Wednesday 22 May 2013

Transplanting Tomatoes . The Salad Bar and Veggie Progress

A bit of sunshine, a bit of rain and a lot of grey skies this week.  Sunday was glorious and I managed to catch up on a lot of gardening jobs.  There is so much to do at this time of year that it is hard to  know where to start.  A lot of things are ready to be planted out - I have already planted some brassicas - cabbage, broccoli - and yesterday the runner beans went out at the plot, covered with fleece and liberally sprinkled with slug pellets, just in case.

I spent yesterday afternoon transplanting tomatoes into bigger pots - I still don't have room to put them into their final growing positions.  I have three each of six different varieties - the Gardeners Delight and Sungold are for outside and the Marmande, Roma and Alicante are for the greenhouse - the other is Black Russian which I tried last year but they got blight very quickly - so I'll give them one more go this year - if they succumb to blight again they will be scrapped permanently.

I also potted on the cucumbers which are doing fine at the moment, I sowed more than I needed as I always lose some to stem rot - fingers crossed, so far so good.

One of the courgette plants has already been attacked by a snail in the greenhouse so I have moved them outside into the growhouse out of snail-reach I hope.  A few butternut squash have refused to germinate and the summer squash are very slow to progress - not sure why this is - is it too late to re-sow?


The sweet peppers don't seem to be putting much growth on either, maybe it just hasn't been warm enough for them - I may have to resort to buying a few plants.

The rhubarb patch is threatening to take over the world - I can't seem to pick it quick enough.

The peas in the trough are beginning to flower

The redcurrants are showing great potential for a good harvest this year

As are the broad beans

The potatoes in containers are putting on lots of growth

The Lollo Rosso lettuce is showing off its wonderful colour
And the salad leaves which I am growing in washing-up bowls have settled in nicely

Time to pull up the purple sprouting broc which is going over

And this cow parsley has taken over a corner of one of the raised beds - I have left it because it looks so pretty but I will dig it out before it sets seed and 'cos I need the space for something a bit more edible.

Still plenty to be getting on with - there aren't enough hours in the day at the moment.  But I don't think it will be long before I will be starting to harvest  some lovely fresh veg.

Have you any veg ready for harvesting yet?

24 comments:

  1. I grow the same Lollo Rossa lettuce in Poland. It's very tasty and looks nice in salads :)

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    1. It is certainly colourful and doesn't seem to bolt as quickly as other lettuce.

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  2. Salad leaves are my main harvest at the moment. Mange tout won't be long.
    I've never seen redcurrants do so well. I'd like to think it was my skilled pruning of overgrown bushes, but it's probably just a good year!

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    1. Redcurrants seem to do well for me every year - but last year was the exception, hardly any at all.

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  3. Your veg garden is looking good so far!
    I have just a few containers with vegetables, and my salad leaves are soon ready for their first snip.

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    1. Mine are almost there - if only the weather was a bit more conducive to eating salads.

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  4. All your things are a little further on than ours but the weather has meant we have been reluctant to get things started. All your plants seem too be romping away. Hope ours does too now we are planting things out.

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    1. I had a couple of false starts myself but am still a little wary of planting out anything tender just yet.

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  5. Lovely to see everything growing at last. You have a lot going on there,Elaine. I'm not doing broad beans or runner beans this year as no one eats them. Once again I grew too many tomatoes,but I did find room to squeeze them all in the tunnel.I have peas in pods already,but cheated a bit by putting most veg inside the tunnel. But hey...at least they are growing ;)

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    1. Not sure where I am going to fit in all my tomato plants I suppose I'll find a bit of space somewhere.

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  6. It's all salad leaves and leafy herbs here at the moment for harvesting. I'd like to be able to harvest more rhubarb, but my plant is determined to flower rather than produce leaves. Not sure whether it's too late to resow squash - but I might have to try, very poor germination this year... there's always something!

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    1. My rhubarb hardly ever flowers - I suppose it depends on the variety.

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  7. My toms have flowers, but they'll not fruit for ages yet. Our first crop (as usual) will be the courgettes. Slug pellets are essential here, especially with the weather we're having.

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    1. I have to resort to slug pellets - nothing else seems to work as well whatever I try.

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  8. Such a pleasure seeing your garden growing and what is starting to produce. Always good to compare, see what others are harvesting etc. Really enjoyed this.

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    1. Everything is way behind this year compared to other years but hopefully the end result will be the same - just a bit later.

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  9. I'm impressed with how much you've got on the go and just good it all looks.
    The only thing I've harvested so far is rhubarb, which it seems is having a good year everywhere.
    I like the Lollo Rosso lettuce, which incidentally slugs don't seem to like. Flighty xx

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    1. I've noticed that about the frilly lettuce the slugs don't seem to bother it - wonder why?

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  10. Nice photographs Elaine. Most of your veggies are further on than mine, well done, especially the Tomatoes. I've got Lettuce, Rhubarb, Chives, Welsh Onions and Cabbage already being harvested. The Lettuce/Cabbages were overwintered under cloches.

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    1. I overwintered some lettuce as well which is still going strong.

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  11. All looking great Elaine! We've just created 2 veg beds so I shall be 'nicking' ideas from you :-)

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    1. Nice one Jane - any idea what you'll be growing yet.

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  12. You should have some great harvests there. I should have potted on my tomatoes today but I haven't got round to it yet, they really need to be in their final positions now but I'm still using the greenhouse for other things at the moment. I think it will soon be time to turf everything out and let them fend for themselves.

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    1. I've just put mine into their final positions some in, some out - we'll just have to wait now and keep our fingers crossed.

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