Tomato ‘Moneymaker’ plants put into growbags

Tomato ‘Moneymaker’ plants put into growbags

Today, 20th June, I spent a few hours on the balcony & finally got around to putting my Tomato ‘Moneymaker’ plants into growbags on the balcony floor!

Before I could do that I had to prepare the balcony – not an easy a task as it might seem at first! First I had to move the trays of tomato plants off the table, then I had to find somewhere to put them! Somewhere that I might avoid falling over them & breaking them!

Done! Now it was the turn of the 2 Marguerite standards, they had to be moved out of the way so I could take the big, round table down without breaking them as well!

Once they were safely out of the way I had to finish taking the smaller pots of plants, like Dianthus ‘China Pinks’, off the table & find them a place so that I wouldn’t step on them either! Done!

The Dragon tree also had to be moved out of the way so I could get on with the task in hand! Done!

Now that’s all done I can get on & sweep the compost up that lying all over the floor. Done!

Now to fix up the shelving to the wall. That took some doing but eventually that task was completed as well!

Phew!!! (It’s beginning to get rather warm on the balcony by now & I’m still some way from planting up the tomatoes!)

Now the table is free of everything & I can get on & dismantle it! Taking down this big table frees up a lot of space on the balcony! I can get 2 growbags in the space as well as a couple of other big pots that will eventually hide the lower stems of the tomato plants. Done!

There was just enough room beside the shelves on the wall for me to squeeze the dismounted table in! After cleaning it I now have a bright light reflecting service that should help the plants in the 2 growbags. Done!

Now it was time at last to get the growbags into position!

But now the temperature’s increasing & I’m getting rather hot – & not just under the collar, either! (For the 3rd day in a row we are forecast temps that could reach 30C! Far, far too hot for the UK!!!) I fluff up the bags so as to get some air into them & so the roots of the plants can move around without hindrance! Done!

I put the first bag crossways & the 2nd lengthways. I now have 2 sides of a square! I put in three growpots, (that I bought years ago & used only once or twice), in the first growbag. (These are pots that have an inner ring where you plant your tomato & add the fertilizer & an outer ring, where you put only water. They sit on the surface of the compost after you have cut out a ring of the plastic bag. They also have holes for canes in the 4 interior corners.) Done!

(I’ll have to get a move on if I don’t want to be cooked as it’s beginning to get a little uncomfortable with the sun creeping in minute by minute & now almost on my back!)

I’ve now put the first 3 plants in, now for the 2nd bag:

Like the first one, I fluff it up & then make up my own (poor imitation) growpotsimprovise! (goodness me, it’s getting HOT!) These consist of dark green plant holders. I found two that would suffice & made half a dozen holes in the base of each one, these will serve as the outer ring where the plain water goes. Not having a third I had to improvise further & use a plastic pot, this fortunately already has holes in its base! Done! I then planted the other 3 tomato plants. Done!

(Boy is my back burning now!)

Just time for a quick tidy up before going to get the bottles of water to water in the plants & stop them from drying out during the afternoon & evening. Fortunately for the plants, the corner I’ve put them in is the shadiest part of the balcony as the sun makes its way westwards during the afternoon.

As the summer wears on to autumn so the sun’s position in the sky with respect to the balcony changes. From now onwards the sun will very slowly creep back to light up that corner more & more as the weeks go by. So the ripening tomatoes will get all the benefit of many hours of sunlight.

By now I’m almost faint because of the heat which is almost 27C! But, for now, I’m done (Though still rare on the inside!) :D)

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Today is June 26th, I’ve finished everything I needed to do to get the tomatoes off to the best possible start.

I’ve planted up the last Growbag & now the plants are settling in.

A few plants have flowers already!:

Today I finished off by tying some soft string around the bases of the plants & tying this to a thicker piece of string that runs along the ceiling of the balcony.

Now all I have to do is to twist the growing stems around this string to hold them up. I’ve used this method for many years now & it functions very well!

When they ripen our 3 grandkids will help me to pick them!

Amaryllis hybrids have now begun to flower!

Amaryllis hybrids have now begun to flower!

Though I’ve mistakenly put Anglo-American hybrid on some of the photos, this particular bulb is one of 3 bulbs that I put in the same 5″ pot last year when I was repotting many of my bulbs last year.

