Sunday 19 May 2019

About those tomatoes....

Firstly I would like to thanks everyone who left comments on the post about my tomato plants....I really was gutted when I went to the greenhouse to be confronted with that!

I read through all of the comments and ten by deduction came up with a conclusion.

I know it wasn't cheap compost...I always purchase from the allotment shop and it is of a very good quality and the other seedling were planted up in compost from the same bag.

I know it wasn't cold...although I don't have a heated greenhouse I do have fleece and only uncover when the weather is warm enough...in the evenings they are often double fleeced!

I thought at first maybe it was something that had gotten into the compost...ants or some other sort of bug...but no...everything was clear.

So this left me with just one option...over watering...and it was the conclusion many people came too....so how did this happen??

Well, an allotment friend went away and asked me to water for them which I was happy to do. On their return they rang and thanked me and asked if I would like them to water for a couple of days which I thought would give me a little more time and so gratefully accepted.

Now my error was not giving for instructions on how I plant and water...my trays have no holes so excess can't drain away and this was where we then had the issue. Just one of those things I guess but maybe from now on I'll just water myself.

Anyway I did go through
the toms, weedle out the best ones and re-potted them all....and guess what???


Tomatoes ready to be transplanted!
They have bounced back beautifully! There aren't as many as I started out with but that's okay as I wouldn't have kept all of them anyway...I have plenty of each variety and I am happy with how they are looking. Some have tomatoes much bigger than mine...but I'm not worried...they all catch up in the end!

Have a great Sunday.

Friday 17 May 2019

It's not as bad as I thought.....

the length of time is what I'm talking about....it really does seem like an age since I wrote and I have no excuses apart from I have just been sooooooo busy...bee course practicals...helping out other beekeepers...some appointments to attend...extra hours at work.....having said all that I have found time to get down the allotment and at times I have even remembered to take the camera...and a few of the times I had the camera I even remembered to use it!!!

Long and the short of it...I am still ecstatically happy with where I am right now with this years progress...I have not wavered at all....okay...maybe a teensy bit but that was only with the mowing!!

So much so that I have been told how good my allotment is looking this year....now don't get me wrong...I highly doubt I'm in the running for winning 'Best Kept Allotment' but I am content and not feeling at all rushed this year.

So, what I am going to do right now is put up the photos that I have taken the last few weeks with a few captions for you to look at...maybe you'll see things progressing...who knows what's on there!!

then at the beginning of next week I will be able to give you an update of where everything is now....I am a truly reformed character this year...I mean who knew I could actually get my butt into gear before it got kicked!!!




Meet 'Sully' He is my cat and often comes and
keeps me company down the allotment...
he's great and rat catching too!
So things are  mostly progressing nicely in
the greenhouse....

weirdly it's the dwarf beans that don't
seem to be germinating???

however the mustard is going great!!
 I am quite pleased with germination overall this year...things that normally go great guns have stumped me a little however...mainly courgettes and dwarf beans. Had a bumper crop of spaghetti squash through though...at this point of course was still waiting for the peppers to appear...they really are lazy little things!!

I have to admit that a lot of my success this year is
because I often have a helper with me..this is not
slave labour however...just working and
growing together!

With the strawberries all moved I could
get this sorted good and proper!

Even managed to repair the guttering
on the shed!


So as you can see...above and below...

a few bits still to be sorted but...

When you take a few steps back....

Even that looks pretty good!!

And a bit of blossom makes everyone happy!
So these photos were actually taken a couple of weeks ago and loads more has been accomplished since then....and I've not even mentioned the bee plot yet....yes I do still have it....but I will save that for tomorrow or sunday otherwise I'll have nothing to share with you again for ages!!

Hope the gardening is going well for everyone else!!