Recovery!
People who enjoy gardening have to learn patience. If you sow a seed, sometimes you have to wait nearly a year before you reap the rewards. If you make a mistake (like leaving your tomatoes out on a frosty night..) you will have to wait a year and remember not to do it next time, meanwhile you live with your mistakes and attempt recovery.
We've had a few warm days since last Tuesday and some of my frosted tomatoes have developed clear side shoots. I have snipped off the dead foliage and now I wait to see what I have left. One suggestion on previous comments suggested planting more seed. Hmmm I think it might be a bit late, however with this length of daylight they might catch up eventually. I might plant a few and see what happens.
Meanwhile back to the plot. Strawberries...straw + berries. It looks like I have a good crop of strawberries developing this year, so I have laid straw underneath the plants for the berries to rest and stay dry.
Several sweetcorn plants have miraculously survived the frost, I think there might even be a chance that the stalk stumps are still green and despite losing all the green leaves they might produce new leaves. I have them waiting in the greenhouse to see if they are still growing, but I have planted a new tray of sweetcorn seed just in case they don't recover.
I planted this lemongrass from seed earlier this Spring, it is growing well in a pot in the greenhouse!
The PSB Purple Sprouting Broccoli is just coming to an end, here is one of the last pickings of the purple sprouts. I have left one whole plant in the corner of the patch to go to flower to attract the bees. Bees just love PSB flowers, they are all over it!
My gooseberry is also starting to come to life. Gooseberries are hidden underneath the branches. It looks as if you have nothing, then if you gently lift a branch you will see these little gems hiding underneath.
Finally, I thought I would share my garden plan with you. Nothing technical, no excel spreadsheet, no technology.... just some pencil scrawls on the back of an envelope!
posted by Matron @ 9:30 AM
16 Comments:
A very stern lesson from Jack Frost this year, wasn't it. And lucky for you most of your strawberry flowers are unscathed - even though JF put his black spot in the centre of some.
It looks like I've lost the two courgettes I had planted out under a plastic cloche - an experiment for early courgettes which worked last year. Oh well - there are healthy plants snug in the greenhouse ready to replace them.
Gardening is a life lesson.
Celia
Strawberries, Gooseberries, lemon grass, purple sprouted broccolis...there sure are a lot of antioxidants out there in your farm.
Having a plan for the garden never occurred to me, may it only be a sketch on an envelope; I am learning.
Fingers crossed for the toms. I've never growm Lemon Grass from seed.
Heartening news about your plant recoveries! Hopefully they will still give you a nice crop this year. Gardening has it's ups and downs, but we press on. :-D
The gooseberries are a nice surprise.
That's what I would do too - just draw the garden plan!! hope the lemon grass comes on nicely - from seeds,just marvellous!
Glad you've had some recoveries Matron. Mine seem to have bounced back in some cases, staggered back in others!
Life is resilient and it is amazing how plants can recover from some pretty extreme weather events. My corn is yellowed from the late cold snap we experienced also - but it is doing fine as new growth is coming in now. I keep my tomatoes covered until late into the spring season until the weather finally settles out to warm and fairly dry. That saved my entire bed during the cold snap because while they were stressed by the cold - they were not damaged in any manner and have gone on to grow lots of new growth. With each passing year, I am more and more convinced that this is a good standard practice to safe guard the more tender slower growing crops.
I love your little plan ! (And now if it's online you don't have to worry about losing it)
Also your PSB is amazing. That's and all brassicas are one thing I have never managed to grow despite trying for 3 years.
Good luck with the tomatoes. I have just picked a few more off a wild plant that did really well. Not bad considering we are almost into winter here (OK never all that cold here in Northland, New Zealand! although we do get some heavy frosts). I would definitely get some more seeds in you just never know how long your summer will go for.
How DO you get so many big sprouts on your psb? My plants are huge but they are all leaf and no sprout?
Looks like everything is coming up roses (metaphorically). Those toms look fine, they'll fight back, everything else is a little jealousy inducing ;) Plus I watch this lemongrass experiment with joy...
Nightmare!
There is nothing worse than losing plant in the spring time. Best of luck salvaging what plants you can!
A friend was talking about growing lemongrass just last week so your post is very timely. Have you grown it before? I'll be interested to see how it does.
Scarlett - No, I haven't grown lemongrass before, I bought some seeds from T&M and thought I would give them a go in the greenhouse. Fingers crossed.
Wow, your gooseberries are looking fantastic, so early compared to ours. Would you like to trade blogrolls?
wellrooted - silly Matron is still firmly rooted in the 20th century.. what does 'trade blogrolls' mean?
Post a Comment
<< Home