Thursday, 31 May 2012
Veg plots
With a little bit of time on my hands, and inspired by all the veg in small plots at Chelsea I went a bit mad on my corner of the garden which I keep for veg. I also went a bit mad online at Harrod Horticultural and spent far too much. As always, home grown tomatoes will be the most costly tomatoes in the world! I have also discovered Wilkos, recently opened in our old M&S (and we moved here because we thought Tooting was going up in the world!), where they do some good cheap gardening stuff such as veg planting bags, cheap seeds and pots and some nice edging for far cheaper than the garden centres.
With my newly purchased watering system I now have a fully functioning veg patch. At the centre is a bay tree which I grew from a sucker taken from a standard bay we were given as an engagement present many, many years ago. Around this I have placed two growbags. Beneath these runs my dripfeed watering system (entirely legal in these hosepipe ban days). I've made some slices in the bottom of the bags for the roots to go down and the water to go up. I've also invested in some plant halos, the bright green items in the photos. These enable you to water into a collar around the tomatoes and aubergines. My hope is that between the water from the watering system, the depth of soil of the halos and growbags and my occasionally remembering to water and feed from the top I should get some decent veg.
I have also planted up a load of pots that sit on the patio,.
So, what am I planning on harvesting this year? I've been slightly disappointed in the past - after all, what is the point in putting all this effort into veg gardening just to get a bog standard red tomato, so this year I've gone for a few slightly more 'unusual' shaped veg. To this end I bought a range from Franchi seeds.
As you can see, we have aubergines that actually look like eggs - truly an egg plant! We also have a rather odd looking courgette and two different types of tomatoes. I tried not to get carried away by the look of things and went for veg that came from northern Italy so hopefully slightly closer to the climate of Southern London!
I also have the heritage variety of dwarf bean Ernie Big Eye and Stanley dwarf beans together with some cheap salad mixes and rocket. Yet to come out onto the patio are the chillies.
Everything is now out and growing away quite happily - heres hoping the slugs stay away!
With my newly purchased watering system I now have a fully functioning veg patch. At the centre is a bay tree which I grew from a sucker taken from a standard bay we were given as an engagement present many, many years ago. Around this I have placed two growbags. Beneath these runs my dripfeed watering system (entirely legal in these hosepipe ban days). I've made some slices in the bottom of the bags for the roots to go down and the water to go up. I've also invested in some plant halos, the bright green items in the photos. These enable you to water into a collar around the tomatoes and aubergines. My hope is that between the water from the watering system, the depth of soil of the halos and growbags and my occasionally remembering to water and feed from the top I should get some decent veg.
I have also planted up a load of pots that sit on the patio,.
So, what am I planning on harvesting this year? I've been slightly disappointed in the past - after all, what is the point in putting all this effort into veg gardening just to get a bog standard red tomato, so this year I've gone for a few slightly more 'unusual' shaped veg. To this end I bought a range from Franchi seeds.
As you can see, we have aubergines that actually look like eggs - truly an egg plant! We also have a rather odd looking courgette and two different types of tomatoes. I tried not to get carried away by the look of things and went for veg that came from northern Italy so hopefully slightly closer to the climate of Southern London!
I also have the heritage variety of dwarf bean Ernie Big Eye and Stanley dwarf beans together with some cheap salad mixes and rocket. Yet to come out onto the patio are the chillies.
Everything is now out and growing away quite happily - heres hoping the slugs stay away!
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
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