The end of another hot, dry week for most of us. Keep up the good soaking, watering wisely every few days to keep plants growing, ripening and cropping.
Don’t forget to keep up a weekly liquid feed of plants in pots, tomato, and strawberry plants.
Rain has arrived or is promised for most of us this week, a good time for planting out young lettuces or herbs into warm, damp soil. Watch out for slugs they will be hungry!.
If you are joining us there is still plenty to sow for late summer harvests.
Peas
Need plenty of water as they flower and begin to produce pods. There is still time to sow peas- you may have run out of space in a garden, but you can get a good crop out of any deep bucket or old plant pot with drainage holes in the bottom.
Tomatoes
If you are growing cordon tomatoes (the ones that grow upright) make sure they are well supported with a sturdy cane as the tomatoes begin to appear. If your tomatoes aren’t thriving and a little off-colour (they should be vibrant green) but perhaps still flowering, they are most likely hungry. Check they are in the right-sized pot, roots sprouting from the bottom indicate it’s time to move up a pot size; if growing in the ground add homemade compost to the plant base if you have some, and keep up the weekly liquid feed. Don’t be tempted to overfeed.
Berries
Some of us will already be gorging on sweet strawberries and watching other fruits grow, blossom and swell. Remember, ‘other’ garden visitors are also interested in sweet pickings; keep them off with netting and old cd’s. Where possible, avoid ripening strawberries being directly in contact with damp soil to avoid mushy fruit and slug damage. You can do this by encouraging fruit to hang over the edge of a pot, placing something underneath the fruit to lift it off the soil or good old fashioned straw.
Greens
Keep up regular sowings of salads. When you pick green leaves, never take more than a third of the oldest leaves from the base of the plant; this will keep you cropping off one plant for several weeks.
Herbs
Keep sowing annual herbs (one-year life cycle) such as coriander and parsley into open ground, pots or trays.
Bees will thrive on common perennial herbs; chives, marjoram, sage and thyme. Once chives have finished flowering, try cutting them back to about 2cms, water them well and watch them grow and flower again.
Tatties
Early varieties will begin flowering, maincrops will need to be earthed up, and all tatties will need a good soaking every few days whilst soils are dry.
Keep an eye on container-grown tatties; they may need a more frequent soak, a bit of dishwasher will do just fine; just water gently to avoid exposing the forming tubers.
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Finally….
Get your buckets out to catch any rain coming your way. Every drop counts.
