29th June

Dave
7 days ago
3 min read

My objective this week is to provide an update on the vegetables that are in the pipeline.

Firstly however, I would like to apologise to everyone who missed out on microgreens last week. They cooked before they had the chance to germinate! You will be relieved to know that this weeks offering is looking very promising.

Unfortunately, I also lost my sowings of swede and sprouts for the second time 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Secondly, before we start, I should also let you know that the Saltdean Lido have let us move our stall on a Saturday morning from the car park to the right hand side of the Lido entrance (if you are facing the Lido)

Right, lets get on with it.....

Tomatoes

In the last couple of days some have started to ripen!

It would be too ambitious to add them to the website this week, but looking promising for next week

Cucumbers

Co-habitants of the caterpillar tunnel, but with a more vigorous attitude!

We've got mini cucumbers

We've got full size cucumbers

And just because I thought it would make a good photo, we've got babies as well

Cucumbers are on the website now!

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Apologies, I didn't take a photo today, but these plants are looking really healthy and must be on the cusp of fruiting. I'm going to remove the bottom leaves, and feed them with some organic liquid fertiliser this week. The bottom leaves are no longer needed so we can remove them and let the plants challenge all their energy into producing those sought after shoots!

If I were a betting man, I would be saying a couple of weeks (if I wasn't a betting man, I probably wouldn't need to be doing all this hard work!)

(Private message to my mother in law Tine: that was just a joke to try and lighten the mood from my tedious vegetable growing stories.,...honest)

Runner beans

This is the first time that I have grown runner beans, and the biggest challenge was resisting the temptation to force them to grow around the wigwams. they seem to be doing alright on their own. We were only planning one bed, but in response to feedback from a resident in Piddinghoe village, we have two beds dedicated to runner beans which were planted two or three weeks apart.

This is the first

And they are on their way

We will be monitoring these very closely.

Not enough to add to the website this week, but shouldn't be long

Beans

Again, feedback from the village prompted us to try and grow loads of these. We are growing both dwarf french beans, and climbing beans. Both are starting to show positive signs and are a possibility for next week

Courgettes

When these get going, boy oh boy do they get going!!

I reckon that all the plants doubled in size this week. I should have taken a photo of the green varieties as well, but my eye was drawn to these yellow Gabriellas

On the website now, and tasting great