Let the Season Begin!
At last, it seems like the veggies have started to grow! Here you can see one of my Golden Sweet yellow peas. I picked up a packet of this old heritage variety whilst in the USA. I have it on good authority that it was this variety that Gregor Mendel used to carry out his original genetics experiments.
It looks beautiful growing up with the Victorian purple podded pea. I don't mind if they cross pollinate this year, I look forward to seeing the results if I save seed.
The greenhouse tomatoes are starting to grow as well, these are the Noir du Crimee, a black Russian variety I am trying this year.
And my pineapple plant seems to be loving all this heat in the greenhouse. Today in London it was nearly 80 degrees outside, so you can imagine the heat inside the greenhouse.
If you look closely at the leaves on my Invicta gooseberry bush you will see that some of them have been nibbled down to stalks! This is the surefire sign of a gooseberry sawfly attack. If left untreated, within days these little green grubs will eat their way through the whole plant leaving just stalks. If you don't like spraying your plants then you will have to look for them individually and pick them off and either squash them or give them to your chickens... or both!
The broad beans are getting bigger each day. Don't they seem to hide in among the leaves where you can't see them? Only a few days ago they were just an inch long and look at these. I have grown an Imperial Longpod variety this year.
The sweet corn Conqueror is also loving this hot weather. I keep them well watered and have planted them in a group around my Queensland Blue pumpkins. I have also just sown another tray of sweet corn seeds for a later crop.
I am trying to water my plants less this year, and to see if I can mulch more so that the plants are forced to grow their taproots deeper to find water. Water must be down there somewhere, my plot has been under water for the last 6 months!
posted by Matron @ 10:50 PM
17 Comments:
Your yellow & purple peas are so cool. It seems the English peas are ahead of my Canadian Peas. Mine are just starting to put out flowers.
Your veges are looking wonderful. I will have to look out for some of those purple pod peas for next year.
Everything looks so good! I can't believe the pineapple!! It's been hot here too, the plants are loving it. It seems like your weather and ours has been very similar.
The two complementary colored peas are so pretty together. My peas are just now in full bloom but I was a bit late getting them into the ground due to unusually cold spring weather.
Wow! Looks like a good season. I think your purple podded have just sprouted here. I hope to see some blossoms soon on peas I had sprouted indoors earlier. Hopefully, your tomatoes will sprout soon too. This nice weather surprised me!
What is too hot in the greenhouse for the tomatoes? I plan to keep some tomatoes, sweet peppers and basil in the greenhouse this summer.
Your London garden's way ahead of ours in Suffolk. We may be sheltered behind our big wall, but we're in a hollow and temperatures are always a few degrees lower than the surrounding higher ground.
Peas just showing buds here, and sweetcorn not yet planted out (sigh)
The pineapple's amazing - did you get the plant with a little fruit already forming, or was it the top of a pineapple from the grocers? You probably told us once but I've forgotten.
Celia
Ooooo! word verification = swede
I've got a Goldensweet pic on my latest blog update that looks just like yours!
I don't think your peas will cross. The 'important bits' (don't want your blog reported again!) are sealed inside the keel and in order to make a cross you have to cut that open with a scalpel, remove the male bits (oooh!) and insert the pollen from the other - quite a faff. You should still be able to save pure seed from each for next year.
It's a lovely time of year isn't it? Everything growing so fast.
I think i 'm gonna loose all my goose gogs , to american mildew , any suggestions readers to save my lovely plants ?
Petunia - I try to keep the greenhouse ventilated as much as possible when it gets really hot. They wilt temporarily with the heat sometimes but recover quickly.
Celia - The pineapple was a birthday prezzie, but I do have some others minus fruit, which I brought back from the Azores.
Veg Heaven - thanks for that, I will keep seed for next year. I will try to dry some early because they were plagued with pea weevils last year.
Stan - They should be pruned to a goblet shape to allow air and light into the centre. You might have obtained an infected plant, but some varieties are more prone to mildew than others. I chose Invicta specifically because it is resistant to mildew.
Good grief, everything is looking fab in your plot! I love the purple peas, never seen them before and wow! you're growing a pineapple, that truly is cool. Good luck with it all and enjoy!
Everything looking brilliant, very inspiring which is just what I need as I slog on digging over soil that has had no attention for years
Wow, I've never heard of those pea varieties...I want to try them next year. I appreciate the info about the gooseberry pest, I'd never heard of that before (fortunately my gooseberries haven't, either :) I'm with you regarding the mulch, it's hard to keep up with the watering when the summer heat kicks in.
wow!! fabulous!! look how far ahead everything is in your garden...I'm amazed...its not nearly as far on here.
Your pineapple plant is amazing. I love pineapple so I'm very jealous - I'll be interested to hear how it tastes when you get to eat it.
Wonderful post, with so much goodies. I have never seen a black pod pea before and it looks so beautiful and it must be even more beautiful in a mix salad, is it tasty? I agree with Liz your pinapple is amazing and i'm jealous too.
Tyra
I too just posted a pic of yellow podded peas! We picked our first batch this weekend. I am really going to enjoy picking peas this year. Last year it gave me a headache trying to find green peas amongst all that green foliage. This year we planted some green--Wing Nut gets to pick those--but mostly yellow and purple. BTW, the 2 'SAGBUTT purple podded' pea seeds are growing vigorously, no flowers yet as they got planted later than the rest. We also posted a cute pic of Diva Dog for you.
Gosh your peas are early - you must tell me your secret. I think I have got the same two varieties this year but they are going nowhere compared to these.
Hope they taste as nice as they look!
Post a Comment
<< Home