Shoots and leaves...
The whims and woes, highs and lows, of trying to grow fruit and veg in Nordic latitudes.
Aubergines, eggplant... I started these off indoors in pots in early winter, having never grown them before. The aubergines are flowering. They are beautiful plants with huge matt-green leaves, veined with purple and the flowers are large, purple eight-pointed stars that hang face downwards. We have three aubergine plants in each (organic) growbag. I think this is probably too much as the plants are enormous and watering them is very tricky. I had to open up new watering holes at the back of the growbags. Reading some tips online, I need to mist the flowers and tap them to release the pollen and set the fruit. We are picking tomatoes now and they are really, really good. Not many make it to the table as I tend to pick them and eat them straight away inside the polytunnel. Within a few days we will also have cucumbers, we have erected a frame for them now so they will climb rather than crawl along the floor (there isn't much space on the floor any more).
I remade a raised bed (in a wooden frame) for the lettuce and rucola. Both are coming through which proves my point that you can't beat shop-bought compost for salad veg. In the garden we are picking strawberries - some are delicious but some are not nice at all. Not sure why, I need to do some research but I guess it is just the old plants and maybe a lack of water and sunshine earlier in the spring. The best strawbs are coming from the plants I bought and planted out about a month ago! The courgettes are starting to produce now, I can't wait to get some of the Eight-Ball which are round and will look really good stuffed with minced lamb or with goats cheese and tomatoes. The redcurrants are almost ready to pick but we'll leave the blackcurrants for another week or two until they are so ripe they are falling off the bushes. The carrots are doing fine but are still too small for pulling but some of the beetroots are a good size (large golf balls) so maybe I will pull a few and do some pickling and then leave the rest to grow a bit bigger. As for the potatoes, we are gradually eating our way through the row of Timo - the crop has been really good this year. The Annabellas are not quite ready. I'll take some photos of each next time I go digging. The french beans are just starting to flower. We spread out the sowing over 2-3 weeks so we should be picking for at least a month! The borage and oregano are flowering and covered with bees.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
July 2020
|