Posts Tagged ‘My Strawberries’

Onto part deux, welcome to the sequel about all things ‘b’.

I have to confess that the title of this post is nothing more than a show off on my part to use some of the new gardening terms I have learnt recently. Before you say it, no that doesn’t include the word ‘berries’ I had already heard of that one but I needed a third ‘B word’ to make it look good.

You know thinking about it, there would have been a time not so long ago when I thought blight was a spelling error and bolting was some new DIY term! But thanks to advice from much more knowledgeable gardeners than myself I am now learning.

Anyway time to go off on a tangent. I never had myself down as one of those people who are so totally in tune with nature that they believe plants are living organisms that have feelings.

‘Do plants feel?’
‘Can you hurt a plants feelings?’

I once read on the internet.

Well I’m sure I don’t know but I can tell you that if plants do have feelings I feel we may owe our tomato plant a huge apology.

I had grown quite fond of the blotchy, brown, blighted, twiggy mess that was once a glorious tomato plant, but the time had come for it to leave us as we were unable to save the plant or the fruit. I was all for quickly yanking the poor thing out but Rich had other ideas. Grabbing the secateurs he insisted on cutting the poor thing up into itty bitty pieces asking me after every snip if I was sure I wanted to get rid of it. By the time there was a single lonely stalk poking through the soil, second thoughts seemed a bit redundant so it quickly took up residence in the recycling bin.

The broccoli which had ‘bolted’ suffered the same fate, although I have to say minus the ‘chopping into itty bitty pieces’ and simply got chucked away – I do think it may have got the better deal!

Oh yes, and before I forget we have new strawberries! I thought the plant had gone to sleep but Rich helpfully pointed out the planting tag thing which said they were annuals. Guess that would explain it!

So in summary do plants have feelings? I hope not, and try not to think about that next time you stand on some grass!

Firstly apologies for the blogging absence for the last week and a bit! Had a very busy weekend which involved me arguing with the sat-nav, taking a wrong left hand turn and ending up in a cycle race. No, it didn’t take me all weekend but it was one of the funnier parts of the weekend, and although I was unpopular with the cyclists I think I came first!

Anyway we are a little behind with our gardening antics at the moment, and with the nights drawing in more quickly every evening we have little time unless it’s a bit of watering.

So, updates? Well I think the tomato plant has had it. Even though we still have new fruit coming through on the plant it isn’t long before the brown patches start showing. To be fair I have heard a lot of people complaining about the dreaded blight this year, so I’m trying not to be too disheartened.

Onions are still doing fine which is good and the pink/red patches are starting to grow and look more like onions every day. After the slug ate our large pepper we are pleased to report that the small peppers are still growing and are uneaten so fingers crossed, we may get peppers after all!

The strawberry plant it has to be said is looking a little sad with its leaves flopping over the side of the Cultivation Station and the plant bearing no fruit. I do think it might be the end of the season so I am not too concerned.

Two important things we need to get done this weekend. Firstly we need to plant up the beans as the busy weekend just past meant we didn’t get round to it, so that’s a priority.

Secondly with the mornings becoming colder we need to re-pot one of the strawberry plants currently in a plastic pot into a Clover planter (utilising thermal EPS properties) to ensure it will be protected from frosts during the winter.

We still have bedding plants that need to be sorted out….…and herbs that need to be planted….. sooo much gardening to do!

Any volunteers to help?

So after the slug fiasco I forgot to tell you that the red onions finally appeared the other day.
I was getting worried that they had died, or that I had planted the bulbs in the wrong way and that they were making their way to Australia. But, that wasn’t the case, and like a mad woman I ran out into the garden in the pitch black in my dressing gown, armed with a camera.

I call this photos… ‘Onion by Night’’.  Possibly art?

Oh and finally I also have to report that the random experiment is looking, well pretty random. We have had people saying that we may get potatoes off of it, and some have said we won’t – only time will tell!

Despite my scepticism I have to report that the ‘random experiment’ is growing, and at a very fast rate, in fact it seems to be getting bigger every day. Consequently we have topped up the potato compost but it still seems to be shooting through. I can’t wait to see if we actually get any potatoes off of it, if anyone knows how long it will be before we can harvest the potatoes please leave a comment.

In other news we have also had our first strawberry! It was really nice and sweet, and probably all the sweeter because it came from our very own strawberry plant in our garden!

The strawberry plants are continuing to crop really well at the moment which is encouraging. In fact we have been told that we have another strawberry plant growing as there is and I quote, ‘a knuckle’. So you will be able to see that we have planted this shoot in another pot away from the Cultivation Station to see if we get another plant.