Not the Best Summer But the Best Tomato Crop for Years
Posted by Rodger at 7 Sep 2010, 5:03 PM 
Categories: Today in the garden, tomatoes
Tags: tomato garden birds flowers growing tomatoes gardening british garden birds
Categories: Today in the garden, tomatoes
Tags: tomato garden birds flowers growing tomatoes gardening british garden birds
We are supposed to still be in summer but there are days when it does not seem so. I seem to remember we had a few sunny and hot summer days but it was so brief it is hard to say just when that was!
As said many times, one of my summer passions is growing, and eating of course, tomatoes. Now we may not have had the best summer but I have to say I have had the best crop of tomatoes for several years. They have come thick and fast, good sized tomatoes that not only look, good but taste delicious.
The variety certainly helps, back to growing my all time favourite called Harbinger. This variety is not an F1 so don't expect regimented sized fruits but who cares when they crop so well and taste so good. For the first time I planted out in their final positions using my own well rotted compost. You always worry when you experiment but this obviously has worked well.
Gardener who succeeds with every vegetable crop or flower in a season are a very rare species. I am no exception. Last summer I had so many cucumbers in the greenhouse I didn't know what to do with them. This year they have been a big disappointment. Two plants grown as usual of the one meal sized variety but one plant has hardly produced a satisfactory cucumber while the other has only produced intermittently. Is it the way I have grown them this year? Apparently not, it would seem that many people have struggled to grow them under glass this year. Probably the dramatic switch from cool to very hot and back again to cool has made them think that they would be better producing minimal seed this year rather than putting their energy into over producing. Whatever the reason it is disappointing.
The perennials flowers grown from seed this year are not disappointing. The Gaillardia and Lobelia have flowered their first year as promised on the packet. The Monarda have grown on well and should produce a good show of flowers next summer. The Lobelia have presented me with a dilemma. I had one that I left in the ground for several years that has survived and done well. however last winter was the worst for many years and sadly the extreme cold seems to have killed it off. Will this next winter be as bad? Should I leave my babies in the ground or lift them and overwinter them in the greenhouse? My current thinking is to lift them as I would hate to waste the effort of getting them this far and with a bit of luck they may have grown well enough to propagate by splitting.
In containers and hanging baskets this year impatiens, busy lizzies, have reigned supreme along with alyssum. They have put on a super show but with the very cold wind of the last week they are starting to go back already.
I have never had any problems with pelargoniums in the thirty plus years of growing them. This year a friend kindly gave me three plants that I grouped together in a large pot on the porch and they put on an absolutely great show until something started to eat the leaves. It is not slugs but the damage is very similar to that seen on my lilies a few years ago, so it may well be lily beetle that is the culprit. Whatever it may be it has made a right mess of them and as I am always reluctant to use an insecticide spray the plants may not recover this year.
When I first came to this garden I started to feed the garden birds, something that the previous occupants did not do. Apart from sparrows the first noticeable visitors were greenfinches and gradually more species were added to the list. The number of sparrow visitors dropped and his corresponded with news that there was a worry about why there had been a nationwide reduction. However about the same time we noticed that the numbers of greenfinches visiting were also reducing. The good news is that the number of sparrows has increased but the bad news is that the decline in greenfinch numbers has got to the point where we very rarely see one although just occasionally one can be heard calling. It appears that the decline is due to disease which is a worry but hopefully we can trust nature to provide a cure and restore the numbers of these beautiful birds.
As said many times, one of my summer passions is growing, and eating of course, tomatoes. Now we may not have had the best summer but I have to say I have had the best crop of tomatoes for several years. They have come thick and fast, good sized tomatoes that not only look, good but taste delicious.
The variety certainly helps, back to growing my all time favourite called Harbinger. This variety is not an F1 so don't expect regimented sized fruits but who cares when they crop so well and taste so good. For the first time I planted out in their final positions using my own well rotted compost. You always worry when you experiment but this obviously has worked well.
Gardener who succeeds with every vegetable crop or flower in a season are a very rare species. I am no exception. Last summer I had so many cucumbers in the greenhouse I didn't know what to do with them. This year they have been a big disappointment. Two plants grown as usual of the one meal sized variety but one plant has hardly produced a satisfactory cucumber while the other has only produced intermittently. Is it the way I have grown them this year? Apparently not, it would seem that many people have struggled to grow them under glass this year. Probably the dramatic switch from cool to very hot and back again to cool has made them think that they would be better producing minimal seed this year rather than putting their energy into over producing. Whatever the reason it is disappointing.
The perennials flowers grown from seed this year are not disappointing. The Gaillardia and Lobelia have flowered their first year as promised on the packet. The Monarda have grown on well and should produce a good show of flowers next summer. The Lobelia have presented me with a dilemma. I had one that I left in the ground for several years that has survived and done well. however last winter was the worst for many years and sadly the extreme cold seems to have killed it off. Will this next winter be as bad? Should I leave my babies in the ground or lift them and overwinter them in the greenhouse? My current thinking is to lift them as I would hate to waste the effort of getting them this far and with a bit of luck they may have grown well enough to propagate by splitting. In containers and hanging baskets this year impatiens, busy lizzies, have reigned supreme along with alyssum. They have put on a super show but with the very cold wind of the last week they are starting to go back already.
I have never had any problems with pelargoniums in the thirty plus years of growing them. This year a friend kindly gave me three plants that I grouped together in a large pot on the porch and they put on an absolutely great show until something started to eat the leaves. It is not slugs but the damage is very similar to that seen on my lilies a few years ago, so it may well be lily beetle that is the culprit. Whatever it may be it has made a right mess of them and as I am always reluctant to use an insecticide spray the plants may not recover this year.
When I first came to this garden I started to feed the garden birds, something that the previous occupants did not do. Apart from sparrows the first noticeable visitors were greenfinches and gradually more species were added to the list. The number of sparrow visitors dropped and his corresponded with news that there was a worry about why there had been a nationwide reduction. However about the same time we noticed that the numbers of greenfinches visiting were also reducing. The good news is that the number of sparrows has increased but the bad news is that the decline in greenfinch numbers has got to the point where we very rarely see one although just occasionally one can be heard calling. It appears that the decline is due to disease which is a worry but hopefully we can trust nature to provide a cure and restore the numbers of these beautiful birds.
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