During this rainy spell, I can catch up with communication on here. There was a lot to read and I have a thing or two that I want to post as well. So then...I'm sat here with a cuppa tea and a chocolate wafer at the elbow. I am ready to spill the beans. To begin with--the toms. It has been time to prune like mad and sucker those suckers. These are the Ferline's--a cordon variety. You may recall that from my seedlings, I planted the half on and the other half I did not. There is a noticeable difference when you compare the two at this stage of their development. Look at this: The Ferline's that were NOT planted on. Then the Ferline's that were indeed planted on before planting in the greenhouse. You can see that the bunches of toms on the plantlets that were planted-on to a larger container before setting out begin to fruit lower to the ground and the plants themselves are quite a bit taller. You have seen the Ferline's and now have a look at the Roma's: They are determinate toms, but they got a measured pruning anyhow. This was to keep the airflow good in order to limit the chance of phytophthora developing. Over at one of the compost bins we have leaf mould. It has broken down so quickly and looks really good to me even though the sunlight makes it look faded. If you look over in the shadow you can see how dark it really is. The blueberries needed covering. All the Limnanthes plants were removed and the seeds shaken out onto the soil for the coming year. The merels and tits really will eat all the berries if left open even a half day too long. This covering looks a bit like Christo's artwork. The Bride says that it looks ridiculous...and it does; however, it is necessary and harvest preservation take place over mode. Spud harvest it taking place at a snail's pace as we like to take them a plant at the time...but steadily so that we can finish them off before the blight strikes and in time to plant some green manure or perhaps a late crop of something. You can see the "holes" in the patch where we have been stealing them. As I mentioned in my recent thread called; " Strawb is As Strawb Does", I removed all the Korona and Dar Royale plants and will replace those in August. The remaining Malvina's will be removed as well when they have finished giving fruits. The following pick of a quadrant sports beetroot plants at the back, last hope sprout plants, Swiss chard, then rows of germinated and not yet germinated green manure. The next view is showing a lot of action: There is the wax melter, sweetcorn, courgette's, beans and leeks...as well as the strawbs just before their removal and the yellow wall of disgrace of the dead kapucijners which my Bride insists upon leaving stand because " it is a sort of attractive 'art form' in the garden". As you can see we do not always see eye-to-eye on gardening practices. At least I could finesse a promise to use it as a winter mulch come fall. Oh all right then...before all you girls descend upon me, I will admit that in real life the colour is attractive and perhaps it doesn't look all that bad. Having said this, if the yellow wall could have graffiti sprayed upon it, it would say, "Compost me...NOW".
