🌿🍅Time to Tidy Tomatoes ! 🌿🌿🌿🍅

           At last the tomatoes are beginning to ripen !

    Now's the time to selectively take off unwanted side shoots .....not necessarily all of them .  

Starting to see the odd yellowing leaf .....so I take them off  ..... give them a goodly drink of water and a wee drop of tomato feed . 

Meanwhile in the shed ....

         All of my Epie cuttings are starting to show signs of recovering .

                    Lots of new rosie tipped shoots  .

                            They look much happier now .

                  Agave mediopicta alba and Senecio scaposus

Amorphophallus atroviridis  update  --

                    That new shoot is coming ....very ..... very slowly  .

                So I am pretty sure I planted him the right way up now ! 🤗

Other news ......

              I don't want to talk about it  ........ sigh .......

                                   Peace and Love  🕊️ ....grrrrr .....

                                            Debbie 💐x

 

Amorphophallus atroviridis

Up early to water the vegetable garden . It's going to be another hot day .

No hose pipe ban here yet , but I am being careful not to waste water , only watering the vegetable garden and Tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in the greenhouse and lettuces and brassica seedlings in the shed .

Got soaked this morning as the connection to the hose pipe burst !

Exciting news ! ( for those who like weird plants )

Back in January I acquired a very rare bulb .  🤗

        Amorphophallus atroviridis  .....I knew he could be a tricky one to grow but thought I'd take a chance .

                                                         Weird !

                                    I'm in love !   😍

 So I got him potted up , put him on the landing windowsill at the top of the stairs ... 

I planted him with what I thought was the top , just the very tippy top , showing above the compost .

   At this time we had the central heating on , so the cottage was fairly warm .

 

Weeks went by and nothing was happening . Weeks then months .

Fearing it may have rotted away , last week , I decided to take him out of the pot to check .

 

He was still in there .  🤔

It looked no different to when it first arrived !

So I thought I'd re-pot him in some different fresh compost and put him in the shed .  It gets very very warm in there with the morning sun , then not such strong sunlight as the sun moves around to the back later on . 

  🌿🌿 He's in there amongst all the happy vibes of all the other plants . 🌿🌿

     It's actually a great place to start my seeds and strike cuttings .

So the good news , is that I think I can see a shoot coming ! 😀🌿🐌

 I have slug pelleted all around it and put in two sticky fly traps to protect it .🐜🦟🪲🐛

                              There's a new shoot coming !!

    Now I am keeping my fingers crossed that he will soon put up some  beautiful bluey/green leaves which are said to be streaked with pink .

   I might increase the watering slightly .

Anyone out there growing this ?  Send me your ideas on this please !! 

Meanwhile .....

                         ....the Lettuces are doing great !

                                     Love and Peace 💛🕊️🌿

                                                🌿☀️🌿 

 

Up Early to Water the Vegetable Garden

We're starting to enjoy our own home grown produce now . I am amazed I could grow cucumbers better than the supermarket ones . I had thought that those proper long ones were only grown in specialist glass warehouses with lights and fancy watering systems . 

  The Tomatoes are starting to ripen and four were ready to pick today !

The lettuces are not enjoying the heatwave but I picked enough for our salad today and oh my goodness those new potatoes !!!  Hot melting butter and mint ..mmmm .....beautiful !

So I was up at about 5.30 am-ish , dressed and off out here to see the beautiful Sun rising through the mist .

  Lots of cob webs on the dewy grass ....the busy Labyrinth or Funnel Web Spiders and Money spiders 🕸️🕸️🕷️🕸️🕸️

                              Watered the vegetable garden .

             Beans and Peas starting to flower . Beetroots swelling . Celery .

Curly Wurley Kale , Swede , hopefully carrots , Sweetcorn , Leeks ,Shallots , chives , very slow to get going Runner-beans , courgettes now picking , Butternuts very slow but not too worried as they've got until the end of October  and not forgetting the Giant Pumpkins for the grandchildren for Hallowe'en all doing well now and loving the sunshine !

   Watered everything in the greenhouse . Tomatoes , Cucumbers , Sweet Peppers ,

checked everything in the shed and picked some lettuce .

         Lovey crunchy 'n' tasty Romaine Lettuce .....Parris Island .

I did a load of washing and got it all out on the line and now tis time to feed my husband .

So nice to feel the cool morning air and get a few things done before the heat gets too much .

     So after breakfast I am doing nothing .....well maybe sit in the shade and do my embroidery .

              The Sun she does not like me . I am an Autumn person .

             But I hope you are all enjoying these hot summer days !

