Potting on and harvests

Quite a few of the plants are starting to get a little pot bound. So it's time to move them to larger pots.

The Chillies are definitely first on the list. As you can see they're still in their small pots and are in need of a little more wiggle room. The pots they're going to will probably be their last move. I have two sets of chillies, and although they were planted at the same time, one set was kept in the large green tray (above) with a permanent half inch of water, and some were left in trays which did dry up occasionally. The ones that were kept in the water were twice the size of the others. Which is odd, because I've always been told that Chillies don't like to get their feet wet.

Meanwhile outside, The Wife has been weeding. The New Zealand Spinach bed has been sitting for a while, and to be honest, I'm not sure that it actually sprouted properly, because I have never seen any sign of it. Which is somewhat disappointing really. But we decided that it was best to cut our losses and plan to put something else in there. We're not sure what. But The Wife really went to town and pulled it all... except for some poppies.

She also found a few rogue Tomato plants which she had me pot up as well. Ah well, free tomatoes are always welcome.

Elsewhere on the plot, the Kale is starting to pick up. We're still keeping it under netting, because there are a large number of pigeons flying around (it is London after all) and those "Rats with Wings" love nothing better than to help themselves to tasty Kale.

All of this work was supervised by our resident vulpine, Fiona, who stopped by to check up on us and make sure we were up to scratch.

So, now we're harvesting. First off we have a load of Rhubarb. This is going to be used in a new batch of Rhubarb and Ginger Jam.

Next the Strawberries are still on a major roll. We have loads of them. And we are also harvesting some Micro Greens (Sweetcorn) for dinner tonight.

After the rain comes the weeds

So, we actually had some reasonable rain. It has been one of the driest springs on record. So when the rain gets into the ground, all of those dormant weeds start trying to take over. Which is where the woodchips come into play.

Those of you who remember that earlier in the year I started putting down newspaper with a large helping of woodchips. Those of you with a logical mind, may have thought I was stupid to do so. After all the newspaper will rot and let the weeds grow through. And you'd be correct. But that's the whole point. The newpaper will blanket out some of the weeds meaning that they won't be able to germinate and will die. Those that do manage to grow through have a strong root system. Which means once they poke their heads through I can get a good grip on them and pull them out, root and all.

Take a look at the difference between where I ran out of woodchips...

And where I originally started...

Yes, there is a whole load of grass growing in the paths, but it's easy to just loosen up the paths, get a good grip and pull. Sometimes a piece of root gets left behind, but that can wait until another day.

Then again, if the paths get left too long there are other issues. Way back when... I put down some weed membrane followed by woodchips. But it has been left so long now, that the woodchip has broken down to soil, and the grass has grown though it. As such it is now incredibly difficult to pull the old membrane out without serious issues.

But at the front of the plot, we have our petunias on display again. Hopefully they will distract from the fact that there is a very large compost bin right behind them.

And yes, now I'm home, I can tell you one of the biggest issues that all that weeding and pulling has done. I've put my back out. Bending is now seriously painful. Breakout the icepacks.

Deliveries

Today has been a day for deliveries. Firstly there has been a huge delivery of rain yesterday. Very much welcome indeed as we haven't had a decent rainfall for a couple of months. Secondly there has been a delivery of Woodchips and manure into the bays next to our plot. There was so much manure that it broke the back wall of the bay and it all poured out onto our plot. I didn't bother taking a photo, after all, who wants to see a big steaming pile of shite? If you really want to offend your eyes with a big steaming pile of shite, then you may as well go here.

Thirdly the courgettes and strawberries are now delivering.

We are now only down to two cucumbers (thanks to that damned mouse) so we're getting the 2nd greenhouse setup to handle two large trellises to grow our cucumbers on. They are in large buckets, but we need a good way to water them. The buckets have had holes drilled in the bottom, so at present the water leaks out. There is a back shelf in the greenhouse, but I thought the best way would be to turn it upside-down and put the buckets in between the slats. Except they are just a little too large. Cue the saw.

I cut a little angle out of the slats to allow the bucket to sit better and by using the plastic from the old compost bags, which were so useful last year, we could drop the buckets into the holes and make our own watering trays.

It's also time to start putting our Tumbling Toms outside as they're getting a little pot bound and droopy staying inside the greenhouse all the time. We've put three into one of the troughs.

Others we have put into much larger pots and they'll stay inside the greenhouse.