I hope this is going to work and not come crashing down on my head. I've tied string to the top of the wigwam (you might need to click on the picture and enlarge to see the wigwam) and I'm encouraging runners beans to work their way along the string. It's all a bit slow but we've had a couple of days of good rain so perhaps it will take off. If it works I might increase the lines next year. To be honest this plot is baked from morning till night so a bit of shade would not go amiss. In Moulin I saw someone growing runner beans in a window box from their upper floor windows - the beans went down sting rather than up. I suppose they just had to put the string up to harvest plus it looked very effective.
The dark 'earth' is rotted manure that will stay on top till spring when I'll either dig it in or try the no dig method - not sure yet. I think I'll have to see what it's like after the winter. I've sown seeds where I've removed potatoes etc but not much has appeared yet. Golden Nugget squashes are doing well and if they taste as good as they are preforming I think they'll be going in next year. Masses of grapes on the vine but they have a lot of plumping up to do before they are edible. We've been eating the two tone lettuce at the front for weeks I just keeping thinning and it keeps filling up. Cannot believe it will be August in a couple of days I'm sure gardeners' years go by quicker!
I still can't see any weeds in your plot - how do you do it? I was wondering what happened to your blighted tomomatoes since the dreaded blight has reached my lovely outdoor toms today after devastating the potatoes a few days ago. Did you get any fruit of them or did the plants die before any could ripen? I'm wondering what to do. Only a third of them have fruit yet, all small. Not even sure it's enough for a green tomato chutney.
ReplyDeleteI think it's so easy to weed as the soil is so poor and the sun is so hot it's difficult for them to get a grip. The thing is the plot is currently more pretty than productive I'm hoping lashings of manure will cure that next year.
ReplyDeleteTomatoes - two cherry just dumped as all the fruits rotten. I've taken off all dodgy looking leaves on the rest and I might get a few tomatoes as some are almost ready to pick. I've maybe picked and thrown away a couple of kilos that have turned brown on the bottom. I got some advice from someone at Gardener's Corner who confirmed it was blight and that spraying now would be a waste of time. I don't like spraying anything so I'm going to try and find a way of growing them that reduces the risk of blight BUT so much conflicting information.
Yes, a lot of conflicting info. Please share what you find! I might have to stick with growing tomatoes in the greenhouse and in pots on the patio for now. For the potatoes, we will dig up an entirely new growing area next year, one that has been a paddock since time immemorial.
ReplyDeleteI've had a look on the RHS website - makes for depressing reading but at least I understand how is travels and what it is...they still do not understand the overwinter process. Apparently, 'Ferline' tomatoes show SOME resistance and earthing up potatoes MAY help - I don't earth up just plant really deep with a trowel.
ReplyDeleteNone of my tomatoes are growing in soil where potatoes or tomatoes have grown before and some are a good 200M from the veggie plot so 'my' blight must have been air borne rather than in the soil.
I'm thinking a polytunnel for next year but if it gets in then the results can be even more spectacular than outside if the humidity in the polytunnel is high! Someone thinks it got into their polytunnel through watering with rainwater - so now they just use mains water.