First of all, apologies for the lack of updates on the blog: a very busy work schedule has left me with relatively little free time over the past few weeks. However, I have managed to post the odd update on my Facebook page as well as on Twitter, so make sure that you come and ‘like’ or follow me there!
Over the past few weeks, I have been busy nurturing the vegetable seedlings indoors under the skylight in the attic and also on spare windowsills around the house. However, a few weeks ago, we reached crunch point, with many seedlings growing too big for the propagating trays and growing into full-blown vegetable plants!
The weather has definitely turned warmer in the Peak District and although summer is still acting very temperamentally, the time has come to brave some of the plants outside. Runner beans are a hardy plant, but also a vegetable plant that grows incredibly quickly: as you can see from the photograph below, I have put some cane supports up and planted these out.
These are actually the second batch of runner beans I have planted out: the first crop was decimated very quickly. How and by whom? I noticed that the big leaves near the soil were being attacked and pulled apart, which then killed the rest of the plant – and this was being done by pigeons! With this second batch, I stripped the plant of its bottommost leaves and stalks, being careful not to damage the main stalk of the plant. This left a gap of a good few hands between soil and leaves, so that pigeons could no longer peck these easily and so far (touch wood) it seems to be working.
Aware of the Peak District’s temperamental temperatures and the fact that the garden is very shaded, I have also been keen to utilise my miniature greenhouse this summer: and it’s clearly paying dividends, as illustrated in the photograph below.
Although the temperature outside has not been overly hot, the sunlight does heat the greenhouse up nicely and these vegetable plants have subsequently been doing well. I was also delighted this afternoon, upon noticing a few tiny cucumbers starting to form:
Hopefully these will continue to grow and do well in the sunny spot I have placed them in!
In other news, the tomato plants seem to be growing away nicely. I have tomato plants in the greenhouse, outside in pots, planted in the vegetable garden and also inside on a windowsill. Some seem to be doing better than others, but there seems to be no logic or reason to it! The tomatoes in the photo below will soon be ready to start pinching out.
So, the vegetable plants are all doing well so far: I will keep you all updated with their progress over the coming weeks! And remember, if you have any questions, queries or comments, please do leave a comment here, or get involved on our Facebook page or on Twitter.
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