Strawberries, Tomatoes, Chilli & Peas

 I love love love the taste of home grown strawberries - even the Wexford strawberries for sale at the side of the road have nothing on these - they are taste sensations! I picked all that were ripe last night so there aren't as many in the photos - but there are plenty more coming that will be picked very soon!! Slugs got to a few where I had them in last years bed, but (so far!!) there hasn't been any slug damage to the ones in my raised bed - I am still believing that the loose stones around the raised bed is really helping - along with the beer slug trap that I have installed just beside them!

Close up view

Just have to be a bit more patient!

 

They are all hiding under the dense foliage. The runners have just started, so will be watching these for new free plants for next year!

My first tomato bunch

I have been watching and waiting patiently for my first tomatoes to appear - its lovely to watch as they grow. So far I have a good few flowers and tresses on the different tomato plants. I am feeding them every second day with tomato feed and today I also tried a bit of my nettle feed (as the weather was decent, I had the greenhouse door open - the nettle feed stinks otherwise!).  This is my first time trying the nettle feed on tomatoes, but saw it on another blog and had to give it a go!

The Greenhouse tomatoes

Old Greenhouse tomatoes - growing well

Bush tomato planted outside - not the healthiest but still has a few toms growing!

 

Chilli plant in greenhouse - still very small

 The chilli plant was bought as a small plant this year - I have in the past grown them straight from seed before. So far I have a good few flowers on the plant, but no sign as yet of chillis developing - I may have to pimp my chilli!

My first Mangetout peas!

I was up at a friends at the weekend and discovered his first peas - (a few of them found a pleasant home in my belly!) - was delighted to discover my own first peas. They didn't survive for much longer after this photo was taken!

Glorious sunshine

 What fabulous weather we are having now this week in Ireland. Yesterday was just a joy to be out in the garden. I love this time where first harvests are starting to take place and you can see the rest of the plants starting to grow - makes all the time bringing them on worthwhile!

Planted out my bush tomatoes into the bed with the strawberries and salad leaves - will be interesting to see how it does with the irish summer. I have 2 other bush tomato plants kept in the greenhouse to see how they do in comparison.

Some plums on the tree - first harvest - tree was planted last year. Very exciting!! I love plums straight from the tree - I grew up with one in an orchard behind my house and spent many a summer covered in hives from eating as much as I could (before the birds and bees got to them!).

Blossoms on the apple trees as well - I can see the buds on the cooking apple trees, so hopefully these will follow shortly.

The spuds (potatoes) in the raised bed are doing so much better than the spuds in the pot, but that would be expected. The ones in the ground have finally shown their heads above soil and look good so far - these will have to be monitored closely for blight as those planted later are at a higher risk according to all my research.

My tomatoes in the greenhouse - there is a bush tomato plant in the pot over the roses tin. Rest are growing nicely and started to produce flowers now so time to get feeding. It is recommended to start feeding (every second watering) once the flower buds have set.

Salad leaves - picked a few of these shortly after the photo was taken for part of my salad last night. So fresh and tangy!

Loads of yummy strawberries growing - only 2 didn't like the move from previous place to the raised bed, but they weren't the strongest plants either.

My brassica bed is just magnificent at the moment. Everything looking so healthy - brocoli on the right and brussels sprouts and cauliflower from the left.

Parsnips are growing well - those planted almost a month later have caught up with the early planted ones - definitely not worth planting out too early  - one lesson learned.

The first radishes were picked yesterday - Jolly variety. These were added to the salad last night - lovely fresh crunch and peppery taste from them.

Beetroot growing well.

Planted the carrots from the toilet roll holders out into the garden yesterday. I did find some small stones when digging them in, so there would have been a risk of them forking if I had planted them direct.

The carrots below are the ones sown out - the ones in the closest row were planted about the same time as the ones in the toilet rolls and look healthier. The proof will be in the harvesting/eating as they say!

Orange bed

This is the 5th and final raised bed which we have this year. I had originally decided to have peas and possibly beans in, however I changed my mind as I reckoned as the bed is already nearly 2ft high that this would be too high for easy cultivation of the peas and beans.

This bed has now been removed from the rotation policy. Currently growing some lettuce, rocket and I have about 20 strawberry plants growing there also. When the weather warms up, I plan to plant a couple of bush tomato plants and hope grow some basil outdoors under a small cloche.

Again here I am planting the lettuce a few weeks apart for a continuous supply.

These are the bush tomatoes that I have growing on a south facing window sill. Some I am going to plant into pots for my small greenhouse and some are going to go directly out into the orange bed ( hedging my bets by having some in the greenhouse). All trial and error at this stage. As the weather is continuing to be very cold at night, it will be at least another couple of weeks before I can risk putting these out.

I also have strawberry's growing in a pot called a strawberry pot - for the past few years, I have been growing summer bedding in this pot, but this year I decided to put it to the use it was made for. Looking forward to eating them - loads of flowers so far! Nothing more delicious that strawberries straight from the plant. I put some water retaining gel into the compost when planting this up to help the plants survive small amounts of drought as terracotta pots can dry out very fast in the sun(as they allow vapour out the container sides and bottom). Glazed or plastic pots won't dry out as fast - interesting article here about the Terracotta v Plastic pot debate.
Choosing a Clay or a Plastic Pot