Bye celeriac, hello tomatoes

They didn’t last long, less than a week after months of looking after at home. All a bit of a mistake although it has been very hot and sunny this week which is more like July weather. Three, possibly four plants survived the heat of the sun frazzling them, probably the day after I planted them out. I watered them lots when I planted, put them under netting too, but it was not enough. Annoyingly, if I had put them out a week earlier, they would had been able to cope better with the sun, if I had put them out a week later they would had loved all the rain and be ready for the next lot of sun.

As it happens I was more worried about the courgette and cabbage plants but they seemed fine. Some of the small cabbages were not looking the best but nothing too bad, while the courgettes looked fine. Strawberries were asking for water, shaded by the trees. It has rained quite a bit during the week but it has also been extremely hot.

Potatoes looked like they needed water too…. although at the same time they are due to be ready in a couple of weeks and so could be starting to die back.

The task for the evening visit with Tom was to get the tomato plants out, we have 12 in total and plan to split then between the garden and the plot. Tom did a lot of weeding, pulling up nettles and poppies, after which I prepped the ground and then planted six plants. They are a mixture of normal yellow tomatoes and Tumbling Toms, a pity I couldn’t work out each were which… I wasn’t planning to mix them.

On a return visit over the weekend, tomatoes had survived. I sowed some late carrots where most of the celeriac once was. I planted out the last remaining butternut squash. The other two have been in the garden for the last week and have grown much more than the failed ones of last year did.

Lots and lots of weeding, the bind weed has loved the recent rain.

I picked:

  • a small amount of raspberries, the first lot, not enough really to eat seriously but a start.
  • lots of broad beans
  • small number of winter onions that were about to flower if we were not careful, a huge weight though even though it was a small number.

Before I left for the day (as it was cold and windy all morning), I had a go at tidying the gooseberry and of the plot. We have quickly put netting over back in March with the hope to keep the birds off, which it has in some places. It was never meant to be a long term thing and I should had done something to make it better before now. I weeded a lot, dug bits over, and replaced the netting to fit better. It’s not the best netting and it really could do with something better. I pruned some of the gooseberry branches coming out at the bottom a bit to give it some shape and air. It still does not look pretty, but it looks better.

Seeds sown at home:

  • swede
  • more radish

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