Everything is growing so well… I’m astonished!

Yes quite a milestone reached as have been able to harvest the first salad leaves. The cloche cover had to come of for this… otherwise it’s like playing ‘Twister’ trying to get in to pick the leaves… not a pretty site!

… and they just keep on growing, so I’m cropping some every other day. These will never be allowed to grow to a proper lettuce and hoping I will get a few weeks of harvesting before they are finished. So soon, I will be sowing some ‘proper’ lettuces with the hope I’ve staggered planting correctly to keep a supply coming later in the year.

A milestone reached… the first harvest.

During a session of weeding the main veg bed, I spotted a few of these and discovered they weren’t weeds at all. These were the result of our local squirrel using the soft soil to bury last years nut supply! (We do have a hazelnut tree not far away that fruits well) – So while on a high about everything that’s growing, thought I’d give these two a fighting chance and stuck them in their own pots…

Does anyone want a hazelnut tree, I won’t have room for any more?

I’ve benefited from the squirrel burying last years nuts!

The courgettes were very ready for going out into their own pots, so I’ve put two out initially and then the others will follow soon – (part of the ‘staggering technique I’m trying). They were loving the greenhouse and getting decidedly tall – and do you remember I splinted them for support early on, well it was a very tricky task to carefully remove the wire and stake, without damaging the stalks. Me thinks that has to change if I do this next year..

Just a point here, the two large pots you see are a nifty ‘self watering’ idea I bought into. They have a false bottom, that enables it to retain water without water-logging the soil and roots.

I have a lot of courgette plants…

Bit of a re-think in the main veg bed for the beans  to go out, by building a type of wigwam of stakes. This has maximised the available space and much easier to move the mesh to keep our unwanted visitors off the garden.

Such an easier arrangement to build and maintain.

But then it got windy just after I’d put them out! They didn’t stand much chance until they’d become a bit more established. So I found some garden mesh in the back of the shed (amazing what you find you’ve got stored) that I wrapped over the wire mesh and has worked perfectly. 🙂

Then it got windy!

I will be needing more stakes at some point, to support the growing fruit plants… and of course I have a ready supply already growing in the garden 🙂 – so I am feeling quite resourceful this week.

Grow your own cane supply…

Next week… something odd has happened to a couple of courgettes.