Getting Impatient

Weather in Warrington
Monday 17° 8° 0.3 mm	Tuesday 17° 7° 1.5 mm	Wednesday 21° 8° 0.3 mm	Thursday 19° 9° 16.6 mm

Well I'm getting impatient now, I want to eat things other than lettuce and spinach.

The courgettes are making  plenty of little finger sized fruit but can't seem to get any bigger. It's not been for the lack of rain as we've had bucket fulls. Any container left out is inches deep in water the next day. Weeding is much simpler when the ground is soft but I can't help thinking that all the goodness is being washed out. Below average temps since the hot spell at end of May, but today has been lovely and I think well continue with nice warm weather until end of week.

We managed to get the petrol strimmer going today, amazingly, it's been gathering dust in the garage for years and last time we tried it we couldn't get it to work. Terry strimmed all of Sam's weeds and then dug over half of  what had been cleared. I'd love to see his and Georges faces next time they look out there.

Hope it keeps going as there are a few people who will want to borrow it!

Tomatoes 6th June

Tomatoes are coming on well, romping away in the P'tunnel but fighting for space with the borage. The bees are just mad for the borage, especially the bumble bees. I did wonder if it was detrimental to the tomatoes, that the bees might ignore the tomato flower in favor of the borage flower but I can see plenty of fruit starting to set.

I have a selection of Marmande, F1 Incas (plum), Gardeners Delight, another cherry plum & some from unknown saved seed which don't seem so vigorous. Following on are some Cour di Bue and a San Maranzo, and a long way behind some Russia Black Truffle which seem quite primitive by the shape of their leaf. Big and not very serrated. It's a fulltime job to pinch them out and I've missed quite a few that now have double stems.

The Publano peppers are shooting ahead of any that I grew from seed. They have a few tiny flower buds forming. I'll be keeping them inside.

Tomatoes 17th June

The cucumbers are flowering but not much signs of fruit yet. I'm trying to raise their humidity by keeping them in a shallow water bath. Must read up on how to improve the set.

Mrs Blackbird is sitting fast on her 2nd clutch in the shed, I've been leaving her to it but when I do have to go in she seems to be pretty bombproof. 

1st of the strawberries are turning and even saw some colour on a few raspberries today, but it will be a few weeks before we have plenty