Monday, August 15, 2005
August Garden Update
Time for an update on the garden.
All this nice weather in the past couple of weeks, with regular watering by my own fair hand, of course, has caused our vegetables to come alive. Fruits are now growing on every single one (well, only just in the case of the sprouts).
So, I'll take you on a little trip of my very own small holding:
The sunflowers have now all flowered, and some have grown new heads like some strange alien thingy and flowered all over again. The tallest of them has only just come out into flower - a lovely dark red colour. It's 6'5" (198cm) tall from the top of the pot, which is not bad at all. It's certainly way taller than me.
The sprouts have had a hard time of it this last month, with attack upon attack from caterpillars of the cabbage white butterfly. The leaves are very holey, but a careful look at the stems and it's possible to see the buds beginning to sprout (no pun intended) where the sprouts will grow.
Like the spouts, the broccoli have also had it hard - in fact, probably even harder - but they're now all coming out into "flower". It's actually the flower you eat on the broccoli, and one of them has a nice big head, so I'm sure we'll be having some tasty organic broccoli this week for tea!
The beans were planted last minute, and probably haven't really had enough time to grow. However, there's a couple of small runners beginning to show their pods. Shame I'm not all that keen on runner beans.
I've been mightily impressed with our beets. They've just got on with it, done their growing and nearly every plant has a good sized beetroot underneath it. I'm going to have to start pulling them soon, otherwise they might go woody.
I'm sure our pumpkins have a desire for world domination. They are growing furiously and have completely filled up the quarter of the vegetable patch I generously gave them. They're beginning to encroach on the other plants with their ribbon-like tendrils grappling onto stuff. However, they're doing great and as you can see in the photo, there's a pumpkin a size of my hand already growing, and it still looks like a juvenile. There are lots of flowers on the plants but no other pumpkins, so I haven't got to start pulling fruits off yet to make this pumpkin grow enormous.
The tomatoes are going ok. They went rather wild a few months ago when I fertilized them, and with my lack of knowledge of how to grow the things properly, they've mainly bushed out rather than producing many fruits. However, there are at least 8 tomatoes growing, and quite a few more flowers that have yet to go over, so there's hope for a few more yet.
The chillis are doing great in our "sun-lounge" - kind of a lean-to conservatory. They haven't really been effected as much as the peppers which they are growing next to, and as you can see in the photo, are generating a number of nice fruit. In fact, the chilli that is shown in that photo is currently being cooked into a curry by Daisy. There are at least 8 other fruit similar to that one on the plants.
Our peppers have been under attack for some time now from aphids. I hadn't realised until recently that the strange curling up of the leaves was due to aphids, but having spotted the effect in my gardening bible, I realised and on closer inspection I could see the little critters. I took a photo for you (and believe me that was easier said that done because they are soooooo tiny tiny). I have looked up how to get rid of them (apparantly with a spray of diluted washing up liquid), so I might try that although I'm a little worried I'll make our peppers taste of "Fairy Lemon". The plant has some flower buds on it, but they seem to have stopped doing anything. I suspect this is because of the aphids. Let's hope they've not caused too much harm to the plant.
Right.. My curry's just about ready - time to taste that chilli!
All this nice weather in the past couple of weeks, with regular watering by my own fair hand, of course, has caused our vegetables to come alive. Fruits are now growing on every single one (well, only just in the case of the sprouts).
So, I'll take you on a little trip of my very own small holding:
Sunflowers
The sunflowers have now all flowered, and some have grown new heads like some strange alien thingy and flowered all over again. The tallest of them has only just come out into flower - a lovely dark red colour. It's 6'5" (198cm) tall from the top of the pot, which is not bad at all. It's certainly way taller than me.
Brussell Sprouts
The sprouts have had a hard time of it this last month, with attack upon attack from caterpillars of the cabbage white butterfly. The leaves are very holey, but a careful look at the stems and it's possible to see the buds beginning to sprout (no pun intended) where the sprouts will grow.
Broccoli
Like the spouts, the broccoli have also had it hard - in fact, probably even harder - but they're now all coming out into "flower". It's actually the flower you eat on the broccoli, and one of them has a nice big head, so I'm sure we'll be having some tasty organic broccoli this week for tea!
Beans
The beans were planted last minute, and probably haven't really had enough time to grow. However, there's a couple of small runners beginning to show their pods. Shame I'm not all that keen on runner beans.
Beetroot
I've been mightily impressed with our beets. They've just got on with it, done their growing and nearly every plant has a good sized beetroot underneath it. I'm going to have to start pulling them soon, otherwise they might go woody.
Pumpkin
I'm sure our pumpkins have a desire for world domination. They are growing furiously and have completely filled up the quarter of the vegetable patch I generously gave them. They're beginning to encroach on the other plants with their ribbon-like tendrils grappling onto stuff. However, they're doing great and as you can see in the photo, there's a pumpkin a size of my hand already growing, and it still looks like a juvenile. There are lots of flowers on the plants but no other pumpkins, so I haven't got to start pulling fruits off yet to make this pumpkin grow enormous.
Tomatoes
The tomatoes are going ok. They went rather wild a few months ago when I fertilized them, and with my lack of knowledge of how to grow the things properly, they've mainly bushed out rather than producing many fruits. However, there are at least 8 tomatoes growing, and quite a few more flowers that have yet to go over, so there's hope for a few more yet.
Chillis
The chillis are doing great in our "sun-lounge" - kind of a lean-to conservatory. They haven't really been effected as much as the peppers which they are growing next to, and as you can see in the photo, are generating a number of nice fruit. In fact, the chilli that is shown in that photo is currently being cooked into a curry by Daisy. There are at least 8 other fruit similar to that one on the plants.
Peppers
Our peppers have been under attack for some time now from aphids. I hadn't realised until recently that the strange curling up of the leaves was due to aphids, but having spotted the effect in my gardening bible, I realised and on closer inspection I could see the little critters. I took a photo for you (and believe me that was easier said that done because they are soooooo tiny tiny). I have looked up how to get rid of them (apparantly with a spray of diluted washing up liquid), so I might try that although I'm a little worried I'll make our peppers taste of "Fairy Lemon". The plant has some flower buds on it, but they seem to have stopped doing anything. I suspect this is because of the aphids. Let's hope they've not caused too much harm to the plant.
Right.. My curry's just about ready - time to taste that chilli!
Comments:
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Ah my pumpkins aren't doing very well at all! I think I'm going to have to try pollenating them myself or something.
Ah chilli sounds like an interesting thing to grow! And I never realised how strange broccolli really is with it's green flowers!
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