I have always had trouble being away from home for more than about 2 weeks at a time, so our holidays tend to be 10-14d things. Any longer out of the country and I get antsy.
On this holiday my worries were a little more grounded - I was petrified about the garden - specifically the tomatoes and my sunflowers.
I had been growing the sunflowers from seed, and before leaving they were nice and tall, and looked like they were ready to pop. I was so afraid I was going to miss the blooms while away in Oz.
Thankfully they behaved, and only one went into bloom while we were away - the others have decided to come out one at a time. Which is nice of them.
I was also worried about the tomatoes. Having never grown tomatoes successfully, this was all a bit of trial and error. While we had staked them before leaving, the amount of growth they went through in 2 weeks was nuts - and it was like a jungle! I have been pruning them for the last hour, and there were alot of clippings, and some lost green tomatoes. But I had to try and get them a little more happy.
I'm not sure if they are now good or not - I guess time will tell whether they get attacked by bugs, or blight, but hopefully the green ones will continue to ripen and we will have lots (or at least a few) nice fresh tomatoes.
We are also having lots of luck at the moment with the carrots (although most of the seeds didn't germinate), courgette/zucchini, beans, beetroot, spinach, and we just picked our last 2 cabbage.
This little beastie is something that has self sown beside the tomatoes and the compost bin.
Not sure what it is. I *think* its a pumpkin. If there are any other suggestions, please leave a comment so we know how big to let it get.
Our plums, pears and apples are all going along nicely. The kids picked most of the first years crop already, so the trees only have to try and ripen up about 3 pieces of fruit each. Now that the cherry plums are in season, and there are plenty of strawberries to hunt for, hopefully their little minds will be distracted enough to let the rest of the fruit on the trees ripen.
How are your garden's growing this summer? Enough rain around for them?
1 comment:
I am a cancerian too! So i know what you mean about the joy of being at home! I don't grow alot of my own stuff because we live on families property while we renovate our house.
This year I have been lucky though as I have been picking berries, some for work at a berry farm and others from friends. So i have been making lots of jam. I haven't done this before, but I absolutely love it, making your own produce is heavenly.
In March i am joining in on my Uncle's sauce making day ~ he is Italian so I am looking forward to that too.
I love all your home grown fruit and veg. When we move into our place I can't wait to do all that!
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