Sunflowers, Sunflowers & yet more Sunflowers!

Sunflowers, Sunflowers & yet more Sunflowers!

This journal is about, you guessed it – Sunflowers, Sunflowers & yet more Sunflowers! LOL!

During the last week of May I sowed 100s of Sunflower seeds! Some were saved from last year & some were bought by Gerry this year.

There were two types, basically, of seeds, some were tall & others were short. I saved a lot of seed from the tall ones we grew last year but didn’t know their name – in my photos of these I just call these “Tall”. I also saved some of a short kind, again with no name. These in my photos I just call “Mini”.

Then there were a couple of packets that Gerry bought & gave to me to sow. One packet was of a variety called “Titan” whereas the other was a dwarf variety called “Little Dorrit”:

I sowed the two short varieties at the ends of a few beds where I had space that I hadn’t filled with the rest of the plants in those beds. As I only had a few seeds of “Little Dorrit” I sowed them close to our main path down the allotment. These I spaced out so I wouldn’t have to thin them out later once germinated. Even so it now looks as if I should have spaced them further apart than I did:

“Little Dorrit”, has enormous leaves & enormous flower heads! It’s a shame they aren’t held higher, above the foliage, as this hides them somewhat, as can be seen in the photo:

The seeds saved from last year’s short variety I sowed closer together & thinned out later as I had lots of these seeds. I was also able to sow more rows & in more places:

But their growth is very much determined by the available water supply! Where they received very little water they remained very dwarf – just like last year. But where they received more water they have grown at least twice the height of the ones that received very little water! Nowhere is that more obvious than those I planted at the end of the runner bean bed, these show a marked difference between those that ended up among the beans & those that are bordering the pathway!

I overestimated the number of Runner bean plants that we would have & put up too many canes. The last few pairs of canes remained empty but I couldn’t take them down again without prejudicing the entire framework so I sowed a few rows of dwarf Sunflower seeds to cover them up a little. As these rows got much more water than the other Sunflowers they grew a lot taller!

You can see the end result in this picture:

The other photos show the progress of “Titan” from sowing to flowering. “Titan” hasn’t grown nearly as tall as some of the other “Tall” ones from last year. There is no way we could have won a prize for the tallest Sunflower on the plot like we did last year! I think that was Gerry’s idea when he gave me them!

Amongst the “Tall” Sunflowers a few have been flowering for a couple of weeks, at least one finished a couple of weeks ago & its seeds are nearly ripe! The rest are now beginning to flower. Here are some photos of their progress:

The self-sown Sunflowers have been mostly multi-headed & the tallest of all is a multi-headed one like the one that won us 1st prize last year:

There were two but the strong winds of a couple of weeks ago caused one of them to keel over! The remaining one I stripped of its biggest leaves so there would be less weight for the stem (trunk?) to hold up but mostly to reduce air resistance. That one still continues to flower:

We have only had two pale yellows amongst the self-sown & none – as yet – amongst the ones I sowed:

A last photo is of the dozen or so that I transplanted from where they were growing previously – something I wasn’t sure could be achieved successfully – some from pots of Strawberries, others that had germinated in the allotment soil:

They will continue to be a lovely spectacle for weeks to come!

The August plot – Part one

The August plot – Part one

Well here we are already half way through the 8th month of the year! Where did the time go? It has just flown by! It seems it was only a couple of days ago we were planting out the spring plants for our summer crops & now we are in the middle of harvesting them!!!

Cucumbers:

Here are a few photos of the Cucumbers in the greenhouse:

We have had the equivalent of about one a day for the last month or so! Some days there haven’t been any due to low temps probably, other days we have had 4 – 6 which I’ve picked to take home. The ones grown in the greenhouse have produced more & better quality fruit than those outside. The plants in the GH have been covered in Powdery Mildew for several months (as have the outdoor plants) but they keep on growing & producing more fruit. I give them 5lt of water a day or more! They are growing in 3 growbags, a tomato shares one of the bags!

Tomatoes:

The Tomato bed has grown a lot during this month. Now the plants are head high & the very first few fruits are starting to turn orange.

You can see the progress in just 2 weeks!

Now the tomatoes are beginning to ripen & here is just one photo – so as not to bore you too much!

I thought I’d introduce a new feature in this blog – I call it:

Find the veg!

