The Garden Community for Garden Lovers

Middling August on the plot (Part 2)

balcony

By balcony

15 comments


.
Middling August on the plot (Part 2).

I thought I would start this 2nd part with a look down our allotment from the top. Without the benefit of 3D it is difficult to appreciate the view! :-(

At the very top can be seen the Pinto beans. I put some strings on them but I still have no idea just how high they will grow.

The above are the very earliest I planted, now they have a height of nearly 1 metre (3ft approx.) If you look at the bottom centre of the photo some bean pods are visible!

Here is a photo that shows the progress of the tomatoes growing in the greenhouse.

A good quantity of tomatoes is visible, better than I expected as I have hardly seen any bees in there. I continue to agitate the flowers when I go in to water the plants.

“Gardener’s Delight”, (if that is what they are!) is proving to be the earliest in ripening as you can see in the photo below taken on Friday 13th! (No bad luck here!!!) :-)

Then these correspond to the variety “Money Maker” of which my daughter gave six plants for my 60th birthday back in May. They would be money makers alright as they are producing the biggest tomatoes of all the plants!

Finally this last photo is of the the plants I sowed & grew on my balcony. When I planted them out they looked like the “Cinderella” of tomatoes! Now they are almost as big as the variety above! :-) This variety is called “Alicante”. Perhaps they will have started ripening by the time I post my next blog at the end of the month.

After the tomatoes its the turn of the Runner/Green beans to parade their colours :

These are the beans Gerry planted long after the others in a different plot. Now the flowers are opening I see that they are white or mauve & not red. They haven’t produced any pods as yet although I noticed on Saturday that there were a few very small pods just formed.

Here is the first bag of runner beans I picked. Unfortunately when I put the caption on the photo I put the weight in “old money” wrong as 800g corresponds to 1lb 12oz & NOT 4lb !

Gerry & I have just begun to pick the yellow plums from the 3 trees on the allotments. I brought this bag of Plums home &, after giving some to our daughter, I stewed the rest. Being as they were so ripe some had started to rot in the bag while others were badly bruised.

As I was picking them from the trees I was eating them at the same time! I must have eaten about a kilo of them! They are delicious! :-)

These Pinto beans are growing in pots in the greenhouse as I planted them for the harvest festival we will celebrate in our church on October 3rd. Gerry always puts up a show with the produce from his allotments together with all the things that people bring in for the harvest festival. I’ve helped him put up the two previous displays, as well as the ones he puts up at Christmas & Easter!

To finish these two blogs on the allotment in August I’ll include my now traditional photo of the view from inside our shed of the allotment as we see it from there.

This will one will put an end to these views for now as the Gladioli, which have prolonged these photos for two extra blogs, are now going over & in 2 weeks time they will all be over & done with & we will be left facing a wall of Raspberry canes!

And finally my last view of the allotments after I have left & start off back home.

Well that’s the end of this Marathon overview of the allotments Gerry & I look after!

I’ll be back in two weeks time with more news & photos of our plots. I look forward to reading your comments.

More blog posts by balcony

Previous post: *** Middling August on the plot (Part 1) ***

Next post: ***Summer's End down on the plot (1st Part)***



Comments

 

Again, I really enjoyed reading this & Avis is right, you have done an amazing job! I can only hope my vegetable garden (I'm already planning for next year) will be even half as productive.

15 Aug, 2010

 

you defernatly know your fruit and veg balcony, well done, all looks great ;o))

16 Aug, 2010

 

Those toms and beans look wonderful, Balcony! I'm going to miss the view from the shed. :-(

16 Aug, 2010

 

What a great blog,Balcony,and everything looks so good.Your tomato crop is brilliant.Let us know which variety you preferred,as I am undecided between Gerdeners Delight,and Money Maker for next year.,as I have read mixed reviews on both.You have both done so well,congratiulationson a bumper crop.

16 Aug, 2010

 

Once again thanks for your kind comments - makes me want to read them as soon as I log on! :-) I just hope I'm not boring you with all my chit chat on the allotment. I did the 2nd blog right away because I'm having a lot of trouble with my computer & I wanted to take advantage of the "good mood" it was in. Another day I might not be able to write another blog. There is soo much to share! I now have several 100 photos stored on my computer & phone.

