The Greenhouse Review – mid September 2015

I’m joining Julie at Peonies and Posies (rather late) to share what’s going on in my greenhouse this month.

After a delay in planting my tomatoes out, they’re finally cropping well and I’ve made my first Panzanella of the year:

The tomatoes at the top are Tomato Black Cherry, and I think these are my favourite new ones this year.  I’m also growing old favourites Sungold

and have grown the popular Gardeners’ Delight for the first time.

Also new this year has been Green Zebra, which is fun to look at, but difficult to judge when ripe, and in my opinion, not a great taste.

And lastly, the only large tomato this year has been Ferline.  This is better tasting than I thought initially when I ate the first one a month ago, so I may grow this one again, but I’m certainly open to suggestions for alternative larger/cooking tomatoes to try.

As well as the tomatoes, I’m growing Cucumber La Diva.  These are supposed to be mini ‘cigar’ sized cucumbers, but I’m not a huge cucumber fan and so they tend to get left on the vine, and then grow to much larger proportions:

And in pots I have Pepper Marconi Rosso, the little mild chillies, Padron Peppers,

and my aubergines, Aubergine Kaberi.  I haven’t yet harvested any, and whilst they’re definitely getting bigger, I’m not convinced they’re actually ripening, but I can wait….

And lastly, at my ‘potting shed’ end of the greenhouse, I’m afraid all my biennials – wallflowers and stocks, are still waiting to be planted out – and are definitely suffering for the neglect.  Tsk tsk!

With regard to future plans, I don’t suppose the veg will continue for too much longer and then I will need a good clear out.  And at that stage I’m wondering about trying the early sweet peas Julie had success with in her greenhouse last year.

The only problem is, if I fill the greenhouse ful of sweet peas, where am I going to put all my tender plants?

The Greenhouse review – mid August 2015

I’m joining Julie from Peonies and Posies, both of us after a month’s absence, to update on my greenhouse.

Although I planted my seeds in a timely fashion, I was definitely late getting all of the tender plants out of the greenhouse, and as a result my tomatoes went in late and are rather behind.  I have six varieties this year – Black Cherry, Country Taste, Ferline, Gardener’s Delight, Green Zebra and Sungold.  Of these I’ve only grown Sungold before, and I have long since forgotten why I chose the others.  I bought them all (apart from Green Zebra, which came from Sarah Raven) from Chiltern Seeds, so their descriptions must have won me over.

The one above is Ferline, which is a rather attractive heart shape, but I’ve only cropped one and it wasn’t particularly exciting.

The one below is Sungold, still my favourite, reaching for stars.

This one’s Black Cherry, but some are actually quite big, and generally bigger than both Sungold and Gardeners Delight, but they’re pretty tasty and a bit different.

And here’s Green Zebra, again a bit different, but I’m already finding it frustrating that I don’t know when they’re ripe as they never turn red.  I picked a couple which were quite soft (the way I thought you were supposed to tell) and tried one, but it really wasn’t very nice, so I binned the first one and put the second in the with the bananas for a second chance!

At the far end of the bed are two Cucumber La Diva plants, which are already taking up far more than their fair share of space.  These are short ‘baby’ cucumbers which I’ve had a lot of success with in the past.  I didn’t grow them last year, instead growing the grape sized Cucamelons, which was a definite mistake!

At the very end are two plants of Melon ‘Sweetheart’.  As I mentioned last month I’ve never had any success with melons, but thought I’d give it another go.  And once more, I’m not very hopeful – not least because they’re being smothered by the cucumbers….

In the terracotta pots I have Pepper Marconi Rosso, these Padron Peppers (lovely fried in olive oil with sea salt)

but also, most excitingly, aubergines!  These ones are Kaberi, which I’m growing for the first time.

And there’s more!

Does anyone know whether you’re supposed to thin them out, or will they all mature, even if there are two or three close together?  Definitely not a problem I’ve encountered before!

On the flower front, the little table is bedecked with blooms, and sits in front of a support with sweet peas growing up it.

I think they’re ‘Jilly’ and they have a stunning scent which fills the area around the table.

The other lovely flowers are the ones on my Plumbago plants, such a pretty, soft blue.

And then thinking ahead, on the other side of the door from the terracotta pots, are various biennials, mostly wallflowers, sown back in June which really need planting outside.

Who knows, in a month’s time I may be overrun with tomatoes, and have eaten my first ever home grown aubergine.  See you then!

Resolve and realise – March 2015

Well a much better month than last (although I’m a day late posting!) with all jobs pretty much completed.

There were many jobs carried forward:

• mulch all beds

Hmm, not quite there, but the vast majority done, so think we can tick this one off

• prune and feed remaining roses

Tick.  Herewith a photo of my roses from last year,  rather than a pruned and fed twig, but trust me.

• pot up dahlia tubers

I have some dahlias in the ground, some that were overwintered in the greenhouse in a large terracotta pot, and then these few, which were dug up and overwintered as tubers.  I think it was because they were in pots I wanted to use for something else, but it’s all a bit of a blur now, and I certainly can’t remember their variety.  Oops.

• chit potatoes (and decide growing approach)

I finally got round to buying some potatoes – Ratte and Anya this year.  I’ve also bought some potato growing bags for the first time, so I think I’ll put some in the ground (in the top ‘tier’ of the veg patch) and some in the potato bags.  I’m planning to put the potato bags in the area of the veg patch behind the raspberry canes.  It’s pretty dark but I did grow potatoes there before in the ground, but then they got blighted.  Clearly I can’t grow them in the ground again, but hopefully they will do ok in the bags and make a difficult area productive.

• sow chillies, tomatoes and hardy annuals

Tick.  The seed tray at the top shows my particularly perky looking Padron Peppers.  There may be a few more hardy annuals to sow, but I’ve definitely sown all the tomatoes (Sungold, Gardeners Delight, Ferline, Black Cherry and Country Taste)

• plant out broad beans

I need to provide some support for these, put at least they’re in the ground.  I have a second wave now in the cold frame which I’ll plant out in a week or so.

and new for March

• plant aubergines

Tick.  I’ve never had much success with Aubergines, but I love to eat them, so I’m trying yet again.  This year’s variety is Kaberi from Chiltern.  Has anyone tried it?

• finish planning two new beds and start to buy seeds/plants accordingly.

A lot of time has been spent daydreaming about what to put in the new beds and a few things have already been planted which I can show in the EOMV post, but one thing I will disclose here is my recent extravagance with David Austin:

For the Mid Century bed

2 x Munstead Wood
2 x Jubilee Celebration
1 x Falstaff Climbing

And for the Bronze Bed

2 x Pat Austin

 Rose Munstead Wood, picture courtesy of the David Austin website

So for next month

Nothing to carry forward – hurrah!

New for April

• Prune various shrubs that probably should have been pruned already
• Continue planting seeds, pricking out and potting on
• Plan cutting garden
• Provide supports for broad beans and plant out second wave
• Start to erect structures for beans and sweet peas
• Tidy up shady bed and lavender beds
• Continue planting up the two new beds

If you’d like to join in with Resolve and Realise, please do, just leave a link to your post in the comments.