because otherwise its easy-to-make things look great all the time, the thing is this is a learning curve sometimes, and sometimes things go wrong, but that’s OK. Blackfly have started to get onto our pear trees, and we have a homemade solution consisting of oil, eco washing up liquid, and water that we spray on the affected crops, I was too eager to spray this on the pear tree with some evening sun remaining (it didn’t feel hot to me at all, but it was enough to burn the leaves).

It may recover, but it likely won’t, a lesson learnt here and we move on.

Bean updates

The beans are settling in well, both broad and climbing, the broad beans that we’ve sown direct are shooting up, and the beans that we started in the greenhouse are forming pods!

The climbing beans have done well and have luckily mostly avoided the slugs that have been about, we’ve also started to see shoots of the climbing beans we sowed direct, it’s always a relief when you see them start to come through!

Around the plot

I wasn’t sure where to place these photos, so I’ve decided to add them here together, we generally have things dotted around the plot and try to make the most of the space we have! This time, we have sunflowers between courgettes, and we also have a crane in the onions.

A new pepper house!

Last year we grew our peppers in the greenhouse and also outside, and whilst peppers can be grown outside, they like warmth. This year we decided to try growing them outside in a mini poly-tunnel style house. The hope is that the house will give the peppers a little more warmth and protection from the elements.

Next time

I think that’s about it for today, next time I may have some exciting news to share, but we need to wait a little first!