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The rose bed is in bloom and the border is looking gorgeous, its been an excellent year so far, I am particularly pleased with the planting, the cornflowers are such a vivid blue. I encourage you to deadhead any flower once its spend (died off) is a big factor in aesthetics, it can be quite a time consuming so I usually potter about the garden each day when I get home from work and do a small bit at a time. Removing spent heads not only benefits the flower but also makes your flowers look much better. If you have roses the process of removing spent heads differs according to the type of rose it is. For a Floribunda (multiple flower heads on one stalk), just snip the flower off close to the bud, allowing the other flowers to remain. If you have a Hybrid T (one flower to one stem), then I usually dead head back to the third leaf down from the bud, this ensures that if the plant flowers again, the stems are not too long and straggly. I will be putting a video on in due course so keep your eye out on my insta account @queenofseed
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The rain has certainly helped the vegetables, growth is strong and garden is looking like a jungle, the rain means no watering so I am doubly happy with that.
First harvests have been very much enjoyed Peas, Mangetout, Broad Beans, Garlic, Spring Onions and the odd little carrot have been a delight. I must say that I am terribly impressed with Spring Onion ‘Lilia’, a purple skinned variey, the taste is so good and the heads are quite large, one I will definitely have on the keep list for sure. I’ve also grown ‘Paris White’ these are small white-skinned onions that are larger than a Spring Onion but are not a main crop, the shape is amazing, like spaceships and they’ve been super productive so again these are a keeper for next year. I love the taste of a new potatoe, nothing says summer more than a gorgeous boiled potato with butter and salt and a bit of parsley. I have harvested my first earlies already, and about to the harvest the second earlies which should be ready anytime from mid July onwards.
The brassicas ( i.e. kale, cabbage, purple-sprouting broccoli are all ready in small pots waiting to take up the space that they’ll leave behind). It can get a bit of a busy time when you have things in the veggie patch that are almost finishing but are not quite ready to leave, and there are things waiting to go in! In this case I have had to pot on seedlings so they can grow a bit in the pot before planting out as I am just not ready. Granted things are better going from module tray to direct outside planting but if you cant do that then potting on allows more growth in the interim.
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In the greenhouse the tomatoes, cucumbers , peppers and chillis are growing well, the cucumbers and aubergines are yet to fruit but the rest are showing , a promise of things to come. I give my tomato flowers a little shake every morning, this little trick helps to dislodge pollen ( kind of mimics what a bee does) and so helps set fruit. Aubergines ‘Czech Early Wight , ‘Ronde de Valance’ are really weak, not sure why, they’re flowering but the plant growth is quite slow. I am wondering how much is attributed to the lack of sun perhaps? Saying that the greenhouse is warm so I am not entirely sure, everything else Is growing fine. I find it interesting the successes and failures year after year, it always changes, one thing grows well one year, not so much the next, it’s a constant up and down, a delicate balance and one that we have to take in our stride, learning from one year to the next.
The varieties of tomatoes I am growing are listed below and later on I will do an update on taste and my overall thoughts, some new ones for me so interested to see how they go. For greenhouse or poly tunnel plants, its important to allow air flow to prevent fungal disease as much as possible, especially on hot humid days as we have been having recently. Keep doors and vents open, even vents can stay open at night. It helps to remove the lower branches of tomatoes, they are quite vigorous with leaf growth and this can be a bit of a jungle! Remove the lower leaves by snipping of the branches close to the main stem, be careful not to snip any branches with fruit, and remove all the branches below the first truss ( first branch to bear fruit). The plant photosynthesises through the top part of the stem so it wont be bothered or damaged in any way at all.
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As the days get shorter, sowing becomes more precise. On my Instagram @queenofseed I try to do a timeline prompt of when to sow, to get the best out of any vegetable it’s important to stick to when they are at their optimum to sow. This takes into account sunlight hours, temperature and any predator attack that they might succumb to. For example sowing brassicas or rocket too early in the year allows them to be attacked by flea beetle, sowing later on avoid the attack as flea beetle just aren’t around in dangerous numbers.
For this month, Endive, Lettuces Chicory can be sown for Autumn and sow Savoy for Winter . It’s still a great time to get a sowing of carrots and beetroots, but do it now and you will get good roots for late harvest, likewise dwarf beans you can get a good crop if you hurry!. Kale can be sown too for Winter, they’ll stand all through winter as long as the plants have had a decent chance to grow up, and towards the end of the month you can sow Fennel and Chinese cabbage for an Autum harverst. Don’t forget herbs, I like to constantly sow Coriander and towards the latter part of the month, sow chervil, dill and land cress for picking through Autumn, Winter and Spring.
Tomato varieties for this year;
Black opal
Chadwick Cherry
Yellow Pear
Costoluto Fiorentino
Marmande
Black Russian
Amish Paste
Black Prince
Green Zebra
Bloody Butcher
St. Pierre
Ailsa Craig
Rose De Berne
Alicante
Tigerella
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