Monday 7 June 2010

Better Late Than Never

It's been quite a while since I last posted, mainly due to the school holidays last week. Hubby took the week off work too so we ended up making the most of the good weather and headed off all over the place enjoying ourselves. I took this photo last week thinking that I would do a post, but then never got round to it. Do you remember me mentioning the Micro Tomato seeds which I was having trouble germinating? The first batch of seeds I planted never came up and I only had three more seeds to try. Well, one of the seeds was ok and this is the plant now. It's potted up in a six inch plantpot, so you can gauge it's size, yet it has already got it's first trusses. It won't grow much taller now, but it should get some more foliage. Last year I got loads of tiny tasty tomatoes off one of these plants. It's so small that it lives up to it's name of Micro Tomato, and the fruit is tiny too.

As I've already mentioned, we had a lovely week last week. On Sunday we visited Newmillerdam where we saw coots and Canada geese nesting on the water and some had young in their nests. Mallards were swimming on the lake with their young following behind. Duncombe Park was the setting for a country fair on bank holiday Monday and after that we headed in to Helmsley which is a gorgeous little village. I would have liked to have visited the walled garden while we were there but we didn't have time, so it will give us a reason to return in the not too distant future. We had some rain on Tuesday so we stayed under cover of a shopping centre as my daughter had outgrown her school shoes and needed new ones before she went back to school today. The sun was back on Wednesday so we headed off to the Yorkshire Dales, my favourite place. We spent a while in Hawes before driving down to Burnsall where we parked by the side of the river for our picnic and a paddle. No school holiday would be complete without a trip to the coast, so on Thursday we spent the day in Scarborough. It was a gorgeous day, warm enough for my daughter to don her bikini on the beach.

On Friday, my daughter had been invited to her friend's house for a sleepover, so we decided to stay at home and I managed to find the time to plant up my hanging baskets, plant up all my containers with bedding plants and get my tomato plants planted in to their final positions in the greenhouse. I also evicted many of the plants waiting to be taken to the allotment from my greenhouse, so they're now on staging in the garden until I can find some more time to get them in to the allotment.

We spent most of Saturday at the allotment. Hubby built my bean wigwams and I discovered that I did have some spare space, so I've decided to grow some runner beans after all. I planted out two different types of climbing French beans, and have sown seeds direct for the runner beans. I noticed that my first courgette is growing, so it won't be long now until there's a glut. I was also pleased to see plenty of strawberries waiting to ripen. Many of the strawberry flowers were caught by the frost but lots more have opened so all is not lost.

I would have liked to have spent more time at the allotment yesterday but the heavens opened so I spent the day catching up on housework instead. I'm hoping to get down again later on today as the weeds are threatening to take over.

14 comments:

  1. I have a friend who lives in Helmsley. We always manage to fit in a visit to the Walled Garden. It's a fantastic project.

    I've never heard of micro tomatoes. That plant looks good and strong though. Our son lives in Scarborough - works in the Rotunda Museum.

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  2. Oh, Jo, I was with you every step of your lovely journey around Yorkshire, and now feel so.o.o homesick! Your tomato looks great! Happy Gardening! Pam x

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  3. Hi Jo, sounds like you had a great time. I loved the Dales, just wish we lived closer!

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  4. Lovely week Jo. We went to Helmsley Walled Garden once and enjoyed it. When I was teaching I used to take 30+ 11 year olds to Askrigg and one day out was to the cattle market at Hawes where they sold 50p lambs. All the children wanted one.

    Still haven't managed a visit to Newmillerdam this year - when I was working at Woolley we went to the little cafe across the road and had beans on toast for lunch just to get out of the office - familiarity etc.

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  5. well I got somw weeding done last week and that was about it.....I too spent time with the children over the holidays...sounds like you had a wonderful time as did I...sometimes it's good to take a break!"!!

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  6. Wow you have been busy! Fab you got so much done.

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  7. flightplotJune 08, 2010

    You certainly had a good week, and I've enjoyed looking at all the links!
    Your runner beans should appear very quickly, and like you I've got stawberries about to ripen.
    Happy gardening! Flighty xx

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  8. sounds like you made the most of it and had a great time. i'm glad you've got a tomato plant growing - it looks very healthy :)

    i was wondering where you'd gone ;)

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  9. Sounds like you had a great week Jo - you have to make the most of the school hols and especially when the weather is good! I enjoyed looking through the interesting links.

    I've been an absent blogger myself but hope to be back on a more regular basis soon.

    Hope you manage to get down to the allotment this weekend.

    Jeanne
    x

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  10. Jo,
    You're not the only one behind on posting. I've been busy with projects and tired the rest of the time, so I've been neglectful of the blog. Your tomato plant is bigger than my sprouts, but I'm just going to set them out tomorrow and they should grow pretty quickly. Cheers!

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  11. I'm really looking forward to going back to Helmsley to see the walled garden, Vegetable Heaven. I've never been to the Rotunda Museum, but my son is taking Geology as a GCSE so it's on our list of places to visit.

    There are some beautiful places in Yorkshire, Pam. I count myself very lucky to live in such a wonderful place.

    We're less than an hour away from the Dales, Damo, so we do visit there quite often. There's always something new to see each time we go, but we do frequent our favourite haunts too.

    I really enjoyed all our outings last week, Green Lane Allotments, there's so much to do and see in Yorkshire. As for the lambs, I would have wanted to take one home too.

    It is good to take a break, Tanya. I'm starting to realise that the kids won't be kids for ever and making the most of the school holidays. Glad that you enjoyed your week too.

    It was a busy weeek, Scented Sweetpeas, but very enjoyable. I'm looking forward to the summer holidays now.

    I haven't had chance to see if there's any sign of the runner beans yet, Flighty, it's never stopped raining yet this week. It looks like I've got a bumper crop of strawberries coming though.

    It's nice that I was missed, Steph, thank you. I did enjoy last week, I like nothing better than family time.

    It was good that we had some fine weather last week, Jeanne. Such a difference from this week, it hasn't stopped raining yet. I haven't managed to make it to the allotment yet this week, but I'm hoping to do so at the weekend.

    Life, rightly so, does get in the way of blogging sometimes, Avis. I'm sure your tomatoes will romp away once they get planted up.

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  12. AnonymousJune 10, 2010

    Weeds are also taking over my garden. They have already taken over areas where I don’t grow any vegetables. I just have to accept that it can’t be a perfect garden.

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  13. Sounds as if you packed a lot into one week Jo and enjoyed yourselves. I would like to go to Helmsley to see the collection of clematis - one of these days :)

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  14. Weeds will always be present where there is fertile soil, Vrtlarica. I suppose we would be compaining if weeds weren't growing as nothing else would be either.

    It was nice to be so busy doing things we enjoy, Anna. I'm really looking forward to going back to Helmsley to visit the walled garden. It's not too far away from me but it's just finding the time.

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