Such is my rock n roll lifestyle these days, that I found myself watching Gardeners World on Friday night. I'd just planted out my tomatoes. In my simple head, I'd presumed it was enough to put tomatoes into soil. Oh no, apparently, it's better:
- develop a ring culture, to add soil to the top roots
- insert tin cans to rapidly get water to the deeper roots
- encourage the plants to grow upwards by tying them to a rail
Well, I've not got the soil for a ring culture and there were no tins in the re-cycling. So the first two options were out. I did though have string and some canes. Cue building a highly elaborate and potentially unstable construction. It seemed so simple initially, approximately 57 knots later the novelty had well and truly worn off. If this last's through the whole summer - well, I'll eat my tomatoes!
My new raised beds are almost filled, with:
- 2nd round of potatoes
- 1/2 a bed of tomatoes (thinking of filling the rest with peas)
- 1/2 a bed of courgettes and lettuce (not sure what I'm going to do with the rest yet). All bar one of the Lettuce's seem to have survived the move outside and the Courgettes seem to be doing ok
After my return from holiday a new veg box has arrived, and I may tonight finally do some cooking!
It's all looking very good! I like that there are no hard and fast rules with growing structures - you can have a lot of fun making something different each time. Whenever I'm building one, I always think of Eeyore's house from winnie the pooh stories!
ReplyDeleteLooks good and I'm sure you'll appreciate all the hard work later. You have the added bonus with your structure that if the weather turns horribly wet you'll be able to cover them to protect them against blight.
ReplyDeleteI think my DIY skills will probably be about on a par with Eeyore's....
ReplyDeleteI've not had any blight yet *crosses fingers very hard*, but hopefully my string based structure will hold up to a cover.
It's lasted almost a week now; good signs!