At least one of the pots was mistakenly put in the other bedroom with the Anglo-American hybrids. I really should have realised what had happened when the scape began to grow as it is in a pot with several other offshoots which I intended to separate & repot this year. All my Anglo-American hybrids were put ONE to a 5″ pot last year. NONE went into a pot together. This alone should have made me suspicious when I started labelling it as an Anglo-American Amaryllis!

Many pots last year were overcrowded with the new offsets that had been forming & were breaking the pots. I use plastic pots, not ceramic or clay so they are easily damaged when the bulbs/offsets begin to expand. As this process has to be done while they are dormant it wasn’t until February 2015 when I finally got around to doing it.

(Wrong date – should have been 16th January 2016!)

This year I’ve been confronted with a similar problem only I started to “tackle” it back at the end of November/beginning of December before I brought the plants home from the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment. As space in our flat is really at a premium, & there was even less this year, I decided to empty out as many of the the remaining pots as I could in order to save on space in the flat during the winter. In previous years they used to spend the winter in their pots on the windowsills of our 2 bedrooms & in the kitchen where we have a 3m (10ft) windowsill. Last year all these windowsills were filled up to their maximum capacity – even though they were in tiers 4 rows high!

So many had to go on top of a big wardrobe in one of the bedrooms. None received any water until buds were seen to be coming out of the necks of the bulbs where upon I began to give them a little water again, increasing as time went by.

All the pots in one bedroom windowsill had to go out onto the balcony in mid March – the first time I’ve ever put them out so early as we often get frosts till the end of the first week in may some years. I did try to cover them with a plastic sheet on nights when frost was forecast & fortunately they all survived! :-)) I also took them down to the Gerry’s greenhouse on his allotment much earlier than other years. The greenhouse has no heating & a couple of pieces of glass had got broken during the winter making it prone to frost. Nevertheless they still managed to survive & were later moved out of the greenhouse on to some shelving on the plot itself for the summer. I had to take my bulbs down in several journeys over several weeks as they finished flowering at home.

One bedroom windowsill has 4 tiers of bulbs – all Amaryllis hybrids I’ve grown from my own seed:

These have grown & flowered & multiplied over the years. I only started giving them water a couple of weeks ago. Some will have to me moved into new pots as lots of the pots have 5-6 or more offsets in them! Last year I didn’t have the space, compost or pots to pot up everything into its own individual pot. Although I don’t generally let offshoots or seedling bulbs go into hibernation till after they have flowered for the first time I just couldn’t leave them growing this winter.

I may lose a few bulbs because being so small they are unable to store sufficient water or food. Nevertheless I expect the majority to pull through with very few casualties.

I’ve put 20 big bulbs in 6″ pots now on the kitchen windowsill, they all have buds at different stages, some are only just peeping out of the bulb neck others are several inches high already.

These were some of the bulbs I put in paper bags to remain dry over the winter:

Some of those that I emptied out of their pots in the greenhouse last December. The buds had started to grow quite high on some of the bulbs! These will be in flower in about a month’s time. During February I will have dozens of bulbs flowering – as well as in March & April! Having so many I have to start them off over a period of a couple of months so that way I get flowers for several months in a row!

Dreaming of a white Christmas?

Dreaming of a white Christmas?

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card I write”, so goes the popular Christmas time song & this year that’s what anybody who wants a white Christmas & lives in the UK will have to do, as we are having the mildest December it seems since 1977! As I went to live in Spain, in October, that year I can’t compare! But the weather forecasters tell us that that is so according to their records. The month isn’t over yet and more warm weather is forecast from Boxing Day here in the UK!

We had our daughter’s dog with us a couple of days last week & when I took her out I noticed there were a lot of Daisies & Dandelions in flower around where we live. So it occurred to me to look more closely while out with the dog & see just how many spring flowers were actually flowering during the middle part of December.

A few days before I’d noticed that a tree I was sure normally flowered in the spring was actually in flower at the present moment! I even took a photo of it on Sunday, 20th December! I’m sure I have more photos of this particular tree as I had to go by it every day for 5 years on my way to work. Unfortunately they are locked away on the hard disk of my desk top computer, which broke down some months ago, & I now have no access to them! 😦

While I was out with the dog I noticed some Periwinkle flowering in the undergrowth at the foot of a hedge, it must have been thrown out some years ago by someone cleaning their garden because I’ve seen it other times. It doesn’t grow naturally wild here in the UK.

