August 2007

Well, after a couple of weeks away from the plot on holiday I'm glad to have returned to find everything pretty much as I left it - albeit a lot larger and greener - and weedier!!! Luckyly the weather had not been scorching in my absence, so the greenhouse had survived - with only a couple of seed tray casualties that I hadnt managed to get planted out before I went. Another casualty has been my apple tree, which under the weight of the fruit has managed to bend in half, and finally snap! I'm not too disheartened though as I had planned to prune the top of in the winter anyway.




Heres my bath at the bottom corner of the plot, planted round with flowers which despite the dry soil here are looking quite good. Runner beans behind have gone mad and are covered in beans, some the lengh of `undergardeners` arms! The sprout inbetween them (which was planted at the same time as all the others) has easily grown to three times the size of the rest... not sure if this is because its more sheltered, or maybe its the nitrogen fixed at the roots by the beans...

Sweetcorn is still small, although looks to have alot of cobs coming on. Not sure of which variety it is as I bought them from a garden centre which listed them simply as `sweetcorn`, but the steams and folage have a purple tint to them...
Strawberrys further on were all hacked back to the ground at the end of July are all not showing new growth, infact a couple have even got flowers on them!!!
I'm still looking for a new way to grow these for next year - watch this space!

One sucsess of 2007 has been my Cauliflowers - these were rubbish last year, but every single one seems to have done great - maybe due to the cooler, wetter weather.

Leeks all doing well too, although they need a good weeding! They must be about an inch plus thick now, and I'm going to start picking them soon...

Ponds looking well, planted plenty of groung cover plants round it and a couple of daiseys which will be left to run wild and hopefully start to cover the stones

With the onions I sowed last autumn removed I used the spare ground to sow some cabbages, sweeds, turnips and lettuce

Runner bean wigwam is now covered.... and swaying alot in the wind! I'm giving these away in bagfulls the plants are producing so much!



Undergardeners flower patch, all grown from seeds I found laying about in the shed!

Blight infected Cara Main Crop potato's. Since these were starting to get infected I took one of my neighbours advice and cut all the tops of before I went on holiday. Started digging them up last weekend though and they still all seem ok - if a little small... once cleared I'll just cover this bed with manure and leave it till next spring

PIc of the bendy apple tree... just before it snapped!

Undergardeners biggest sunflower

Couple of pics from around the plot...