Life On The Road

I've also had to move the tomato plant to the back of the garden as it wasn't getting the sun it needed at the side of the house, We've also had problems with snails who've eaten the tops of the marigolds that I planted in the border-a shame as we were going to use these as fly deterrents later. Hopefully they'll grow back but i'm not holding my breath. More later, with pictures..

As previously mentioned, it's hanging upside down, and after day one it figured this out, and started turning the tops of the leaves towards the sun. Talk about a home biology lesson! Anyway, I'm watering it regularly now, and next week it's time to start feeding it.

I've just noticed that the nasturtiums are also sprouting, and this is good news as I'm hoping that maybe they'll act as sacrificial flowers that might keep pests away from the tomatoes. Having said that though, we'll still hoping that the nasturtiums will be edible and so it'll mean keeping a close eye on both plants.

I'm still keeping an eye on the new Passiflora which seems to be settling in nicely so far: I'm hoping that it'll start to bloom later on this year, and if I can stop it getting pot-bound it should hopefully mean that we'll be able to transplant it into a more permanent location, maybe next year.

Then, onto the garden.. first job was to plant the rather nice Italian Plum tomato plant that I'd bought from Homebase: it's a good strong specimen and I have high hopes for it, especially as so far we don't seem to have had many slugs nor snails. This year I've put it in a JML "Topsy Turvy" which suspends the plant upside down(!), so there's no stakeing and hopefully no lost fruit. It looks rather weird but hey, I'll try anything at least once.

Then onto potting a new Passiflora. The old one was marvellous, but showed no sign of returning after the first year, despite the fact that it was climbing well. Rather disappointing, but as I removed the dead wood of the old one I could see that the poor thing was absolutely root bound! No way was it going to do anything this year, so out it came and in went a rather attractive mauve "amethyst" variety which came from Morrisons for under 2 quid!

Next I repotted the ever-resilient chives, which had just flowered. I cut off the tops which are now hanging up in the kitchen to dry, and very tasty they smell! Wonderful things chives and very good for you as well so I understand.

Finally, I have to plant some French Marigolds in the newly-exposed border: I'm hoping these will spread and perhaps there'll be enough left to bring inside to keep the dratted flies away. If not, Liz's birthday present of a box of carniverous plant seeds might to do the trick!

And now it's back out to work and get my hands dirtier!

The other success story is what I fondly imagined to be a bell pepper, grown from seed alongside some cherry tomatoes. It was one of those situations where nothing really came up, and I eventually conceded defeat (that is, apart from one straggler that had managed to get to the dicotyledon stage). I was really excited about having grown a pepper, especially when the flowers started to appear and the previously scanty leaf quota rocketed. Then last night I had to admit that my lovely pepper was in fact a cherry tomato, and to prove it I now have a few on the vine. Ah well, at least it had grown and we love tomatoes so they won't be wasted.

As regards insect life, there are only a few bees left now, and a rather opulent bush with white flowers (looks like a Buddlea White Perfusion) is still waiting to be serviced. The poor summer has no doubt taken its toll and I'm hoping it won't have too great an impact on next year. And then there's the spider: see picture, or larger versions on my Flickr page. Up until the rain last night it had built a substantial web between the echinacea and the ivy: this has now been washed away (the web!) but I get the feeling it'll be back again soon in which case I'll try and photograph it again.

Come back soon for more garden news!

Actually, the butterflies and bees are a big issue for us as they are in most of the UK. With a combination of environmental factors, 2 years of wet summers as well as the Varro Mite attacking bees has placed these species under serious threat. In order to try and combat this, we've installed a "bumblebee house" which will allegedly provide a shelter for these low-flying marvels along with a bee-log which is favoured by Red Mason bees. There's already quite a bit of bee activity at the moment around the back garden but I'm hoping that once the seeds come up they'll be coming over en masse. Finally, the window boxes previously planted are starting to show signs of "critical mass" - the sweet peas in particular are growing very dense and I suspect that over the next week or so we should see a blaze of colour. Come back soon for more news and pictures!