Fruit

[igenlode]

I have had two pickings of strawberries (of a handful of berries each), with more to come; the multiple runners I planted up a couple of years ago have finally started putting on a decent amount of growth this spring, possibly because it was so much warmer. I have also picked and eaten (uncooked) the first pods from the dwarf peas -- they had plumped up while I wasn't looking, but were still amazingly sweet eaten raw, pods and all. It might be worth growing these again if the seed is still viable next year. I have had several pickings of pea-shoots from the pot that I planted up very thickly for that purpose, and they are about finished after having had their tops cut off repeatedly. Weirdly, that pot now seems to contain several nasturtiums which I definitely did not put in there, and don't remember seeing germinate! One 'spare' pea plant that I tucked into the corn-marigold pot has survived the competition there, and even produced a couple of tiny pods.

The feathery (and rather invasive) thing in the wildflower trough has finally opened its flower-head fully and demonstrated that it definitely isn't corn-chamomile, or anything else that I have sown previously. It has clusters of unscented white umbellifer-flowers. I shall need to root it out at the end of the year, as it is too tall and dominant for my purposes. I was only really keeping it to see what it was going to turn into. The plant at the other end of the trough has white and yellow daisy-type flowers and dagged leaves, and I have seen them growing locally in people's gardens, which is doubtless how it got into mine -- this one is also too tall for my environment, since it is reaching the washing line! Both plants are thick with blackfly, which I am tolerating there but attempting to keep clear of everything else.

The first flax is in flower. I have had a lot of trouble with it flopping this year, and ended up tying it to a supporting stick, even though I didn't feed the plants. They have grown very tall and quite possibly suffer from lack of water. The towel-tomatoes are now flowering, even though they aren't yet in their full-size pots (or really of a size to be).

I have managed to give away six marigolds, have potted-up three, and still need to deal with a couple more badly overcrowded pots!

Comments

[igenlode]

Ooops -- I found half a strawberry next to the pots this morning. I suspect the local rooftop squirrels have worked out what is available ;-)