This was a bit delayed due to other posts and commitments but the garden is starting to look great, finally all that hard work earlier on in the year is starting to pay off, everything seems to be getting nicle established and the typical mix of wet weather and sporadic sunshine has helped things along nicely.
As you can probably see im still suffering the effects of most of the salads bolting due to the unseasonal heat and dryness we had early on last month. But the Bee’s are loving the addition of the flowers so i'm happy to leave them in to self seed until replacements are ready to go in. As i'm sure you would agree “weeding” would be much more fun if it was little salad plants and veg that needed to be removed (or not) and put to better use than on the compost heap.
Permaculture and self seeding annuals in the greenhouse
This is one thing i love about my greenhouse and the holistic approach i take with it. Some of you will think this is insane (Like i do) but many people deep clean their greenhouses in the UK once the growing season is over, using many chemicals, spray and smoke bombs to reduce the chances of pests/diseases including removing or sterilising the compost they used to grow in.
Honestly how mad is that!! Lets grow some great fruit and veg but drench the place with Chemicals in the process 🤯
I for one don’t do this, and encourage you all not to either. One thing i really enjoy when i'm routing around pulling out the bitsi dont want, and finding a little tomato plant, or naustratum or cluster of herbs. Lovingly plucking it out and putting it somewhere it can flourish and be loved.
One of my attempts at companion planting is coming on great the pea’s are starting to flower and the squash plant is starting to take off.
The Comfrey under the redcurrant bush is coming back in force after a recent cutting back to make a natural plant feed and propogate more plants.
The next planting of salads are starting to come through, so far I’ve managed to keep this going, and usually i have massive gaps between harvests 😀
In the greenhouse
These have shot up a lot in the last week, and each plant has a couple of truss starting to set fruit, so the rest of the greenhouse doesn't suffer and to push the energy into the rest of the plant I’ve stripped the leaves of to the first truss.
While we were watering some of the pots that dry out quickly we heard a bit of a commotion in next doors garden, i quickly realised it was one of the locals cats had managed to find a little fledgling blackbird and was in the process of harassing it.
Like an ECO ninja that feline got a jet of water to face 🐺
Once it ran off looking rather confused i had to scoop the little bird up as my 4 year old daughter was getting a bit distressed watching this unfold. This little bird has a tour of the greenhouse and a 3 course meal and after a few hours chillin out of harm's way and the cat gone we put him back in our garden in a place with more cover from the cats and other birds. We did see this little bird for 2 more days pottering about our garden under the watchful eye of its parents.
I’d like to think we will see it again pottering about helping in the garden.
As always thanks for dropping by and reading my posts, if you like what you see think about upvoting, resteeming and possibly following my blog.
All the best
Dan