Thanks Avis & Lauram & I'm so happy you like this blog. Happy to be of some inspiration for you Lauram! :-)

Thanks Sanbaz, but I don't really " ... know my fruit & veg ... " The fruit grows with little attention other than a little watering & weeding. The veg grow more or less by themselves as well although they do need a bit more attention than the fruit! (Especially the Strawberries!)

David I harvested our first Toms today, I got almost 2kilos off of Gerry's plants! I couldn't resist eating one - it really was delicious! They are the small, cherry type & there were many more ripe ones than I had realised as they were hidden by the foliage & only visible once I got down on my hands & knees! I only took a few off of my plants which are the ones I put up in the blog! The bigger tomatoes still need some time to ripen but they are as big as apples!

Bloomer, I will let you know which I prefer but the only one I've tasted do far, from the plant into my mouth, was really & truly delicious! I've only picked the cherry ones today, Gardener's Delight (?) as Money Maker & Alicante are still very green without a hint of yellowness as yet.

16 Aug, 2010

 

Another tantalizing view of your allotment plots, congratulations on your venture and outcome, great stuff!

17 Aug, 2010

 

Thanks very much for your lovely comments! :-)

18 Aug, 2010

 

Brilliant blog, so informative.
Two questions please ,do you feed your veg and what special attention do you give to the strawberries ? Thank you .

22 Aug, 2010

 

Hi, Valadel, I'm only too happy to answer your questions! :-)

About feeding the veg: well Gerry likes to put Blood, Bonemeal & Fish (I think!) in the places where he plants his veg. But I haven't added any kind of fertilizer to the soil before planting nor after for mine! Exception being the tomatoes. I didn't use anything before planting them but I've now watered them on about 3 occasions with a tomato fertilizer I buy. The ones in the greenhouse, as you will have seen, are in tomato growing bags. These come with all the necessary fertilizer for some weeks but now I've begun to water them with tomato fertilizer on Saturdays.

As for the Strawberries well I've not given them any kind of fertilizer at all. The only attention the Strawberries have had has been weeding! They have had much more attention than any other crop on the allotment. But now I have runners rooting in small pots which I intend to dig up & plant elsewhere on the allotment. I'm not willing to spend so much time weeding them next year as I did this year!

23 Aug, 2010

 

The reason I ask about the strawberries is last year I bought a plant which had lots of "babies" I made loads of plants, put some in a grow bag some in pots and they all rewarded me with just about zilch, a few gave me a couple fruit and that was it ! So I ask myself why did I bother or what did I do wrong ?

23 Aug, 2010

 

I'm not too sure but I think you need to let them "bulk up" for 1 season. This really means taking off the flowers & runners the first year to give them time to build up a root system that will support the following years of fruiting & will ensure you get plenty of big fruits.

But I need to look this up for myself as just today I've transplanted very well rooted cutting to their permanent position at the very end of the plot. I planted 41 pots & a few rooted runners not grown in pots. I now need more or less the same number again to fill up the half plot still empty!

25 Aug, 2010

 

I've done a little search & this page seems to be quite good & authoritative:

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicgardening/gh_strwb.php

Just copy & then paste into your browser. Hope you have better luck next year.

Another good site is this one: http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_mini_project_february_2_strawberry.asp

25 Aug, 2010

 

Thanks Balcony, will have a look.

30 Aug, 2010

 

"I planted 41 pots & a few rooted runners not grown in pots. I now need more or less the same number again to fill up the half plot still empty!"

Well I made a start again today but still didn't get enough plants to fill up the new bed! I'll have to go back to the old bed tomorrow & try & find some more runners that have rooted! The trouble is that the weds are so thick it makes it very difficult plus I find myself getting "diverted" into pulling up the weeds!

30 Aug, 2010

Add a comment

Featured on

Recent posts by balcony

Members who like this blog

  • Gardening with friends since
    8 Apr, 2010

  • Gardening with friends since
    10 Aug, 2010

  • Gardening with friends since
    4 Jul, 2008

  • Gardening with friends since
    1 Apr, 2009

  • Gardening with friends since
    24 Jun, 2007

  • Gardening with friends since
    9 Aug, 2009

  • Gardening with friends since
    5 Sep, 2009