Tomatoes, salad & new things

The summer weather seems to have been and gone.  A few nice days with blazing temperatures and then boof… back to the wet and miserable.   This doesn’t bode well.  Unless of course it was the soggy spring putting the boot in one last time.  This is what I am hoping it is as I have high hopes for season.

However, if it is going to be soggy and warm, then the humidity can be problematic for my tomatoes, so I’ve taken action to improve the air flow around them as no one wants early blight.  Late blight, I can deal with – by then you’re sick of the sight of tomatoes and have made more jars of tomato relish than you could possibly eat in a year and so you reluctantly let the plants succumb a few weeks earlier than they would ordinarily.  But early blight is something else and can come along before you’ve even seen a red tomato.

The heat has also played havoc with my salad crops and they have bolted sooner than expected and my seed sown succession plants aren’t ready for the big garden and so I had to buy seedlings from the garden centre.  But there is no shame in that.  Salad is salad no matter how it got to be salad.

And finally, I’ve popped in some new fruiting shrubs.  I’ve managed to get my hands on some gooseberries, with a permanent forever home.  I have to confess, I have killed a few in my time.  The first was in the orchard and died of neglect.  The next one never even made it into the garden and died in its pot from good intentions.  The last one was overwhelmed by the cape gooseberries and didn’t stand a chance as they are quite competitive.   So this time they are the stars of their own beds and I’ll take good care of them.

Now you can catch all of this action on my latest video with my cute wee co-star at my side.  Actually, I think she is a bit of a scene stealer so I may need to rein her in.

Come again soon – I’ve been back to the garden centre and have a new year’s resolution from last year so deal with.

Sarah the Gardener  : o)