Wednesday 17 July 2013

Vegetable Garden

Another hot day looming so whilst some of the garden is still in shade, we have both been out weeding. Some plants are now getting quite short of water so rather than use the hose indiscriminately, we plan eventually, if required, to fill up one butt and use water from there. It is too easy to stand for an age using the hose, using heaven knows how much water. Using a watering can, makes you realise!

Two weeks ago, I took 3 cuttings from each type of my tomato plants, from between a leaf and stem (inter-nodal cuttings?) - 6 in total. I usually only sow a few tomato seeds and create the rest using this technique. They root extremely quickly. Here they are about to be potted on.

Two of these, once established, will be put outside to join their siblings in this newly created space at the end of the patio - you can also just see the top of a climbing cucumber on the right! The flowers are only in that container for this year as it will be used to pot on my baby strawberry plants from this year.
The other new bit of garden, down the side of the house near the garage, is also growing well.
Here on the right hand side of the wall, two of the climbing beans have reached the top of their strings (around 8 feet high) and have been pinched out. The one far right is half way up as it had to be re-sown. Both tomatillo plants have flowers and fruit setting, although it will be many, many weeks before they can be harvested.

The tomatoes are growing well, have established some flowers and are beginning to set fruit. The flowers, French Marigold, Lobelia and Nicotiana are also blooming well and I am hoping that they will fill out more and help shade the soil.
More from the vegetable patch next time!


7 comments:

  1. Well you learning summat new every day! I never knew tomato plants could be grown from cuttings! I shall definitely be giving that a try - thanks so much for the tip!

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  2. Kim, it is those little things that grown in the axil between the stem and leaf that you always have to pinch out on cordon grown tomatoes. Wait until they are about 4 inches big, snap them off, pot them on, keep watered, in the shade and 2 weeks later, they should have good roots.

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  3. Your new garden area along the side of the garage is looking fantastic!

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  4. Thank you Scarlet. The beans seem to flag a little when the sun gets on them but seem okay. Baby tomatoes are now forming.

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  5. All the plants look healthy and growing well:-)

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    1. Thank you WP. All seems well apart from the odd bout of black/greenfly which I usually squash.

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  6. I have never tried propagating the shoots from the tomato plants, thanks for sharing this. :)

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