Outdoor Tomatoes

I have tried growing tomatoes for the first time this year. Unlike a lot of gardeners out there I don't have a greenhouse, I have a weird plastic tent thing that I used to start some of the seedlings off this spring but that is no use for fully grown plants. And isn't very good in strong sunlight as it seems to melt slightly.

So I have had to grow my tomatoes out in the open and hope that they didn't get hit by blight or anything nasty like that! This does mean that my garden seems to be slightly behind other gardens as I have not had any ripe fruits yet.

But I do have my first ever green tomatoes growing nicely :D Happy days!

I do have my tomatoes growing slightly weirdly, I haven't taken out all the side shoots as I didnt have the support to grow them that high and am more interested in number of tomatoes than the size of each of them. 

I may yet regret this decision :p

 

And yes I do have bright orange nails!

 
Fruit on the golden cherry tomato plant still very deep green but hopefully lightening soon :D

Fruits on the Beefsteak tomato plant, some have started to lighten already but some are still a deep green colour. The fruit on this plant came out first and so is further along in the ripening process than the other plant I believe. 

The only down side is where the plant is located this one gets a few hours less direct sunlight than the cherry tomato plant. 

Only time will tell me how this will actually affect the fruits.

Productivity

Lately I have been lacking in motivation and therefore productivity. Hopefully this will be changing soon, I am slowly getting my motivation back and have been accomplishing things.

Yesterday I went into town and accomplished a few thing but most important was writing the letter to my nan which has been put off for a while because I didnt have time, and had lost my writing paper in the big kitchen clear up.

Before leaving for town I made myself a dress which was nicely satisfying to be wearing something that you had made that morning.

Here is a photo of the dress. It does look slightly like I am still wearing the duvet (or a hospital gown :p) but it was so nice and breezy which was amazing on the stupidly hot day yesterday.

Last night I made it through my Google Reader back log and came across this post which even though I almost never know which day of the week it is so Sunday doesn't hold a special place for me making bread certainly seemed like a good thing to do.

Waking up this morning I have put washing on, started making bread, harvested as many blackberries as I could (putting a step ladder in the veg patch to reach the blackberries with a unwound coat hanger is not something I would advise for any other reason than the comedy value!), a few plums and some strawberries. The strawberries went onto breakfast with a few from the other day. 

This mornings harvest...

Its not even 10 yet and the washing is out on the line and the bread is rising in the sun (as I can never find a place warm enough to rise bread in my house).

Next task is to make spiced plum jam and source some cooking apples to make blackberry jam with... That and cook the bread :D

Wishing everyone else a productive day. There should be a post on the Herb Garden later in the day, if I can get my camera working with the computer again :D

Satisfaction

This morning I have a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. The last few days have gone well and I have actually got a lot of things done, although my To Do list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter! I keep thinking of more things to put on it!

Yesterday I decided to see what the potato plants had or hadn't done. Recently they keeled over, I think I may have neglected their watering a little bit as they are in one of the patio bags... Ohps. 

Well I dug around and transferred the soil into another container and low and behold there were a number of potatoes :o

Although a number had already succumbed to the slugs! Nasty little buggers...

Combining this with some Chard from my garden (I used the leaves for this meal):

Greek yoghurt pot for size comparison :p and yes I did take this picture on my floor...

These combined to make dinner where only the chicken didn't come from my garden (def don't have room for them here)

Again Blogger has rotatoed a picture for no reason!

Also I have made a dress this morning which I am going to be wearing when I go to town this afternoon :D 

Made along the lines of this pattern, but out of a gingham duvet cover :p lovely and soft but I definitely need a better belt to wear it with...

And to top it off I have a half full Herb bed. A blog post to follow on this shortly. (hopfully I will have my proper camera talking to my computer by then...)

Wishing you all a good day. xx

Afternoon Snack

Hmmm nothing beats and afternoon snack of fresh strawberries and yoghurt. Especially when the strawberries have come from your own garden. :D

Over the summer (the next two weeks especially) I will be trying to diet. Just by trying to eat much more healthily and eat stuff with very little fat in it etc. So lots of salad in the future... 

One of my main tasks will be choosing the right things to eat in between meals when I get hungry. And this snack ticked all the right boxes:

Fruit: (with a small gating of chocolate for good measure)

A large dollop of Greek Yoghurt:

  

A good chance to use up some of my lavendar sugar from last year. Has a very nice sweet taste with out being too sugary - if it is possible for sugar to not be too sugary. Basically you need less of it than plain sugar in my opinion:

A good stir and sit back and enjoy:

Dont ask my why blogger decided to put that last photo upside down, as few are rotated too... humph

Knowing when to harvest...

This is becoming my new challenge, there is so much advice out there on how to plant your veg and how to care for it. When to pot on, when to plant out. What fertiliser to put on it... etc etc. 

But the advice seems to tail off with respect to when to harvest. The packets give a rough estimation of the months that the fruit or veg will be ready in but thats it. 

In addition there is an even smaller amount of information, easily accessible, on what to do after this (for newbies). With respect to all plants. For example, how to deal with bulbs after they have flowered, do you pull them up and dry them and then re plant or just leave in the ground and hope for the best :p

Anyways Harvesting...

I have found that I have a problem of not knowing when all my veg is ready for harvesting. I realised this when the elation of having the first one of my courgettes grow had worn of slightly and I started thinking: So how long till I can eat this? The same is true for the Chantennay carrots that I am growing (with these I might have got impatient and pulled one up only to realise they still had a long way to go. They were edible but just very small!).

Apparently this courgette is now ready to be eaten :D 

Today I have been back out in the garden and the courgette has swelled up a bit, it is just longer than my hand and is too wide for me to me to grip round completely. I probably should have harvested it a few days ago but - better late than never. 

This evening we will see what it tastes like (other than victory), along with some of the Yellow Chard. :D Yummy.