2021 Calender

[Penellype]

August



Tomatoes are starting to grow near the hotbin.



White currants have been harvested, there are a few apples. Sungold tomatoes are coming along.



Just one tomato plant and a couple of strawberry plants in the growhouse. Lettuces under the square net. Lady C Potatoes are dying down and one of the 4 pots has been harvested. Carrots are growing well and the calabrese plant in the carrot cage is nearly ready. Charlotte potatoes on the raised bed are starting to die down and the blueberries in the fruit cage are nearly ready.



Strawberries on the shelf have finished, Desiree potatoes are still growing and taking over the path. The green in the trough is just weeds which are growing really fast at the moment.



Potatoes on the nearest bed have been harvested, one bucket has been replanted with french beans. Cabbage and calabrese under the net. Cucumbers against the fence are growing well and starting to produce fruit.

[Jungle Jane]

August
I took these photos two days ago on Wednesday

[Penellype]

September

Photos taken on 1st.



Ferline tomato plants are pathetically small and have only a few tomatoes each, but the biggest ones are starting to turn red. I like the cosmos in the pot on the flowerbed, the first time I have tired this here.



The apples have all fallen off the tree now - every single one had codling moth. Sungold tomato plants are much smaller than usual but are producing a few ripe fruit.




Lettuce and carrots under nets are doing well. Very late Sungold tomato plant in the growhouse is now flowering. The plant outside the growhouse is one of the balconi plants from the spare room windowsill which has finished its first crop, but I am doubtful that there will be time for any more.



Most of the potatoes in the buckets have been harvested but the ones in the quadgrow still have plenty of greenery, which is probably due to the more consistent water supply. I normally get about the same weight of potatoes from 1 seed potato in the quadgrow as I do from 3 in a bucket.



The cold frame has been moved off the path to allow for hedge cutting and I decided to leave it on the bed for now. It has only one lid because a cat jumped on it and broke the other a few years ago. The plants inside are strawberries. The net in front of it covers a planter that has just been sown with spinach. The net behind covers a cabbage and a calabrese. The white flowers on the path are garlic chives, and the cucumbers by the fence are still producing plenty of fruit.

[Penellype]

October

Photos taken on 1st



One Ferline tomato plant next to the hotbin is still looking tolerably happy - I have had 4 tomatoes from this one so far with upto 6 to come. The other 2 are nearly dead and have produced 4 tomatoes between them, with another 3 small green ones left. This is absolutely pathetic compared to the normal yields.



The Sungold tomatoes are doing a bit better - there are 3 plants here and although they are about half the size they would normally be, they are producing a steady trickle of ripe fruit.




The growhouse has been almost completely taken over by a Sungold tomato which was very small when I planted the others out, but started growing and was potted up into an 11l pot at the end of July. The warm September has probably helped and there are plenty of green fruit, but nothing so far has turned orange. The difference in vigour between the plants in the soil and the one in the pot rather confirms my suspicions that my soil is thoroughly sick of tomatoes. Carrots are doing well, lettuce under the square net has about finished.



Big rearrangement here. The raised bed at the far end has been removed and everything has been cleared out of the fruit cage. Most of the buckets of stored compost have been moved out from under the shelves. The fruit cage (4ft by 6ft) will be replaced with a 6ft 3in square greenhouse, which will cover the area of the fruit cage and shelves combined. I'm expecting the greenhouse to arrive in about a month, but given the current situation it may well be delayed. At the far end is the shelf and net that were in the fruit cage, currently covering a pot of calabrese and one that contained a cabbage until recently. The strawberries are a mixture of Marshmello and Just Add Cream - the latter are still producing the odd ripe fruit.




Big changes in the veg garden. The 2 blueberry bushes have been moved onto the bed where they are waiting for a raised bed to arrive (already 2 weeks late). The soil here is very alkaline and full of tree roots so I need the raised bed. The buckets on the left are full of compost waiting to go in the raised bed. The square net covers a planter sown with spinach which has completely failed to grow - I may plant some brassica salads in there, meanwhile the net is keeping the cat off. Beyond that is the raised bed that was on the patio area, which has been lined and refilled with its original soil. At the moment buckets of compost are being stored on here, mainly to deter the cat. The cucumber at the far end is still producing fruit.

[quanglewangle]

^^^

I understood Ferline tomatoes to have been developed for commercial glasshouse cultivation and so may not be expected to do all that well outside.
(He said with no actual experience of the variety)

[Penellype]

^^^

I understood Ferline tomatoes to have been developed for commercial glasshouse cultivation and so may not be expected to do all that well outside.
(He said with no actual experience of the variety)

Possibly, but I have grown them very successfully outdoors before. This is the equivalent photo from 1st October last year:



As you can see I have grown tomatoes (Ferline in both cases) in the same place, which I know I shouldn't do, but I am very limited for sunshine. The plant near the hotbin is again doing best of the 3 by a long way, but it is very much bigger than this year's plant and has far more fruit on it.

The difficulty of having very limited places where I can grow tomatoes is the main reason why I am currently in the process of buying a greenhouse.

[Penellype]

November



Still some colour from the autumn leaves (rapidly disappearing) and a few calendula flowers, cosmos and white daisies, but the tomato plants have died and have been removed.




Some of the bedding plants are struggling valiantly on, as are the Sungold tomatoes. They look almost completely dead, but there is still some fruit and it is slowly ripening. I picked 3 that were going orange this morning.




The big Sungold plant in the growhouse got blight and has been removed, so the growhouse is occupied by strawberries. Carrots are doing well and the new greenhouse is now in position. The clematis has decided it is time to flower again, although the flowers are unfortunately just out of picture top left.




Another view of the new greenhouse with a dustbin to catch the water from one side of the roof. Unfortunately the other side has the door frame in the way so I can't attach a downpipe, and as the ground slopes towards the camera there is no point in trying to fix it to the back of the gutter. Behind the dustbin are some winter salads in a saladgrow planter and a bucket of carrots for harvesting. On the shelves are begonias, strawberries and seedlings.




The blueberry bushes have been displaced and are still waiting for their raised bed (latest arrival date estimated to be 12th November). The buckets stacked behind them contain the soil for the raised bed, which I am going to have to move soon as I need the buckets to sieve compost into for next years carrots. The raised bed was ordered on 10th September and was supposed to arrive in about a week...Not much else going on here now - the cucumbers have finished and the net covering the saladgrow planter is simply keeping the cats off until I can put the compost into the raised bed.

[Penellype]

A Better view of the new greenhouse

[Penellype]

December

Everything is starting to look rather a mess, mainly because the northerly gales have covered everywhere in leaves from next door's tree!



The calendula and cosmos have pretty much had it now but there are still a few white daisies.




Everything starting to look a bit wintery (much more so a couple of days ago when there was a thin layer of frozen snow!)



The carrots have been moved to the greenhouse along with the calabrese, and the romanesco is in the growhouse, so the carrot cage is empty...



...and the greenhouse is full.



The veg garden is currently mostly being used to store pots of compost - this lot needs sorting out.

[Jungle Jane]

December 2nd
I took these photos yesterday,we’ve had frost here,the geraniums grown from seed are still giving some colour along with the nemesia that self seeds with a bit of help.