Thursday, July 28, 2011
Last sowings
It's now getting on for the end of July, the summer season is in full swing (or it would be if anything would ripen!) but you have to prepare now for later on. I admit that I don't grow a lot in winter, although I could if I was more prepared with polytunnels and fleece. However we have a fairly mild autumn so this year I have prepared some end of season sowings so that September is not the end of everything.
Yesterday I sowed a last row of French beans (beans this year have been utter crap so far! I think they hate changeable weather), late beets and carrots (Boltardy, Monotruba and Autumn king carrots), frisée for autumn salads, lamb's lettuce, coriander for some autumn curries and also some spring cabbage. All these in seed beds in the open which I will fleece if it seems to be getting too hot.
I also picked the first tomato! Shame that it had been rain damaged but I cut out the cracked spot and ate it in a sandwich and it was just fine - a Coeur de Boeuf. The fruit on the tomatoes is impressive, now if it would just turn red, we'd be laughing! I am always rather dismayed to see other people's tomato plants, almost stripped of their leaves to allow the few huge tomatoes on them to ripen. I would rather let the plant live, have smaller tomatoes but more fruit. I find that my tomatoes liver longer that way.
Noticed that most of the site is decimated by powdery mildew. I am rather pleased as my proactive efforts are paying off - the squash and courgettes are only mildly affected, I continue the milk drenches and pick off affected leaves and remove them. The courgette plants have loads of baby fruit! so cute!
Just need to tidy up the fruit bed now which is getting very weedy. Nice and sunny here today, maybe the tomatoes will agree to shed their greenness in exchange for a little sun!
Yesterday I sowed a last row of French beans (beans this year have been utter crap so far! I think they hate changeable weather), late beets and carrots (Boltardy, Monotruba and Autumn king carrots), frisée for autumn salads, lamb's lettuce, coriander for some autumn curries and also some spring cabbage. All these in seed beds in the open which I will fleece if it seems to be getting too hot.
I also picked the first tomato! Shame that it had been rain damaged but I cut out the cracked spot and ate it in a sandwich and it was just fine - a Coeur de Boeuf. The fruit on the tomatoes is impressive, now if it would just turn red, we'd be laughing! I am always rather dismayed to see other people's tomato plants, almost stripped of their leaves to allow the few huge tomatoes on them to ripen. I would rather let the plant live, have smaller tomatoes but more fruit. I find that my tomatoes liver longer that way.
Noticed that most of the site is decimated by powdery mildew. I am rather pleased as my proactive efforts are paying off - the squash and courgettes are only mildly affected, I continue the milk drenches and pick off affected leaves and remove them. The courgette plants have loads of baby fruit! so cute!
Just need to tidy up the fruit bed now which is getting very weedy. Nice and sunny here today, maybe the tomatoes will agree to shed their greenness in exchange for a little sun!
Labels: mildew, sow, summer, tomatoes
# posted by antipodesgirl @ 1:24 PM 
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