Now that Andy Murray has skulked off back to Scotland to work how he can stop letting England down in future my thoughts are turning to my impending holiday. Being away for a fortnight means I shall scarily be relying on my eldest daughter to water my beloved plants and quite frankly I'm very nervous. Last time I entrusted her with this task for a short weekend walking break I came back to a greenhouse full of dead and dying plants. All I can say is that should I come back to a similar scene of carnage I shall devote this blog to naming and shaming her, including posting several embarrassing photographs from her youth. You have been warned! This is a big year for me and I don't want to put any pressure on but rest assured my success or failure all depends on you! And stop leaving anonymous postings sticking up for foxes!
I shall be leaving a daily instruction rota for the different watering and feeding which should be simple to follow even for a non-hort! In previous years my small onions have needed to be harvested once they reach 3.25" dia. whilst I have been away, but as they were planted later this year I should be back home in time to carry out that task. The main thing is making sure the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines in the greenhouses get watered each evening. The tap roots are now well down and can manage on water that falls from the sky so they can be left well alone. Everything else will be given a good drenching before I go and unless you get a scorcher whilst I'm gone (I sincerely hope not!) then they should last until I return with my gorgeous body tanned and relaxed.....but no doubt quite a bit fatter!
Thanks to modern technology she can text me a photo of any potential problems so that I can advise her whilst I'm lounging in the sun reading Kitchen Garden or on the beach looking at the various pairs of Table Daintys on display and assessing them for size, shape, colour, condition and uniformity.
Talking of marrows, this weekend I do need to get my Blyton Belles planted against stout sticks and frameworks. They are small plants as I have sown them later this season to cater for the likes of Malvern as I have found the plants running out of steam by mid-September in the past. Les Stothard used to sow in early July for an early October show but I think my mid-June sowing will suffice. I shall place each plant onto a dollop of well rotted muck and leave a shallow 'dish' in the soil so that the water gets straight to the roots. The plants are trained up the poles and then along horizintally so that the fruits hang down away from the foliage. More on this in August.
I hope to take a few photos from the allotment tomorrow evening where my pumpkins have been planted. I also have a 100 or so onions of various variety, some sweetcorn, courgettes, and butternut squashes. The ground has been baked hard these last few weeks and watering is a problem so anything harvested from there is merely for the pot.
Finally, here's to Germany. If they beat the Argies tonight I'll be one step closer to winning my 11-1 bet on them reaching the final. Should be a nice little lump of seed money for next season!
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6 comments:
Smithy-you have not taken into account your daughter being of the female species.
They do not understand logical things like you have to water plants
She is also your daughter -which means she doesnt listen to you anyway.
Are you sure you want to risk going on holiday?
If not please feel free to let me know and out of the kindness of my heart I will take your place
I managed to kill a cactus!! But I don't think there's any need to worry dad...they're quite hard to grow aint they?? :)
You sound just like me. We are meant to be going away for my Husband's Dad's Birthday, which means leaving the island for a week! I am not only truly worried about letting anyone else water my plants, but I am very concerned about who is going to harvest my veg properly as well, (my veggies allotment is about 200 feet long by about 20 feet wide).
I should mention we go away in July too, so the veggies are growing at a rate of knotts, even the courgettes need harvesting every 2nd day right now, as do the Mange Tout. God help me if the beans are if full cropping by then as they are already smothered in flowers and baby beans and I have about 9 rows of different types of beans growing.
I have no problems with things needing harvesting as I time everything for late August onwards....it's just the watering and feeding.
What's the weather like on Guernsey. We desperately need rain here.
Weather here is very hot, and with the exception of a good downpour on Friday, we have not had rain for weeks. I grow most of my show stuff in containers so am watering virtually daily. The allotment has to fend for itself as my only other option is to load watering cans from our lake and then manually water which would be impossible. I usually reserve this special treatment for newly planted plants like courgettes and lettuces. Possibly I am fortunate that my soil is clay, therefore it holds water better than most. The disadvantage is it takes ages to dry out and warm up in the Spring.
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