Feeling fruity?

Regular readers of my blog will know that we have some 18 blueberry bushes planted directly into the ground on my plot. They get treated twice a year to some sulphate of iron and other than that they are pretty much left to it. Its a policy that seems to work as they are all hanging with fruit. We get an added bonus as they are underplanted with cranberries and come Christmas time they come into their own for cranberry sauce.

Also in the fruit cage our Red currants are starting to ripen already and a fair bit earlier than last year although the birds got most mainly due to the fruit cage having no netting on it. The blackbirds were rolling about laughing, stuffed fuller than a fat birds shoe with my currants.

The last piccie shows one of our outdoor grape vines. We have two in the tunnels and two on arches, all are hanging with bunches of fruit, so much so that I have had to cut quite a few out. Hopefully the blackbirds will leave a few of the outside ones for us.

OR ELSE.

The tunnels

The old tunnel (top picture) is now coming into its own tomato wise. We should be harvesting this month and most of the plants are already 4-5' tall with 4 trusses of fruit on.

The new tunnel which we built this year has a few tomatoes in but is mainly planted with sweet peppers and aubergines as we intend to bottle an awful lot of bolognese sauce and passata for use over the winter. These are now coming into flower and forming fruit.

The last picture shows the never ending chore of pinching out sideshoots. Well this one was missed and turned into a side branch. They all need removing if growing as cordons otherwise you get swamped with foilage and this can cause mildew problems as it prevents air circulation.

Foooooooooooooooooooood

Well, its no good just growing it if you don't eat it. This is last nights tea. It is a homegrown cauliflower (next doors plot) and the tail end of our leek cheese. Sprinkled on top was a big handful of our overwintered spring onions.

It was nice having a meat free meal for a change and was I must say, very tasty indeed.

Easy planting

Every year I grow the vast majority of my plants in modules and then transplant them out direct into the soil. As this can mean planting out several hundred plants I wanted an easy method to undertake this that was time saving, efficient and did a good job.

The pots I use are 2" and are 40 to a tray. They come from Aldi at a cost of £2.49 but are available from most garden centres. The only other bit of kit required is a dibber made from an old fork or spade handle and most of us have one of those. All I do is dib a hole 3" deep with the dibber, and then drop the plant, sans pot into the hole. It is a perfect fit and requires no other action other than watering in. This method is so easy and quick that several trays can be planted out in an hour.

Enjoy.

Nick the Grief

This evening the Griefster came over to collect an IBC that was squirelled away for him. Kazzi recons he looks like my older brother but I fear the jury is out on that one.

A plum job!

Our festooned plum tree has set so much fruit due to being tied up that I will extend the practice to other trees in our mini orchard. Every branch has fruiting spurs every few inches and in all there must be several hundred plums set. Hopefully a few will get to ripen.

Gooseberrys

Last year we didnt harvest a single gooseberry as the birds scoffed the lot whilst they were semi ripe. This year however we have a cunning plan. The fruits are already swelling and there seems to be a bountiful amount of them, so in an attempt to keep them on the bush till we pick them, a net has gone over the first row. This will be joined by a net over the second one in short order.

The nets can be removed after harvesting and used on brassicas and the like to keep the pigeons off over winter.