Growing

I last posted just as April was arriving, but here we are just about to bid her farewell .. what's been happening in between? A lot of rain, and some very high winds (but then you knew that, right, if you're in the UK?!!) and a lot of growing!

All the wet has really exacerbated my problems with the little munchers who have been wreaking havoc in my growhouse .. this week I finally decided to bring in the peas, beans, sunflowers and courgette plants that had been seriously gnawed and were more hole than leaf :-( They are all perking up considerably back behind glass on the sunny recovery windowsill.

To make room on said sunny windowsills for the beleagured ones, I've put out my unexpectedly enormous quantity of baby tomato plants, as the slugs and snails don't seem as interested in tomatoes. This was a little experiment of mine, because I'd (inadvertantly) left out the last of my Ildi tomatoes on their plants in the growbags on the flat roof outside bedroom window last season - and there they hung all winter come wind, snow, storm or whatever. And there they were still in March, and several people told me to squish the dried out fruits onto kitchen roll and see if I could grow them. So I did! I put differing amounts of compost beneath and above (not really knowing what I was doing) inside eggbox lids not really expecting much .. and you've never seen anything like it. Germinated all over the place and what's more, every single one I transplanted (into its own little loo roll holder of compost) has taken. I have about 60 babies in trays of 5 or 6, all over the house!

Here are some in the coldframe, which seems to have fared better in terms of the illicit munchers. Also baby dill and marigold plants. And the start of a box of salad (against all the odds!)

They are a wonderful tomato, pretty little yellow plum-shaped cherry size fruits and really heavily laden plants. You can put them in hanging baskets or grow them up canes. I hope I will be able to find them all good homes to go to. Meanwhile, my 'proper' tomatoes, which I sowed in February, are busy flowering, would you believe .. a bit of regular nettle infusion has done wonders!

Also flowering at the moment are the strawberry plants outside, and we'll soon have the lovely chive blossoms too.

I've done better with the sweetpeas this year, soaking them helped and getting them enough light quickly enough and pinching them out at the right time (thanks to my wonderful neighbour who is expert at these things and doesn't mind a bumbling novice's barrage of questions!) Previous years they've been really leggy, so I'm quite pleased that I'm starting to get the hang of it. Won't risk these outside till the weather sorts itself out condsiderably.

April showers are magical .. every year it amazes me just how much everything GROWS in just a few weeks! Usually in March I look at the herb garden and think there's lots of gaps and I'll need a few more plants to pop in here and there. Then by the end of April everything is burgeoning. And although I love to see the flowers, there is something super special in April about all that lush bright green growth, unsullied and full of promise and newness and freshness. Every day this month I've stood by the back door looking out at the garden in the rain and its kind of visibly grown in front of my eyes. Fantastic!

Garden Update

Just an update on what's happening in the garden today... some purple-podded mystery peas



and a lovely bowl of heritage dwarf french beans for my tea tonight!

Mystery Peas

Stage 1 of the mystery is solved! One of my mystery peas has flowered and is now producing its very first pod.. beautiful lilac petals and then a lemony-yellow pod! Many thanks to Rebsie at Daugher of the Soil for identifying it as Golden Sweet.. its colourful and beautiful, as well as historical, and I am looking forward to tasting my very first homegrown peas.





Now for stage 2! A second pea plant has a stunning first flower.. a really beautiful two-tone purple bloom.




I'm thinking this one might be purple-podded.. I will be checking regularly to see!

Mystery Peas

Remember my mystery peas, which I was given by a lovely lady at the North London Organic Gardener's Society?

Well one or two of them have distinct red markings now, which Rebsie at Daughter of the Soil kindly suggested I look out for. This means when they grow up they will be purple-podded peas! I can't wait .. having never grown peas before, its all magical to me.



Its just a little red ring where the leaves join the stem? By the way, the big marbled leaves you can see which the peas are scrambling over belong to the round courgette I am growing this year.. the magnificent foliage was a lovely surprise and I'm looking forward to the fruits!

These veggies are comfortable bedfellows in the cold frame where they are hardening off and gearing themselves up for planting out anyday now.

Mystery Peas

Ok, here are my mystery peas ... if you think you know what they might be, I would be very grateful for some help in identifying them?

They are the ones I picked up from the North London Organic Gardeners' Society stall last week .. all I know is that they're heritage varieties.



Not a great picture, I'm afraid (best I could do on my phone camera today!).. I will take more photos as they grow .. will be fun to see what they turn into!