3rd June 2018 - Plant Swap

This weekend was the 2nd annual plant swap for our allotment society.  Everyone brings along any excess seedlings they have and swaps them for something they don't have.  It's a really good way of reducing waste and getting everyone together for a chin wag and to share experience, a cup of tea and a slice of cake!

I had loads of tomatoes and some Jack O Lantern pumpkins that I was able to give away and I took a Black Russian tomato and some nigella.  When I got back up to my plot I realised that I'd forgotten to take some savoy cabbage so I gave those to my neighbours.  

I was therefore able to clear out quite a lot of things from the polytunnel which meant I could sort out the bed and decide what to do.  I'd already planted some of the tomatoes into pots and I've been trying to water them through the terracotta pots but they don't seem to be particularly happy with that.  The leaves have slightly yellowed so I have decided to sink the pots into the bed in the polytunnel.  That way the canes aren't touching the poly but the tomatoes aren't in the bed, which had tomatoes in it a couple of years ago and so shouldn't be planted in there again this year.  I also sunk the pots with the aubergines and the cucumber into the bed as well. I'm hoping that by doing it this way I'll be utilising the bed but also that I'll be able to keep the plants healthy.  

The tumbling tomatoes are doing well in their hanging basket.  I used my compost mix that I mentioned in a previous blog but as a reminder...

- 3 parts multi purpose compost

 - 1 part horti grit (or vermiculite)

 - 1 scoop Richard Jackson's Root Booster

 - 3 scoops Richard Jackson's Easy Feed

 - 1 scoop water retaining granules

The easy feed is a plant food that keeps going for the whole season so the idea is that I won't need to feed them again all season.  They certainly seem to be thriving, I have loads of flowers, which will hopefully turn into fruit.  People often ask about nipping out the side shoots of tomatoes, you only do that with cordon tomatoes for bush and tumbling tomatoes you don't need to nip out any shoots.  That's the reason that this looks so bushy and full.

All of the bedding plants and fuscia's that I had in the polytunnel I've been hardening off and I got them all planted into the hanging baskets today.  I have done a mix this year rather than just having baskets full of fuscia.  I had lots of nemesia, which is one of my favourite bedding plants, some verbena,  bacopa and lobelia.  I also had some red and white pansies.  I used fuscia in 2 of them as the hanging elements.  In the first basket I used the red and white pansies to make a St. George Cross.  I had 5 red to make the cross and then put 3 white in each of the spaces in between.  For the other with the fuscia I used a mix of lobelia, bacopa and verbena.  The middle basket has nemesia and bacopa as the hanging element and 2 fuscia in the top, filled in with verbena.  Apart from the George's Cross there is no colour matching or theme, most of the bedding plants are mixed colours so you never know what you're going to get until they flower.  

Another job that I had needed to do this weekend was get my carrots and parsnips planted.  I bought some seed tapes which have membrane on the bottom to keep the weeds down while the seeds germinate.  As last year I have used the screen to keep the carrot fly away.  It seemed to work last year so fingers crossed I'll have the same success this year.  

I'm not sure this bed is as good as the one I used last year for the carrots.  I should probably have sieved it a bit because as I was making a mini trench for the screen I had to remove a few stones, which I'm hoping aren't in the rest of the bed.  


You'll be able to see there are pink planters in each corner of the bed.  They have a petunia vanilla raspberry and verbena mickey magenta pink and a bidens bee super star in them.  They are called the 'carnival collection' from QVC and they came with the pink planters as well.  Once they grow they should look like the picture to the right; it's just 3 plants but they are supposed to grow and fill the pot so fingers crossed.

I'll finish with the flowers that are blooming at the moment in the flower bed closest to my shed.  I have 3 giant alliums that are fully blooming and had loads of bees on them today, which was really great because I don't feel like I've seen many bees so far this year.  The ladybird poppies are also out and looking lovely.  I planted a few of these and this is the only one that's flowering.  I have always liked them so I'm really glad to have at least one of them flowering.  I'll be hoping they self seed in the bed and I'll probably save some seeds to put in the new plot as well.

The final flower I'm sharing today is my Shirley Temple Peony.  I picked up some more peony's in the plant swap but this one is the first I had.  This is its 3rd year, in the first year I think I had a couple of flowers; last year I had a few more but this year it is teeming with buds.  I have a support that twists around to hold the flower stems up.  Peony flowers have a tendency to flop over because the flowers are too heavy, especially if there's been a rain storm.  I can't wait for them to bloom and share them with you all.

I hope you all have a great week - until next time then...
Happy Gardening x