It feels as if nothing is really growing but I have just looked at some photographs taken a month ago and there has been some movement…but not nearly as much as there should have been. It is as if time has stopped.
I should have my tomato plants in growbags by now. I am only growing three varieties this year, moneymaker, red cherry and sungold. These are the ones I always have most success with.
I was having a bit of blogger banter with fellow gardening blogger Adam Leone (see Carrot Tops Allotment http://carrottopsallotment.com/) about the tastiest cherry tomato. He reckoned Gardeners Delight is the best variety but I think sungold is just that bit better. Put it this way, last year very few of our sungold tomatoes made it as far as the kitchen. In fact, very few made it out of the greenhouse. They were so sweet we ate them like sweeties.
So I set Adam a challenge. Grow both varieties and then do a blind tasting to see which one he prefers. He has even gone as far as mention my challenge in his last podcast and he has planted his sungold seeds – so the challenge is on! All we need now is some sunshine!
This week I managed to plant swedes and Florence fennel outside. The beetroot and peas I planted outside a couple of weeks ago have germinated which is good news.
I have potted on some zinnias, cosmos and diascia. The flowers and brassicas are all hardening off nicely. It has certainly been the perfect hardening off weather!
The brassicas could really do with being planted out now but we dug over the plot two weeks ago and normally we would have expected the clods of earth to have dried enough to crumble when stamped on. However, it has never stopped raining long enough and so I am unable to get the patch prepared for planting!
The brassica patch is not quite ready!
My sweet peas have been ready to go out for weeks and they have become really straggly and unsightly…so I sowed some more.
My gran’s magnolia tree is about to flower but we have had to cover it with fleece a few nights when frost was forecast.
Casper the friendly ghost!
I lost a melon and courgette plant, so only have one of each left. I have planted some more seeds just in case.
The good news is the peas, livingstone daisies, sunflowers, potatoes, blueberry, carrots and pak choi are thriving in the greenhouse and the strawberry plants outside have started to flower! My 4 okra plants seem to be in the land that time forgot.
24 April 2012
18 May 2012 – spot the difference!
I have not been able to sow any seeds for cut flowers outside, something new I wanted to try this year. So I have just planted up some large pots and left them in the greenhouse until things warm up.
The forecast for the weekend is sunny spells with a high temperature of…FIVE DEGREES! Never mind, it’s nearly June……
gardeningforlawyers 
I hope your plants start growing soon. Do you use a lighting system for your seedlings?
Thanks Karen. I don’t use a lighting system for seedlings. We are quite far north and at this time of year it does not get dark until after 10pm. By mid-summer it is seldom dark before midnight. The problem is the UK is experiencing really low temperatures at the moment – well below average. That, plus the wettest Spring on record means there has been very little sunshine either.
The forecasters seem optimistic that it is about to change for the better so fingers crossed they are right!
If it’s any consolation, my seedlings are behind where they would usually be too because I delayed sowing due to the cold/wet weather. I am hoping that they’ll catch up before the summer ends. Good luck with the okra – it is such a pretty plant… the fruits are a bonus!
By the way, my money is on Sungold to win the tomato challenge!
Thanks. I have a really good recipe for green tomato chutney just in case!
So how are they getting on… mine are just starting to ripen ; ) …Also, I have updated my website…what are your thoughts?
How are they getting on? Mine are just starting to Ripen 😉 …Also…in a more vain note.. Just in the process of updating the website..what are your thoughts?
Finally, the first sungold tomato was ripe enough to eat on Thursday (16th August) evening. I will send you a photograph. Even though it is really late it was still really sweet – a real treat. The rest have started to follow and at long last we don’t have to buy supermarket tomatoes! Have you tasted a sungold yet and what did you think?
Finally, the first sungold tomato was ripe enough to eat on Thursday (16th August) evening. I will send you a photograph. Even though it is really late it was still really sweet – a real treat. The rest have started to follow and at long last we don’t have to buy supermarket tomatoes! Have you tasted a sungold yet and what did you think?
PS love the new look website. Just sad the link to my blog is no longer there 😦