I am stunned at how fast my courgettes and sweetcorn are growing. On Friday I popped over and there were none worth picking, and I measured the sweetcorn to be the height of my shoulder. On Monday there were seven courgettes, two of which were whoppers and heading for marrowhood and the sweetcorn is towering over my head! I've hardly had time to blog because I'm harvesting, weeding, maintaining the plants and filling the water butts.
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There's no stopping these runaway courgettes. They absolutely love this hot dry weather, with regular watering. The plants are bigger and more wholesome than any I have ever seen.
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| Blimey! Breaking news - sweetcorn grows over a foot in 2 days! |
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After a weekend it's dwarfing me!
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Just look at the size of these grapes. It can only be a matter of weeks before I find out how they taste. Can't wait!
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Oodles of tomatoes waiting to ripen. The vigilance of snapping off side shoots seems to have paid off and the tomatoes are all visible and it's possible to get between the plants to weed.
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Onions on the left are doing really well after a jolly good weeding, and amazingly some of them seem to be reaching a half-decent size. It just goes to show that sunshine is the key to all great growing it seems. The beetroot is next and then the swede which I've thinned out considerably. I've never grown swede before so am quite excited to see them develop.
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The peas have been harvested and the plants pulled out, and I'm using the twiggy sticks that were supporting them to try and grow the pumkins upwards rather than trailing on the floor for the slugs to feast on the baby pumpkins.
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| The pride and joy of myself and May - the cabbage patch! Looking fabulous, the cabbages are forming proper hearts and are so far not getting too hammered by slugs, snails and caterpillars. |
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A typical day's harvest. The carrots are getting less now, but there are still a fair few meals worth, and the lettuce leaves are finally thinning out as some of the plants have bolted and I've pulled them out. I've got some new salad leaves appearing which will be ready in a week or two.
The spinach and chard is still coming thick and fast for cooking, although again, a few spinach plants have bolted and gone to the compost. New baby leaf spinach is pickable for salads in the tunnel and outside.
I've harvested all the broad beans now, and although they were fine for cooking they were not great raw, so next year I'll make sure I don't sow the dwarf variety but grow tall broad beans like the tasty ones I had last year.
Next job - nag husband lots to whizz over the paths with his petrol mower. |
