Eats, Shoots and Leaves...

OK, so perhaps ‘eats’ can only refer to the plethora of pigeons that now frequent the London Vegetable Garden balcony, consuming the seed that I try (in vain) to leave for the robins and finches, but shoots and leaves are very much the order of the day – Day 12.

As regular visitors to this blog will be aware, the progress I’ve made on my urban gardening quest has been quite remarkable considering the short timeframe. Aside from the runner beans (whose meteoric growth has been rather astonishing), today has been the first day that simple seedlings have really taken on their own personality and looked like individual plants.

It’s the shape of these leaves that are really starting to stand out now, and despite the small size of my produce playground, the diversity of the leaf shapes on display ensure that visually, the balcony is starting to look an interesting place indeed!

As you can see from the latest pictures (the neighbours surely must think I’m mad by now, crouched over taking pictures of seed trays), the rocket is developing a very rounded leaf shape, which I expect will taper into the usual rocket shape once it’s big enough. The leaves on the runner bean plants are developing at a phenomenal pace as well, growing visibly larger by the day.

What really interests me however, is the very marked, pointed shape of the tomato plants – something I’ve never attempted to grow before. As you know, this is the plant that I’m perhaps most passionate about, since I believe that these will be the most difficult to grow on a London balcony with no greenhouse – the nemesis plant! But even in these early days here on the London Vegetable Garden, they seem to have already taken on their own unique personality.