Slow Season

Week 29 – Thursday, 10th July 2008

Popped down to the lottie and dropped all the composting material. The lottie is looking really windswept and I feel really bad that I have not been able to come down as often as I would like but life seems to be so hectic at the moment. There never seems to be a spare minute to myself to slip away and get stuff done.
The tomatoes in the greenhouse on the lottie are looking really good with lovely tomatoes lower down the bush. I cannot wait until I can sink my teeth into a lovely ripe tomato. I must admit that the Peacevine tomato that I got in my HDRA seed swap this year is really impressing me. The tomatoes are a bit heart shaped and the most prolific plants this year really – only hope that it tastes as good as it looks. The Yellow Brandywine (in the house greenhouse), is not doing too well, but might still pick up later in the season. The Red Brandywine is doing OK and the others are slow but doing well. The only home grown tomato I have had to date is the Sungold’s. They are lovely but not flowering as much as last year – not sure if this is because I have been nipping out all the side shoots – maybe I should have left them all to their own devices – I did last year and got some lovely fruits.

The cucumbers in both greenhouses are really not doing well this year and despite me putting down slug pellets, they seem to be getting struggling. They really seems to be struggling this year and the plant at home has only tiny little fruits on but the vine does not seem to want to take off – normally this time of the year it is twirling its way around the greenhouse in a bid for freedom.

This however seems to be a national problem as I was listening to Terry Walton on BBC 2 last Friday and he says their stuff all seems to be a couple of week behind that of last year – so maybe it will pick up.