Garden Update- July

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Good morning and happy Thursday!

Just a quickie garden update this month…

Well in July it was a month of blooming and perishing, depending on whether you were plant or mollusc.

Certain things have been thriving: Our tomato plants have gone nuts and are HUGE, with so many tomatoes just getting ready to ripen. We’ve grown them before in grow bags, but they really seem to have been liking the pots we moved them in to, a good watering, plus the plentiful sun in our south-facing garden. I can’t wait to pick and eat them in the many salads we’re having at the moment! The children are also very excited that a few are starting to turn red, and I think this sort of easy-to-see change is a great introduction to nature, growth and getting an idea where some of their food comes from. I love how Freddie is championing the toms, even though he professes to loathe the bloody things. With Sasha it’s the opposite- it’s all we can do to keep her away from them, and stop her eating them whilst green!

Our runner beans are also doing well, and we were joking last night that we can totally see how that Jack and the Beanstalk story came about. We’ve picked and eaten the first ones, and once again, F & S enjoyed the whole process very much. I’ve decided that growing and eating stuff is very therapeutic and satisfying, and I’m looking forward to doing more of it (roll on rhubarb planting this autumn!).

On the downside our garden seems to have turned into the snail equivalent of Magaluf this summer. Every snail in SE London seems to have flocked here for their holidays and a bit of a party, getting happy on certain plants. Horrified at the rapid demise of our other variety of runner beans, and of the Centaurea, us party-poopers  put a stop to all these jolly snail japes, and handed the slipperly suckers the snail-equivalent of a dodgy holiday cocktail (i.e. slug pellets). The next morning it was snail graveyard, and was amazing to see exactly which plants the snails favoured. There were LOADS of them, and collecting the deceased up with a trowel was a pretty grim half hour, but thankfully they haven’t made a strong return, and the damaged plants are beginning to recover.

In other garden news, the raspeberry plants are shooting up still, although we haven’t had much more fruit, and I suspect that’s probably it from them for this year. Which is fine- they’ve done their bit. As long as they carry on growing and thriving (and survive the winter) that’s good enough for me!

Teaming up with Manneskjur and ‘How Does Your Garden Grow’!

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10 Comments

  1. gemmagarner
    August 7, 2014 / 8:11 pm

    Sounds like there’s lots going on 🙂 I’m eagerly awaiting our first red tomato. We’ve got one that’s almost ready greedy slug got it. Can’t believe how many snails you had!

    • August 10, 2014 / 10:09 pm

      Oh no, damn that slug, i’d be so annoyed! I do love how we’re all waiting for our tomatoes to ripen though, will tweet a pic to you guys of my first one!

  2. August 8, 2014 / 8:04 am

    Lots of growth then, but ‘boo’ to the snails! Our raspberries are in for the first time this year and have just started to give us fruit, which does remind me that I need to go out and pick some today!

  3. Manneskjur
    August 8, 2014 / 8:54 am

    I’m not giggling at your slug probelm but I am giggling at the phrase ‘slug equivalent to Magaluf’ ! All out tomatoes seem to have all started to ripen at the same time – I don’t have caterpillars to keep guard from, just hungry children! Your garden is thriving – good times!
    Thanks for joining in and sharing again x

  4. August 10, 2014 / 2:20 pm

    Our tomato plants are popping out crazy numbers of toms, now we are waiting for them to ripen, exciting times!
    I may follow your lead and scatter some slug pellets, it’s getting ridiculous now and rather expensive trying to replace the destroyed plants.
    I think you’re right about SE London, my mum was horrified to find over 60 snails on the garden path the other evening, she stopped counting at 60, eek!

    • August 10, 2014 / 10:07 pm

      Bloody hell, that’s loads too! I don’t know what it is about this neck of the woods that they like so much? My Mum moved from Bedfordshire here last Autumn, and she commented that they were oodles more here than there! I love all our tomato-ripening anticipation!

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