Mid-Term Gardening Report

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Can’t believe its four months since I did an update, where does the time go? Well you may be asking has everything shriveled up and added volume to my compost heap, or am I now hacking my way in to the greenhouse with a super-sharp machete!

Like life and tides there have been highs and lows, but an enjoyable learning journey throughout.

Starting off with successes (hoorah!) I’ve been very happy with my “Tumbling Tom” Tomato plants, which are flowering and ripening as I write, a definite for growing again next year. The bedding plants grown from seed have, as they say in football commentaries, “the boys done good!” I have been able to take a lot of them up to the caravan and they are now providing a good showing in the way of French Marigolds, Petunias, Pansies, Nasturtiums and Geraniums. If you have the time and space to grow from seed it’s amazing the money that can be saved. On the herb front, Mint is going well and the Parsley has grown so rapidly I’ll have to start eating more fish!

Having constructed (knocked together) a fruit cage out of canes, cable ties and some corner connecters; I placed my collection of fruit bushes inside. Now the failures (boo!), starting with the red Gooseberry bushes. after an initial spurt of growth ( er no, probably more like an amble) all of a sudden the leaves dropped off and it was forget all about the Gooseberry crumble! But wait, the three green “Poundland” Gooseberry bushes have survived and looking healthy (hoorah!) as is the Blackcurrant plant bought for a quid at you know where (double hoorah!)……………but sadly (boo!) two of the three Blueberry bushes are of no more, no doubt gone to the big Blueberry pie maker in the sky. Now that we have had some sun (yes really, I’m not joking) the Sweet Peas are now flowering and giving off a wonderful bouquet.

Because of the success of my Bingo Pea’s I will definitely planting some more “lines” next year and hope for a “full house” of crops. Will grow Broad Beans again but outside as they grew too quickly and “leggy” in the greenhouse, one thing I will not be trying to grow (again) due to no success during the past couple of years is Garlic, after buying top of the range bulbs from recommended nurseries, I’ve had no luck growing them at all, so will have to buy more mirrors, wood stakes and pictures of the sun to keep the vampires at bay!

I hope you enjoyed the mid-term ramblings of an enthusiastic amateur who’s loving his first year as a born-again greenhouse owner and who is definitely less stressed since he started “pottering”.

• 16 Jul, 2014
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