Trowel and Error

[Rebel Pebble]

I'm jealous of your stunning passionflower, never mind fruit! I've never managed to keep one alive. They are just such amazing flowers.

[Mountain Goat]

Painting my shoffice at the back of the garden a nice deep blue really helps all of my flowers "pop" with that as a backdrop (I have some red crocosmias I didn't really notice last year but you can't miss them now!). Would you think of touching up the fence and wall?

(Thank you both, who knew you could get such a kick out of some fruit - and I don't even like passionfruit that much )

Yes, I have on the table: painting the fence, climbers, shrubs or a combo of the three. I've got a short list of appropriate climbers so if I want to paint I'm going to need to do it in the short window between current stuff dying back a bit and having to get the climbers in the ground so I need to clarify my plans to myself and work out a schedule. I can't just paint and nothing else because the concrete posts and footings are more of an eyesore than the actual panels (which are also ugly) so something growing needs to cover the lot. So is it worth painting? Probably? And round and round goes my mind.

[Disco]

They're not usually very edible, I don't think but they look gorgeous.

I've been eating strawberries for weeks and rocket and now my courgettes are about to turn into a glut. I've got four plants so I'm going to have to give some to the neighbours.

[absley]

That's wonderful Del, well done!

I'm in awe of the gluts, I harvested my first courgettes this evening.

I still haven't found the courage to dig up my potatoes, I will do so this weekend though. I have some final gooseberries to pick - annoyingly all of the ones that I pickled began to fizz, presumably because they started fermenting. So I either need to embrace that and find a fermenting based 'pickle' option or adjust my technique (I tried adding more pickling liquid for my second try, this time I think I'll let them sit so all liquid in them drains out and the pickling liquid doesn't get diluted).

I have many berries to jam, which is exciting - loganberry and raspberry will be done in two batches, one with violet and one with cocoa nibs; jostaberries as they are; tbc with blackberries, ideas welcome!

My strawberries gave up weeks ago and the raspberries are almost done.

[absley]

Eta, my courgette harvest - the small one was the first to emerge, stopped growing at c6cm.

[Disco]

I love the sound of your berry plans.

[Cerise]

I have two extremely happy cucumber plants - one mini and one normal. The tomato plants have tomatoes but I’ve never successfully managed to ripen tomatoes without them getting some kind of tomato disease so we’ll see. My baby corn is a couple of feet high now. Obviously we go away in a week and a half so if anything good is going to happen, that’s when it will be!

[baargain]

Abs, I forgot to answer your potato question! I think flowering is a sign you can pick em, but you can also leave them til they die back and they might still get bigger after flowering. They keep better if you leave them in the soil for a week or so after the foliage has died. They also keep quite well in the soil (til freezing time that is). Mine have flowered and I am ignoring the for now

[Disco]

My one braod bean plant made one pod and the rest of the tiny ones fell off.

[absley]

Oh Disco, isn't that the way! The jam ideas are Diana Henry and Lillie O'Brien. I have a few blackberry ideas as well now, with juniper, bay or pinot noir!

And fingers crossed for your harvest, Cerise, hopefully they'll be waiting for you when you get home.

Thanks Baa, that's reassuring. The interloper potato plants are amongst my courgettes so I think it would be good if I did harvest them but at least I can do it in stages.

Eta. New flowers to emerge are a couple of dahlias; it's funny how D loves all the ones I don't.

[Mountain Goat]

Your berries plans sound lovely, abs! And your courgettes are very pretty, if not so plentiful. I just went out to the courgette plant and there are now six more that will want picking soon. I am only half way through the monster one and we've had courgette every night for I don't know how long.

My tomatoes are a mystery to me, I'm treating them as an experiment. The one indoors which is huge (it's a bush variety but I've had to stake it) and covered in flowers still doesn't have any actual fruit?! (I have been tapping it, maybe not enough to get it to self pollinate properly?). The one which is close to this one, ie pretty much the same amount of sun but outdoors, is TINY but has several little green tomatoes. The three in the raised bed are having to fight the courgette/beetroot to get any light but have a few little tomatoes on them, I don't think they'll do too well because of being shaded over.

My dahlias are almost all out (I mean all but one of the plants have flowers open or opening), I'm not a big fan of dahlias (and still don't know why/how/when I bought these...?!) but these are very rich jewel colours so I do like them. And my accidental sunflowers (seeds dropped by birds) are close to opening now.

[Mountain Goat]

I just went out and took some photos while I thought of it, it's a dull day today and there's lots of stuff yet to open, but it's all starting.

garden1.jpg

garden2.jpg

garden3.jpg

[Disco]

It's looking really great, Goat! Full of colour and like a mature garden.

[Disco]

What is this tapping of tomato plants? I've never done that.

[Mountain Goat]

Thank you, it really needs height at the back (the back shrubs haven't grown much) but most of this border was lawn until about March/April so I'm pleased with how full it is already.

[Mountain Goat]

Oh I read that you need to tap indoor ones once they set flowers so they self pollinate. Outside the wind does it, but inside might need a bit of help. I only read about it when I googled why my tomato plant didn't have any fruit so possibly started too late (although I'm pretty sure it gets brushed against/breeze from open windows).

[Disco]

O I see! I don't think I've grown them indoors before.

[Mountain Goat]

Me neither. Even if I never get any fruit from it, it smells nice.

[Disco]

Yes, I love pinching off the side shoots for the smell.

[Disco]

These are my tomatoes. I’ve got other varieties flowering but not yet fruiting.