07-11-2023, 10:15 AM
What's going well and not so well?
The roses are in full swing - Birthday Present finished and Blossomtime is past its first flush. Climbing masquerade, Jeanne la Joie and Dublin Bay now at their best. Others are budded up and coming out and a few that don't have colour yet but will soon. Lilies are up and the first buds about to open. The first cosmos is out (from punnets) and I have seeds coming along for later in the season (it attracts goldfinches so we get a good patch going). The geranium is nearly finished but still has a few left. There are several more plants (all self-seeded) but it looks like they will be next year.
The first water irises are out. Lotuses are leafing up well but a way off flowering yet (last week of December at the earliest). Next week's fortnightly feed will go to weekly after that. The white water lily has had a few flowers.
Dwarf beans are up. The first lot got dug up by the blackbirds just as they were germinating so I planted the next lot very close. The first lot recovered after all so now I have too many plants too close together. DH says thin them but I might just feed them well and see what happens. The beans freeze very well so there's no danger of having too many. And in a couple of weeks I'll plant the next row with a bit of space.
Lettuces are going well. Spinach (popeye and No7) is bolting but that's to be expected. I have started some seeds of Sprinter which is supposed to be heat tolerant so it will be interesting to see what it does. Leeks have also bolted. Broccoli is doing better than it was and is starting to head up after a slow start. One lot didn't get enough sun and for the other the soil became too acidic. With a better angle of sun for one and some lime for the other both are now looking good. The garlic is mixed, with some growing well and some struggling so I gave it some more lime and time will tell whether it was too late. Corn and potatoes are all looking good.
We have strawberries fruiting and the blueberries have heaps of berries. Two different varieties. One has few leaves and had heaps of flowers followed by a lot of small fruit forming which may or may not be big at maturity. The other has a lot of leaf and had a good number of flowers that have grown into fruit that are much larger so far, but still well off maturity.
And this morning I found my best secateurs that I lost two weeks ago. I had been racking my brain over where I last had them, as you do, and this morning spied them when I was checking the lotuses for aphids. They were tucked on the edge of a container and were hidden by the large leaves. So that was great. They are 25+ years old and still going strong, including the never-ending lose-find cycle (the worst one was being buried in the compost a few years ago and only found when I dug it over). A clean and oil and they are fine again until next time.
The roses are in full swing - Birthday Present finished and Blossomtime is past its first flush. Climbing masquerade, Jeanne la Joie and Dublin Bay now at their best. Others are budded up and coming out and a few that don't have colour yet but will soon. Lilies are up and the first buds about to open. The first cosmos is out (from punnets) and I have seeds coming along for later in the season (it attracts goldfinches so we get a good patch going). The geranium is nearly finished but still has a few left. There are several more plants (all self-seeded) but it looks like they will be next year.
The first water irises are out. Lotuses are leafing up well but a way off flowering yet (last week of December at the earliest). Next week's fortnightly feed will go to weekly after that. The white water lily has had a few flowers.
Dwarf beans are up. The first lot got dug up by the blackbirds just as they were germinating so I planted the next lot very close. The first lot recovered after all so now I have too many plants too close together. DH says thin them but I might just feed them well and see what happens. The beans freeze very well so there's no danger of having too many. And in a couple of weeks I'll plant the next row with a bit of space.
Lettuces are going well. Spinach (popeye and No7) is bolting but that's to be expected. I have started some seeds of Sprinter which is supposed to be heat tolerant so it will be interesting to see what it does. Leeks have also bolted. Broccoli is doing better than it was and is starting to head up after a slow start. One lot didn't get enough sun and for the other the soil became too acidic. With a better angle of sun for one and some lime for the other both are now looking good. The garlic is mixed, with some growing well and some struggling so I gave it some more lime and time will tell whether it was too late. Corn and potatoes are all looking good.
We have strawberries fruiting and the blueberries have heaps of berries. Two different varieties. One has few leaves and had heaps of flowers followed by a lot of small fruit forming which may or may not be big at maturity. The other has a lot of leaf and had a good number of flowers that have grown into fruit that are much larger so far, but still well off maturity.
And this morning I found my best secateurs that I lost two weeks ago. I had been racking my brain over where I last had them, as you do, and this morning spied them when I was checking the lotuses for aphids. They were tucked on the edge of a container and were hidden by the large leaves. So that was great. They are 25+ years old and still going strong, including the never-ending lose-find cycle (the worst one was being buried in the compost a few years ago and only found when I dug it over). A clean and oil and they are fine again until next time.