Time flies! This is my second garden journal, and I'm really enjoying to make these post. This month my weed garden is looking a bit sparse compared to last month. I'll tell you why in a minute. You know, I really don't notice the changes in my Weed Garden during the month as I see my plants everyday. It's only when I put all the photos together do I realise how my plants have changed during the month, or even a week.
THE LAST OF MY LETTUCE
This month I harvested all my lettuce, as they were bolting. They're supposed to be butterhead lettuce which are the loose round variety, but they grew really tall like a mini tree!
I was actually very sad to see them go as they're the first batch of vegetables I grew and I had developed a special relationship with them. I blanched a massive plate of lettuce leaves, and still had enough to make a vegetable stock. Well, all good things must come to an end, and that's the end of an era.
MANGETOUT PEAS
My mangetout pea seedling grew really fast last month during the week one. By the end of the second week they had about 3 sets of leaves each and I was a bit worried the would start to tangle with one another. I decided to replant them as I also wanted to try build a wall for them to climb by using an old fridge basket. I could have used normal sticks for all of them, but I had this vision of a wall full of mangetout peas! I don't think my vision is working very well so far.
I was looking at YouTube video and one YouTuber said once the plants grow to three or four sets of leaves you should pinch the top off so they would grow better. I was rather hesitant to do this as it meant pinching a lot off, and it's taken so long to grow them to this height. Then I took the plunge, afterall, if its on YouTube and it had a lot of likes, she must be right...
Sure enough, a few days a later a second stalk grew on each of the plants and caught up in height with the original one. The only thing is, overall all my mangetout peas haven't grown as much as when they were seedlings. I don't know if it's due to lack of light as they look a bit pale. I will have to reorganise the position of the plants in my Weed Garden.
BELL PEPPER
I'm very pleased with how my bell pepper seedlings have developed, particularly since I saved the seeds from a bell pepper I bought for dinner. I replanted them in plastic milk cartons and drinks bottle as they're deeper than my other containers, hopefully there will be enough space for them to grow. The stay on the window sill all the time for maximum light. So far they're looking good and I'm quite excited to see if they will bear any fruit.
TOMATO
My tomato plants (there are two in this pot) have grown a lot this month - sideways oddly and not upwards. This was taken on 21st June.
Then within a week, and I hadn't noticed this until I took this photo 6 days later, the branch on the right went U-shape. It's really odd!!! I don't know why this happened, I can only think it's because it was getting a bit too heavy, but then why did it U back up..... weird.
Anyway, both plants have started to flower these couple of days, with the small one on the left with more flowers. Hopefully in my next month's Weed Garden journal I can show you some tomotoes! We shall have to wait and see.
COURGETTES
On the June 1, I planted 2 courgette seeds. Within a week or so one of them had grown quite tall. I wasn't sure if it was bolting again as my seedlings have a habit of doing that due to the lack of light indoors. The stalk was quite thick though, so I left them in the container till day 22 and replanted one of them in the biggest basin I had. I hear they grow all over the place so I figured I'd give them plenty of room to grow. It's started to branch out now, I think I will have to cover my carpet with plenty of bin bags if it starts to crawl.
The other seeds I sowed this month are some chives. They've only just gone in a couple of days, nothing to see yet. The packet said they're easy to grow and grow well indoors. Let's see if I have have anything to show next month. Till then, see you!
