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| "Giant Syrian" |
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| "Orkado" |
This is "Clou". It is one of the new blight-resistant varieties. Look how few leaves it has. Maybe this is something that contributes towards its blight-resistance, because it must facilitate air-circulation.
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| "Clou" |
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| "Maskotka" |
Elsewhere, the Brussels Sprouts are gradually filling their "cage":
That net is not going to be too tall you know. It needs to stand at least a few inches taller than the plants, to stop the butterflies laying eggs on the leaves through the net.
The spare brassicas that didn't get planted are serving a purpose too. They are the "sacrificial" plants, poor things, luring the white butterflies away from the "A-team" plants!
The plants outside the net are just there for the photo. Normally they live at the other side of the garden, as far away as possible. I have inspected them and they are covered in little butterfly eggs.
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| White butterfly laying eggs on a PSB leaf. |
I'm beginning to be mildly hopeful that this year might be the year in which I produce for the first time a vaguely worthwhile Celeriac. Do I see the vestiges of a bulb here?
I only have four Celeriac plants, but I'm doing everything I can to bring them to a successful conclusion - mainly feeding and watering.
The cucumbers have not done much yet. I have only had one fruit so far.
There are some more forming though, so hopefully it won't be long now before I get a worthwhile number.
This is a little patch of Oregano which is flowering at present.
The bees and hoverflies absolutely love it. Here are some photos of bees which I took last weekend:
Next to the Oregano I have some Lavender in flower too, and the bees love that as well.
As do the hoverflies...
Since I'm posting some photos of insects, I'll chuck in this one of a Cricket, just for good measure!
That Clou tomato plant looks wierd with so few leaves, it looks to have set some nice fruit though. My Maskotka is covered in tomatoes too, in fact, I should get my first taste before we go on holiday, they're ripening already. I've had the first three cucumbers from my two Mini Munch plants, I should get a steady supply from now on.
ReplyDeleteIf the celeriac fails to make a good base, don't pull it up, leave it in the ground all winter to provide celery flavoured leaves for use in cooking (casseroles etc). Some varieties loose their leaves in the depths of winter and the base seems to rot away completely, however celeriac makes lots of deep, real roots and shoots again in the early spring providing a tasty herb for cooking.
ReplyDeleteThat's sound advice. Thank you.
DeleteI really enjoy watching pollinators - I often stop by heavily trafficked plants for a few minutes & watch them as they work away.
ReplyDeleteYou aren't kidding about the leaves on that tomato plant - I'm wondering how it gets the energy to produce all those tomatoes with such a small area for photosynthesis. I grew a couple of blight resistant tomatoes last year and they were quite successful at keeping the disease at bay until the end of the season (and it was a horrible year for blight), even though they both had a normal amount of leaf coverage.
I tried to take photos of my bees and hoverflies on my cilantro as they just swarm those flowers. But I didn't get one good one. The celeriac looks good. I'm growing just six this year. Last year I tried four and got one. This year looks better.
ReplyDeleteI love your photos--very nice.
ReplyDeleteI grow oregano as well, and you're so right--the bees just adore it. I've put patches all around because it is pretty in flower, and it's also something the deer don't eat --one of the few plants they haven't ravaged here.
We have a Crimson Crush which is supposed to be blight resistant which by contrast has lots of really large leaves. Martyn is thinking of posting about it.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. I have one plant of Crimson Crush too, and I would say it has a "normal" amount of "normal" leaves. Very widely-space flower trusses though.
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