Potting on and progress

Here's an end of month update on progress in the garden. Let's start with the spuds which seem to be taking over the garden. Christine keeps asking me when the garden will stop looking like a jungle and I must admit, it's hard to walk round without being attached by huge stems and leaves. I rooted out a few Duke of Yorks from one of the bags on Sunday but when I cooked them they were still quite raw and not at all fluffy. It's like they are a bit veiny and haven't properly developed yet. Having said that, they still need another five weeks so I was jumping the gun a bit and being impatient!

I've now potted on all my tomato plants. I had to throw a few in the compost bin as I have about 15 and don't have room for any more now. I was quite sad to see them go but it was getting a bit ridiculous and I've bought so many 12" tubs in the past month it's unreal. All the toms are now outside as I no longer had room in the mini greenhouse. They are coming on fine, although I'm a bit worried I put them out too early. Hopefully, it won't stunt their growth too much. I have now trained them all up bamboo sticks so there's nothing more to do with them now until I (hopefully) start to see the fruits of my labours.

In the greenhouse, all that's left are two pepper plants and some herbs that have just germinated. It looks quite bare in there now - will have to think of what else I can grow! On the herb front, I have three basil plants going well, which I've just put outside and another one on the windowsill that needs separating into three different plants - enough to keep me going until the end of the growing season I think :-).

Planted out my sweet peas, which I will be training up bamboo sticks alongside my peas and beans. Both peas and beans are doing well, despite the attempts by our cat, Margot, to use their plot as a toilet. I got some lovely surprises when I put my hand in the soil the other day to plant the sweet peas :-o. The peas and beans aren't quite big enough to train up the poles yet, but are getting there. In the next bed, I thinned out some squash plants, just leaving the strongest ones to grow on.

Purchases this weekend included a couple of lovely plants whose names I have forgotten (piccies to come though) and an Acer with gorgeous red leaves. Apparently, the leaves are bright red in spring, deep red in summer and crimson in autumn. It's only fairly small and cost £30 but the garden centre had a bigger on at £100 - wonder how long it will take to grow to that size. Anyway, we've put it out on the porch at the front along with my exciting new tree that I've been itching to get for the past few months...

I am now the proud owner of a 'James Grieve' Coronet apple tree. I was thrilled with this purchase as I've been eyeing them up ever since seeing them in a magazine a while back. It's the perfect size for the porch and already has some little apples coming on it. It crops in September and the apples will keep until December. They say you are only supposed to let it grow 6 apples in the first year, but don't know if I'll be able to stick to that - will have to read the instructions and see how vital that is. I wanted to get a self-fertile one but I've struggled to find one that was a Coronet (dwarf). Anyway, the 'James Grieve' has apples now on it so I'm guessing that it has been polinated ;-). Not sure what I'll do next year - buy another one I guess - maybe a Cox's Orange Pippin or Egremont Russet. Then I'll just have to decide where to put the thing.

A few more things I forgot to mention, I sewed some rocket and cress that I bought. Used some lettuce I'd grown in a salad last night and also some spinach in a salmon and spinach lasagne - the first fruits of my labours, which was very exciting. I know it's only salad leaves but hopefully there will be much more to come soon!