A WEEK IN MY GREENHOUSE - 18 JULY

Last week I ended on a promise that this week we would have a proper look at what is happening in the greenhouse.  It's a fairly large greenhouse but I've still found it surprisingly easy to fill the space.  Now that all the tender plants are out in the garden, it's tidy enough to show you round.

We love a tomato or three in the Bailey household, and growing tomatoes is the raison d'etre of the greenhouse.  I have a frugal nature when it comes to seeds and harbour them well past their use by date.  As a result I tend to grow the same varieties year in year out.  This year, thanks to the £1 a packet seed sale at Sarah Raven, I had two new tomatoes to try.  The first of these is Stupicke Polni Rane, which I had never heard of before.  It's a medium sized red tomato, but what is interesting is that these seeds grew fast from the very beginning and they were the first to fruit.  In fact their fruits were developing before they were in their final pots at the end of May.  I'm sure the hot weather this year will have helped, but for this reason I'm definitely going to grow this one again.

Stupicke

Also bought in that seed sale were Tigarella seeds.  This is a stripey tomato, but it doesn't look very distinctive once it's ripened as you can see on the fruit on the right.  It's not as interesting as I hoped it would be.

Tigarella

Next we have that old favourite 'Gardener's Delight'.  I've had some great pollination this year - look at that complete truss!  We seem to have far more insects about, including butterflies, but a notable absence of honey bees.  Have you noticed the same?

Last, but not least, is my favourite tomato 'Black Russian'.  It has all the heft of a Marmande, but so juicy that it doesn't need any dressing.  It doesn't produce a great volume of fruit. The other plant of this variety has put nearly all it's energy into producing one massive tomato.

Here it is at its weigh in.  You don't get many of those to the pound - just one to be precise.

I quipped last time, that I would introduce a 'Disaster of the Week' feature.  This week its the Spider Mite that is the culprit.  They attacked this cucumber plant, turning the leaves crispy and shrivelling the cucumbers to nought.  Thankfully an internet search suggested SB plant invigorator might solve the problem as long as it was applied every two days.  So far so good and it has produced another couple of  cucumbers since it was treated.  I'm not entirely sure what is in the product it but it appears to be a soft soap and foliar feed combined.  The important thing is it doesn't harm beneficial insects.

More bargain seeds next - Aubergines 'Slim Jim'  The plants don't seem to grow very tall and have lots of small fruit.  I'm not sure how big these are supposed to get, but I've not picked any yet.

Slim Jim

A small number of decorative plants have found their way into the greenhouse, and I hope they attract the pollinating insects in as well as giving me a lot of pleasure.  I spotted this one - 'Frank Headley' among a bench of run of the mill Pelargoniums in B&Q early this Summer and loved its vintage charm.  The pot and saucer came from an antique shop.

Mr Baileyana's onions have been lifted and are drying off.  They didn't grow as big as he would like, but there's always next year.

Like every good greenhouse, it also has a tray of random plants. In here are various cuttings I've taken.  There's some salvias in there and lavender as well as lettuce and herb seedlings.

I had next to no luck germinating pepper seeds, so I bought this as a young plant from the garden centre.  They are ripening up - how exciting.

My final greenhouse crop are Strawberries - an ever bearing variety called Mara des Bois.  I have 5 plants on the bench and they produce just enough strawberries for one gardener to have for their breakfast or nibble while gardening.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have an enjoyable gardening week.  And finally before I go I must mention the rain.  Thank goodness we've had some and while it's kept me indoors today it will be so good for the garden.