                 Maybe share a Cornish Pasty to go with our salad today 

                                 🌿☀️ Peace and Love  🕊️🌿

                                              Debbie 💐x

  

Having a Lazy Day ☀️

              Sunrise this morning , promising to be another hot day .

   Watered the vegetable garden early , got another load of washing on .

                         I'll be sitting in the shade doing my embroidery .

                                                      🌿☀️🌿

                                              Peace and Love  🕊️

Meanwhile in the Greenhouse

 

              First Tomato of the season  ...... of course we'll share it !  🤣

     There are more coming now . Bigger and beginning to blush up .

 Lots of Sweet Peppers too .

            ...I have to look very hard to find the cucumbers  .

                                                🌿🥒 🌿 

                                                      🌱 💚🌱    

Meanwhile in the Shed 🌱🌱🌱

Finally the Beetroot seeds have germinated ! They had me worried for a while .

                        Little cuties ! 🌱🌱🌱 😃

Righty ho ! Lets get on with it ....

...and a very meditative hour and a half was then spent pricking out and potting on .

These will keep us in fresh vegetables over the winter and into spring . 

A white cabbage "Polar", a red cabbage , Pak choi , beetroot "Detroit and cabbage for spring greens "Greyhound ......lots of it ! 

I'm growing them on in the shed , safe from snails and cabbage white butterflies .

I'll plant out as soon as the weather begins to cool end of August , going into Autumn , picking the occasional leaves for the kitchen every now and then .

I didn't grow any broccoli this year , they take up a huge space , but I wish I had sown a few now ....probably too late ..I'll have a think about it .

I still have a big pot of leeks to plant out as soon as there is space .

                              🌱   That's all fer today folks ! 🐝

                       Have a great weekend . love Debbie 💐 x

                                   Peace and Love  🕊️🌿

Sunset from my Greenhouse

                                                   🌿 🪷 🌿

Brassicas 🌱🌱🌱🌱 update

Up and out at 4.30 am to watch the sun rise .

 

 It's forecast to be sunshine all day , so I wanted to get the vegetable garden watered early .

In the shed I have been shifting everything around to make space on the bench for the big batch of mixed brassica seedlings that I'll be pricking out and potting up later on .

 

                                   (You have to click twice ! )

All my seeds are germinating now except the Beetroot ...hmmm .... 🤔The last wave of Beetroots are outside in the ground and doing really well . This second lot are from the same seed packet so they should be alright .

  It's only been four days since I sowed them , so I'm sure they'll be up soon .

I might prick some of them out later on ....see how I feel ....maybe I'll do this tomorrow .

        Pots all ready to go !

Some nice Romaine lettuce leaves ready to pick . The other mixed lettuces in the background have been slow due to the heatwave last week . 

 I think we have a couple more tubs of new potatoes . These have done really well this year . Delicious !

I have really got to work hard to keep everything well watered . We are forecast another longer spell of hot weather and it is going to be hot today .

  My water barrels are empty !  Got to take the hose up there to fill the watering cans .

After I've done some laundry and got it out on the line and lunch prepared ......

   ......I'm going to sit in the shade and do some patchwork today .

                               See you later alligator !

                                            Peace and Love 🕊️

                                                    Debbie 💐x

 

First Courgettes of the Season !

                     Started picking our Courgettes today .

                               Hooray !   😊🌿🌤️

White Rabbits ! 🐰The first of the month !🐰

                                      Sauromatum venosum 

This years flower was smashed by the recent gales , but it is starting to put up a leaf now . Also I can see several new shoots coming up around the "mother "plant .

Which is great , because at the end of the season , I can pull them out and send a couple to my botanical brother up country . 

                                            Amorphophallus konjac 
                          This one , also ,was demolished by the gales .

I did have another rare variety of Voodoo Lily but my husband threw several of my plants over the Cornish hedge , thinking they were dead or that there was nothing in the pot .

Sigh ...... they go dormant through the Winter ....I tried to explain this to him ..... ...climbing up on the Cornish hedge I managed reach over and retrieve a couple of them .....but could not find the other really rare (and expensive ) one in amongst brambles nettles and sloe bushes .

                          I'd like to throw him over the Cornish hedge !!

Brassica seed - update 

You may remember I sowed a variety of brassica seeds on Monday .

                             So the race is on !

      .......and of course it's the Greyhound Cabbage seeds coming in first ! 🌿

A bit of flower arranging -

          Flowers from our garden , red , white and blue .

                                          Feeling patriotic  !   

                                               ❤️🤍💙

                               

                                               ❤️🤍💙   

                           Peace and Love  🕊️🌿

                                                      Debbie x