In a garden, a few minutes later, I saw a lot of Grape Hyacinths flowering or in bud. A couple of years earlier I’d seen these same plants flowering out of spring time when again I was walking the dog but was accompanied by our granddaughter. I remember pointing them out to her. I’ve also seen lots of Primroses flowering in people’s gardens & the Polyanthus, planted by our town council in the carpark in front of the local shops, are flowering as well. I’ve seen Daffodils in gardens here with leaves between 4 & 6 inches high & in one garden I even saw a bud amongst them! I’ve never ever seen Daffodil buds in December before!

On Sunday, 20th December, I went to visit a brother of mine who lives in a village a couple of miles from here. On my way back home I saw that the Daffodils, that flower every year in the grass verge along the road, were in flower! I was flabbergasted! Never in my 60+ years have I seen Daffs flowering in the street in the middle of December!!! I’d heard on the news programmes on TV that in some parts of the UK Daffs were flowering but I never expected to see them this close to home!

I took several photos which I include here showing the Daffs flowering in the grass verge alongside the road:

Toms tied in & pea-size fruits

Toms tied in & pea-size fruits

I spent a hour or more today on my plot tying in my tomatoes that are now flowering & producing pea-sized toms!

This bed has 9 plants of ’Gardener’s Delight’ as well as 6-9 ‘Little Sun’, another 6-9 ‘Losetto’ & another 6-9 ‘Gourmet’. These last 3 varieties are all F1 seeds that were sent to me in a swap some months ago.

When I went to plant them out they all got mixed up – except for the 9 plants of ’Gardener’s Delight’ which were grown from the beginning in the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment. These were bigger plants growing in 5″ pots when I planted them out. They were also the very first to be put out so I know exactly what plants are ’Gardener’s Delight’!

These plants are now flowering & making the first pea-sized fruit:

Many of the other plants are also flowering & as I was tying them in I knocked the flowers about a little to encourage them to set fruit as with the cold wet weather forecast for all of the coming week there may not be enough bees around to fertilize them.

The plants are now bigger than what you see in the photo. That photo is 2 weeks old but I haven’t got a more recent one having forgotten to take one after I finished tying them in this morning! I may not be able to get down there any more this week as we are forecast rain until Thursday at least!

Lotties in winter

Lotties in winter

At long last I found time to do the promised blog of our allotments at the end of the year. Today is Boxing Day & it’s a very quiet day, in spite of the strong winds forecast! We began the day with a fair amount of sunshine though this only lasted a few hours before the clouds came over. No rain though. In the late afternoon we had a little sunshine once again before the night time pulled its veil over the evening sky.

Beetroot Bolthardy harvested:

This first photo is of the last of the Beetroots that I had been growing at the top of the plot. They’re in the bag because I forgot I wanted a photo with them just taken out of the ground.

All in all I’m pretty pleased with the way they have gone this year & will again sow them at intervals in coming years.

Broccoli Purple sprouting:

The Broccoli was given to me by a guy on the conjoining plot. I happened to read about their anti-cancerous properties just before going down to the plot. This guy was planting something, I didn’t know what, when I asked him if he knew about the anti-cancerous properties of Broccoli. He said he did & that he was planting his Broccoli at that very moment! He offered me the last half a dozen he had left over & so I planted them here. Mine have done better than his!

Godetias flowering:

The Godetias I sowed originally in the greenhouse to later take home & put on the balcony but which I put in the plot have been flowering for some time. I must say this has surprised me as I expected them to die at the first whiff of frost! They have survived at least 3 frosts – one of which was forecast to be 3 degrees C below freezing!

Lettuce Tom Thumb:

These miniature Lettuce, Tom Thumb, are still going strong after several frosts.

Lentils & Calendulas at top of plot:

This is the top of the plot where I sowed Lentils & Pinto beans. I had potatoes growing here a few months earlier. After lifting them & raking out the soil level I sowed some rows of Legumes. The Pinto beans didn’t survive more than one very, very light frost but the Lentils are not fazed by a few degrees of frost! The Calendulas have been there all year! They came up with the spuds & I left them after lifting the spuds.