Let’s start with an easy photo – just compare the following two photos to see if you can spot the Beetroot, among our “native flora”:

There, that wasn’t hard, was it? Well now that you have “warmed up” try this next one – you may have more difficulty this time:

Ready for another? Here we go then:

Did you enjoy that?

Our “native flora” grows incredibly fast after a drop of rain! It wasn’t through negligence the beds got in that state I only put the seedling out into the beds about 10 days before!

Here is a photo of a miniature Lettuce called “Tom Thumb”. It’s extremely hardy as it coped with all the worst that our last winter could throw at it with no protection whatsoever! I think I will grow some over winter in the greenhouse! I picked a load of them today & we will eat some tomorrow. I also sowed some more seed in the GH.

Here is a photo of Lettuce “Ruboneo” gone to seed:

This was one of the Lettuces I grew from the seeds my wife brought me back from Spain last year. The main head had been eaten but we cut them back to within an inch of the soil & they sprout again. Gerry has been taking the new sproutings for his birds & rabbit but there are many in flower now as each original plant produces 6 or more new shoots.

Peanuts:

Though the plants themselves are not getting very big they are producing flowers!

As you can see they have very bright yellow pea-like flowers, now I hope I get some Peanuts from them:

Potatoes:

Here is a photo of Gerry’s King Edward main crop potatoes which I dug up as the foliage had gone yellow/brown. Some of the soil was being eroded away from around the tubers thus exposing them to the light:

There must have been well over 10kg there!

Legumes or Pulses: aka: Pinto beans, Garbanzo (Chick peas) beans & Lentils:

As I got such a good crop from the Pinto beans I sowed last year I’m sowing many more this year in different beds, mainly where potatoes were grown earlier. Although I didn’t get any return from the Garbanzo beans or the Lentils I’m sowing them as green manure. When I pick the beans I shall dig the rest in.

The photo above shows them a couple of weeks after I made a sowing where we had 4 rows of potatoes earlier.

The next photo was taken on 15th August (somehow it escaped from having a caption printed on it!) & shows the Pinto beans that were sown between Gerry’s onions grown from sets. These were harvested a couple of weeks ago. They didn’t germinate very well but now they have made quite a bit of progress & are even flowering now, you may not be able to see the small white pea-like flowers on this photo.

The following picture is of all three legumes which I sowed after taking out Gerry’s Shallots. As the self-sown Sunflowers had made such enormous leaves & are coming to an end now I removed many of the leaves on each plant so as not to have too much shade when the legumes germinate:

Three Sisters’ bed:

August has seen this bed come on by leaps & bounds! The photos don’t make this as clear as I would like though:

You can see the runner beans climbing up the canes here. (Note to self, in a future planting use shorter beans!) Unfortunately the Water Melons used as ground cover plants have almost all died off! So there will be no Water Melons from the plot:

The Sweetcorn used as support for the climbing beans have taken off & produced plenty of flowers & it seems the cobs are developing well. I did wonder if the leaves of the beans would hinder the fertilization process but this does not seem to be the case.

Below is a picture taken from the opposite angle to all the other pictures I’ve posted up till now of this bed. The Sweetcorn here didn’t get planted with beans – I didn’t have enough!:

I’m going to finish this blog with a couple of photos of flowers plus the shed one – with a difference!

Morning Glory:

Where we have the divide between the two half allotments I put in some canes & tied them to the wire between the two iron posts Gerry put in some years ago. I also put a lot of string to give the Sweetpeas something to grip onto earlier in the year. I also grew some Culinary peas there as well.

They have all died & I planted seeds of Morning Glory (Many colours) that I bought when in Spain back in May. They are now in full flower & look absolutely lovely! Here is a picture of them during the middle of the 2nd week of August

Here is a close up of a few Morning Glory flowers that I took this morning! As you may notice we had a little rain but only a little:

View of the shed:

Here is the picture I promised of the shed with a difference! This time it is from outside as from the inside the view down the allotment is blocked by Dwarf Sunflowers, Gladioli & the Raspberry bed!

I apologise if you found the blog longer than usual but even so I could have gone on as there are many things I haven’t included! (Perhaps I could make up an extra blog in a day or two? Let me know what you think!

Until my next blog,
Happy gardening!