Grow your meal

The sun bleached my labels too. I had made them from plastic milk cartoons and written with a sharpie. So I have 4 varities of tomatoes but don't know which is which, likewise with the two squash and the chilli's and peppers. I have all the courgettes now in large buckets in the tunnel, half will remain indoor and half out. Only 5 out of 20 pumpkin seeds germinated and they are in giant buckets too. They will be moved outside end of May to ramble. The cucumbers germinated but got eaten by slugs and I only have one left, I'm going to sow more this weekend. And I have lettuce germinated and already transplanted. It's a loose leaf called Outredgeous and grows very quick, 6 weeks from sowing and you have a crop.
 
My strawberries have flowers on them. Beans,corn and peas are getting taller. Courgette,toms and squash/pumpkins look like they have stopped growing.
 
My aubergine are growing well inside.

Today I planted my lovely big bareroot peonies from Framer Gracy. Really nice big clumps - so I am hoping for lots of peonies to pick for the house this year. They were a post lockdown splurge for my birthday. One of my sisters died at just a year older than I am now so I so aware time can be short. I love peonies and decided that their big clumps would jump start some patches for cutting.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your sister @AliGal and it is certainly something that plays on your mind. Not my sister but 2 Aunt's of mine died 2 years apart at the age I am now. It had a huge effect on me as I approached 50 thinking I could die within the next 4 years. It wasn't that long ago, they where only 10 and 12 years older than me.
The peonies will be amazing, I wish I had grown more flowers for cutting but I'm not really sure where to put them.
Got a full day working in the polytunnel on Friday. Sowed more seeds, spinach, beetroot, rocket, salad leaves and radishes. The first lot sown are coming along well now. Second tomatoes and squash transplanted. The first tomatoes are flying along in grow bags now. I sowed more cucumbers, directly into the container they be be growing in. I also transplanted asparagus. I bought seed last year and sowed at about this time of year. It germinated and I had the teeniest almost invisible asparagus spears. I left it to grow fully and then moved to bigger pots and kept all winter in the tunnel. It's come up for a second year and already gone all frondy (the tunnel has it accelerated by about 2 months). So it's now gone into large pots, about 1.5 litre ones. They have very strong root systems now and should be ready to go into the ground next spring but it will be still another 2 years before we can eat it. This is really slow food.
Courgettes however are fast food, I think my first flower is about to open😀
 
Lovely update. I'd like to plant some asparagus - but I'm not sure where to put it. We have a lot of very invasive grass in the garden - and t's also a long term decision.
 
I brought some spare tomato plants into work yesterday and quite a few people took them. I also gave away my spare courgette plant, I have about 9 growing. I also brought in cut rhubarb. My 2 plants are thriving and the more you pick the more it grows. It doesn't fit in with my diet plan so gave it away.
 
Ha, well that didnt woek. The rhunarb i gave away yesterday came back to work today as a crumble😂
 
I got a good weekend in the tunnel. I now have 34 out of 40 tomoto plants now in their permanent position. I just need to remember regular watering. I just find it hard to have the time every evening and a big lot at the weekend isn't good for them I feel. Courgettes coming along, we have the first few teeny ones showing. I have about 10 plants in buckets in the tunnel. Half of them will be going outside. We had a late frost last year on May 12th which killed all my squash. So I'm not risking it this year, anything delicate is staying inside until at least next weekend. I have courgettes to go out as well as pumpkins and squash. The pumpkins are in big buckets to stay in or large pots to be planted. But the squash is getting pot bound now and drying out very quickly.
I have a large passionflower in the tunnel and it is covered in blooms about to open. This will be the first time I will really see it flower so much. The tunnel was ignored for a few years so last year I had a huge amount of cutting back on it. However this year it has continued growing through the winter without getting overgrown so is a few months ahead of itself. Hopefully it attracts lots of bees. I also have a jasmine flowering in the tunnel that I only bought last year, again it has grown through the winter and is ahead of itself. I bought a cleamtis this weekend and have it in a pot in a corner by the seating area. Hopefully in a year or two we have a wonderful display of large purple flowers. My polytunnel is as much about a pretty living area as it is growing food.
Not doing so well are my chilli's and peppers and surprisingly the marigolds. The chilli's and peppers where sown inside in January. They germinated well and started to grow, and have stopped. Nothing at all since February, they are still teeny seedlings about an inch high with barely more than a seed leaf. I also sowed Marigolds in March in modules in the tunnel. They germinated quickly and they I think got hit by frost and just stopped all growth. I sowed more about 2 weeks ago, have had very poor germination and growing very slowly too.
Must get up, we have our first small head of lettuce to pick today
 
My courgettes and Strawberries, :)
 

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Looking great Mary, a crop ready soon so. I got to eat some of our salad leaves yesterday.
 
We have been picking and eating courgettes now for a few weeks. Salad leaves too in full growth. The pumpkins and squash have been moved outside. I've planted 2 vines in the tunnel. All 40 tomato plants are thriving, so much in fact that if I miss pinching out a side shoot it will be almost 10 inches the next day.
 
I have been eating peas and still got plenty more. Strawberries are one a day.:D
Runner beans have their flowers so won't be long.
Courgettes are coming along but not big enough to pick yet.

I have black fly and trying to get rid of it with washing up liquid. And ants galore.:(
 
Yep,I have noticed for the past 3 years we have had a huge amount of ants too. Something we rarely saw years ago. I've been picking courgettes daily now but we had them inside. I've put half outside as thy were getting too big and growth has definitely slowed down. The pumpkins and squash are now outside and you can see how much they grow daily. And we have enough salad leaves to keep us going. I need to sow more basil and coriander as they never really germinated, just another job for the weekend along with taming the tomatoes which needs to be done at least twice a week.
 
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We are picking courgettes and salads almost daily now. Courgettes are so convenient for a quick Cooke and eat.
 
We have baskets of tomatoes every day now. Yesterday I halved some cherry ones and put in the oven with olive oil and whole cloves of garlic and roasted. Then squashed the garlic clove onto bread and covered with the tomato. Not very diet friendly but was delicious
 
I am jealous! I grow outside and now have lots of green tomatoes - but not ripe yet. My outdoor aubergine have set fruit and I surprised to find they are purple from the start! Beautiful light purple flowers and purplish tiinge to the leaf veins.

Tomatoes are lower carb than I thought. So I enjoy some with pleasure. Roasted sounds delicious!
Graphic: https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/vegetables
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But I do have cucumbers grown outside today!
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