French Marigolds in flower:

I sowed these French Marigolds in a seedtray with the intention of pricking them out into bigger flowerpots hoping, with the protection of the greenhouse, to get some flowers from them during the winter. I was so occupied with the digging of the allotments that I never got around to doing it! So, here they are flowering, still in the seedtray!

Annual Chrysanthemums:

A guy from Spain sent me some seeds of these Annual Chrysanthemums last year. I grew them on the allotment & some seeds fell into the ground & survived the winter/spring/summer to come up amongst the Carrots I sowed there. As they still hadn’t flowered when I lifted the Carrots I decided to try & save the plants. I put them in the greenhouse, in the growbag where Tomato Mallorquin had been growing all summer. They are flowering at the time of writing this blog!

Garlic sprouting:

During November I put in a few Garlic cloves from a head of Garlic one of our sons brought over from Spain when he came to spent a couple of weeks holiday with us. He said they were probably the best Garlic you could buy in Spain! I told him at the time it was far too early to plant them but I would do it when the time was right. So here they are just poking through the ground right in front of the greenhouse.

Peanuts at an end:

Many of you following my allotment blogs during the year will remember my experiment with growing Peanuts on the allotment, well I can report that the experiment has been unsuccessful! Not surprising to anyone I suppose, but I did get at least ONE (1) peanut!!!

You must realize that I also started them very, very late. I’m determined to have another go next year & will start the seeds off much earlier, I may even give them some protection from the elements as well.

Pinto beans harvested:

Here are some of my Pinto beans as I was removing them from their seed pods in the greenhouse. I left them to dry for a couple of months before I removed them from their seed pods. Really I was too busy, & lazy!, to do it earlier! They had been picked more than a month before.

Pinto beans bagged:

Here is a bag with some of the beans once I took them home & put them in a bag. We have had a meal with some & there are still some waiting for me to remove the beans from their seed pods!

Tomatoes Mallorquin in Greenhouse:

This is the last photo of the tomatoes Mallorquin. I sowed them in January 2011 in the greenhouse. They were from the packet of seeds my wife brought me back from Spain in September 2010.

Tomatoes Mallorquin harvested in Greenhouse:

A few days later I decided it was no use keeping them on the plant any longer so I picked them & here they are laid out on the bench in the greenhouse.

Runner beans

These were the last of the runner beans for this year. I collected the last few seedpods to save for next year & I’ve now cleared the ground of them. We had a huge crop from them!

Fig trees with frost protection:

These “wigwams” are the winter protection for the two Fig trees we have. After two year of losing the fruit in the very late spring frosts I thought I would protect them this year & see if we can get something to eat from them. I shan’t take the fleeces off them until the middle of May next year. The two previous years we have had frost as late as the first week of May!

Tomatoes Mallorquin in greenhouse just harvested:

These are the very, very last of the tomatoes Mallorquin. I harvested them on 5th December. I then removed the plant from the growbag & threw it away.

Godetias at top of plot:

I showed you a photo of these Godetias at the top of the plot further up but this photo was taken several weeks, & several frosts later! Even on Christmas Eve they were still flowering!

French Marigolds & Cosmos on Christmas Eve:

The French Marigolds I showed you a few photos earlier were still flowering on Christmas Eve & there were a few Cosmos amongst them! They had been affected a little by the frosts lately but, as you can see, continued to flower!

Sweetpeas Royal Family just sown:

I finally sowed my Sweetpeas. I had tubes & compost all waiting in the greenhouse but I had no seeds till the 15th December! On the 20th I sowed about a 1/3rd of the seeds. The tubes are placed in a standard seedtray in which over 20 tubes fit.

Onion Alisa Craig sown on Christmas Eve:

When I spent an hour or so on the plots on Christmas Eve I sowed a few of my Onion Alisa Craig seeds in a seedtray. This is a little later than last year I think when I believe I sowed them a week or two earlier. I was quite pleased with the results of the sowing when I lifted the bulbs in July. I want to sow more this year as our stock ran out about a month ago!

Well that’s the last from the plots I share with Gerry for this year. I have to make up one last one with what I’ve been doing on my very own plot (12A) which I got from the Town Council on 1st September.

Wishing you all a happy end to the year 2011 & a fantastic New Year 2012.