Well, it's been a very hot and humid few days. It made gardening quite difficult, but it did wonders for the plants...flowers as well as veg. Here you can see some of the beets (beetroot) and the onions that I bent and broke to let them begin the curing process. It was time to give the toms another 'haircut' today as well as foof and water. The clean lower stems of the main stalk and king sucker of one of the plants. I removed one pane of the western side to help ventilate. You can see the paprikas on the western side of the greenhouse. They were being smothered by the marigolds that I had growing in there to help combat aphids. I think that the spraying of the paprika plants with MgSo4 really got them going...so much so that they dwarfed some of the poor paps. This pic was taken after I removed some of the plants. One of the "chocolate" paprikas is already producing fruits. Harvests yesterday--Kapucijners and Broad beans. Today's harvest was larger in all respects. 'Rozekointjes' (Harlequin potatos) and Kapucijners. The cordovan-coloured shells of the kapucijners look like fine Corinthian leather that one might find as upholstery in an auto. Here a close-up of the haul, showing the one type of beet that we are growing this year--"Alto". This type of beet is supposed to keep well.
Your harvest is looking good. I'm collecting plastic bottles for next year. Am going to try your watering method thru bottles next year.
Oh Petunia--that's great!. One accessory that you may want to try and find there is this: http://www.thompson-morgan.com/sundries ... 034/1.html http://www.thompson-morgan.com/sundries ... 800/1.html You just screw it onto the end of the bottle; it makes using the bottle method easier and it stands more stable in the ground.
Oh Sjoerd, everything looks wonderful! I'd like to hear about the onions that you "Bent and broke". Why do you do this? I'm growing onions for the first time this year and I need all the tips I can get
Hiyah Netty, The reason that I break and flatten the onions once the foliage has begun to yellow and brown is to hasten the ripening process.
I'm glad to see that you still have lots of potatoes cropping for you Sjoerd that are disease free. Your lottie certainly provides you with plenty of mouth watering fruit and veg!!
Thanks guys. Well Eileen, there haven't been any more diseased plants since those first ones. Fingers crossed.
Mmmmm...I'm finally starting to get some sugar snap peas. No sign of tomatoes yet, but lots of blooms.
I have been using something similar to those water wizard spikes that I ordered from the Lakeside catalog. They must be pretty popular because they were back ordered and it took me 2 months to finally get them. It is nice to just fill some 2 liter bottles with water,screw on the spikes, place it in the dirt and the flower bed is watered slowly. Great for when going out of town for vacation, etc. Sjoerd your gardens look wonderful as usual. Your pics are a feast for the eyes! I am curious how is "Sjoerd" pronounced in English?
Thanks very much, Tammyd. I use several types of watering systems for the toms and other veggies in the gardens. The Water Wizard-like nozzle is very handy. I do cut the bottom out of the cola bottle though. The easiest way to pronounce my name is like this--"Shoe'errd", but said fast so that it sounds like there is only one syllable. The 'R' is rolled. Does that help?
They're pretty small and not much to look at...we had a cool spring and early summer. I've got my fingers crossed that we'll have a looonnnggg fall!!!
Thank you Sjoerd for the pronunciation. Now I can stop wondering. I think I should cut out the bottoms of my plastic bottles too. That is the smart thing to do because it will catch some rain that way also. I ate a few slices of the first tomato out of our garden yesterday and it was what I had been waiting for since last summer. I had cooked fried green tomatoes last week and that was very good also.
