SUMMER RAIN
After having had a wonderful week or so in April, we are now receiving the much needed rain and far less welcome winds. However, my garden is standing up to it quite well, with minimal damage. The wind managed to tear the plastic on my mini-greenhouse but that was no matter as I was well armed with a new cover which I had bought in readiness for next winter. It's a lot tougher. I went out and pulled the new cover straight over the top of the old to protect the pumpkins, courgettes and butternut squash which are growing well, considering I should only just be planting the seeds. Soon, I will be able to transfer them into their permanent summer places.
I've been clicking along with my mobile phone camera, so you can see how things are growing.
The tomatoes are coming along furiously. I bring them indoors during the evenings and put them outside during the day. Already there are dozens of little cherry tomatoes on each Tumbling Tom. This year I have a yellow variety and I heard on the Chelsea Flower Show that yellow was the original colour of tomatoes. Fancy that! I also have three upright tomatoes - Gardener's Delight - on the go. Already one foot tall. They came as a freebie from Which's Gardening magazine which I had on a trial offer. There were 6 seeds in all but only 3 germinated. It will be interesting to see how they turn out.
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| Tumbling Tom tomatoes |
The strawberries are doing better than I could hope for. There is going to be a glut of them if they all ripen. I can see me making jam. I've got several different varieties - Sonata, Honeyoye, Cambridge Favourite, Elsanta. It will be interesting to see which do the best. I have 20 plants in all with lots of runners shooting out all over the place. I have just realised, my garden isn't going to be big enough. This is a photo taken early May and the fruits now are quite big and beginning to ripen. Not bad really for the frozen north of West Yorkshire.
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| Strawberries |
The loganberries and raspberries are looking enthusiastic too. I've never grown them before and although the wind has hammered them, they have clung onto their flowers and forming berries and seem quite happy. I wonder if I will get to them before the birds do. These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago.
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| Raspberries |
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| Loganberries |