Another month has gone by and it's time to take a look at my Weed Garden. I don't have anything to harvest yet, but things are looking quite promising, at least by my standards. My plants are flowering, so surely that's got to be a good thing? Let me show you how things have progressed this month.
Mangetout Peas
Say hello to my Pea Garden!!!
I'm really chuffed with my two month old peas, it's been a long journey watching them grow. My vision was to grow a pea wall by letting my peas climb up an old fridge basket. It didn't quite work out as I expected due to the lack of light. However, the two plants on the side of the basket which were directly in front of the window did quite well, weaving in and out of the basket.
This is my second batch of peas, they are 4 weeks old. Learning from experience, this time I've planted them closer towards the basket and positioned it in front of the window for maximum light. I've also planted them closer to one another, last time I only planted two and it turns out they didn't need that much space as my plants are very skinny. If all goes well, I might get a pea wall this time.
It's been so rewarding watching my first batch of peas flower and the pods grow. I have 11 pods now, barely enough for a salad, but I'll happily take that as an achievement!
Tomato
My tomato plants are coming along nicely, there are two in this pot. I have 23 tomatoes so far and I think there will be more to come.
Last month one of the plants started to flower, but it's a bit of a slow grower. It's taken a good three weeks to actually bear any fruit. And it's really weird, look at their shapes! I don't know why they're not nice and round. They look more like bell peppers than tomatoes!!!
The tomatoes on the other plant are fine, nice and round as tomatoes should be. With a bit a luck, I hope I can show you some ripe tomatoes in my August Weed Garden journal.
Bell pepper
My bell peppers have just passed their 2 month birthday. I started with 14 plants, but a few of them developed some sort of disease. The leaves were all crinkly (is there a proper term for it?) and there were lots of little bugs. My sister said they're asphids. I binned a five to them, and the rest seems to be doing fine.
The plants have started to flower, and so far I have 10 flowers, of which 2 are starting to fruit. On one plant I count 23 buds and most of the others have lots of buds as well. That's very encouraging!!
The only problem with my bell peppers is the horrid little bugs. They crawl onto the leaves and buds all the time. Every time I walk past I have to gently clean them off with a wet cloth, or even a cotton bud. Honestly, I don't even spend that much time cleaning my own face!!! Hopefully with all the TLC I give them, they will reward me with a nice harvest soon!
Courgettes
This is a tricky one. My courgette plant or zucchini grows too tall like most of my plants. That's all its been doing this month. There were about three of four buds that looks like were going to flower, then they all died a few days later. I've moved the plant outdoors for two days now to see if it will do better. Originally I was worried the seagulls would peck on my plant, but so far they've left it alone. The only problem is some of the branches have snapped as it's quite windy. Let's see if outdoors will make any difference to it.
Lettuce
Lettuce was the first thing I grew a few months ago and I had quite a bumper harvest, at least in my eyes, as I actually grew something I could eat. I planted a second batch last month in toilet carton rolls filled with soil but they turned out very leggy. I ended up discarding them all. Last week I planted a third batch. This time I planted the seeds directly in the container and kept them by the window sill below the tomato plant. These are six days old now. The leaves are quite big and they don't look leggy at all. Let's hope I will have another healthy lettuce harvest in a couple of months time.
Chives
Last and not the least, if I didn't tell you, would you be able to guess these are chives and not grass 😃 These are just over a month old. The packet said they are easy to grow indoors. Liar!!!! I'm not sure what to do with these as I don't think they will grow into anything. I'll probably just keep watering them to see what happens.
And that's all the progress my Weed Garden has made in July. Not quite harvest time yet, but definitely looking good. Better not count my chickens before they hatch!! The only problem I find with homesteading is that you have to be around t take care of them. Especially my bell peppers, I have to wipe them down so many times a day. I'm going away for a few days next week so am worried about what will happen when I come back. Fingers crossed they will survive.
See you again in my August Weed Garden Journal.
