The polytunnel this month is looking very green .... AND orange!!
No wonder Lovely Hubby keeps going in there, he loves orange ... did you guess the other day ;-)
The 'Dwarf Marigolds' are anything but dwarf, and lots of them have already been dug up and put into pots, a couple of which flank the conservatory doors back over at the house.
The view from the other end.
Outside it was looking rather forlorn as I had just harvested the last of the peas, so I decided to pull up the plants, Normally I would have pulled off the few dried out pods that were left to save for seed next year, but I wasn't impressed with this batch of peas so I decided not to bother.
The pea plant on the other side was almost hidden behind the now almost fully recovered Magnolia tree.
The Tomtato plant next to the pea tyres is doing well ...
... but not quite as well as the other two at the far end of the tunnel which gets much more sun throughout the day which radiates back off the polythene of the tunnel and warms them on both sides.
So to get some of the 'orange out of the polytunnel and to make some more space for the soon to be planted Winter crops I decided to fill the tyres on both sides with some of the Marigolds. Four in the tyres and two yellow ones in the Artichoke tub.
There are two in this set of tyres along with my new Blackberry bushes, which will have the tyres to themselves once the marigolds have finished flowering.
There it looks a bit brighter now.
So it's looking slightly less orange inside now and I have a bit of much needed space.
At the moment from the tunnel we are eating -
Cucumber
Radish
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Herbs
Spring Onions
Courgettes
Spinach
Kale
Beetroot
Peppers
Carrots
... and the Chillies are almost ready for picking, including some lovely ORANGE ones ;-)
Sue xx
All looking good, other than fruit, we have hardly managed to eat much of our own produce so far. Tomatoes are ripening though and at last, the beans are in flowers.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough we are the exact opposite, all our fruit trees have either failed completely due to the frost killing all the blossom, or been stripped bare by the birds and squirrels in the case of the Blueberries. The ancient apple trees have lots of fruit but it's not looking very good, but most of the veggies have been brilliant, except the beans!!
DeleteWe're keeping our fingers crossed that it's a good year for Blackberries/
Apart from the butternut squash, which are a bit behind, all our veg have done well, the shallots especially!
DeleteTwo years ago we lost all our gooseberries over one night to wood pigeons, so now they're protected with net, much as I love our garden birds I'm not willing to share my fruit harvest with them!
We don't grow enough fruit to warrant a fruit cage so I bought a load of very fine black net (by weight, so it was very cheap) from Abakhan and drape that over the bushes, some of the fabric had sequins attached, so our blueberries are protected and well dressed! The sequins also act as bird scarers, so another plus! The blueberries were poor last year, but this year are fantastic, loads for the freezer and a good handful in my nutriblast every morning! The blackberries are swelling nicely now, so I have hope for a good harvest from them. The strawberries of course are lucky if they even make it back to the house before I scoff them!
I also grow marigolds to keep the buggies away, and it works, but I loathe the marigold smell, it makes me really nauseous, it doesn't stop me pinching the strawberries though!
It all looks amazing - both before and after! Orange is such a cheerful colour!
ReplyDeleteIt does make me smile when I step in :-)
DeleteYour polytunnel looks really healthy, how do you keep the bugs away?
ReplyDeleteThat's what the marigolds are for, they attract the beneficial insects and thus a lot of the pesky little non-beneficial blighters get eaten.
DeleteAnd when that fails I have an organic spray that I bought from the garden centre.
I see, I am just thinking ahead from when I start growing next year, I didn't want to spray edibles with chemicals, thanks for that Sue x
DeleteWhat beautiful colours in the polytunnel!
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for a really tasty pea, try Victoriana Nurseries they do a lovely old fashioned one called Telegraph pole, it grows 6ft tall but is abundant in tasty peas and unlike the F1's has a longer cropping season I have been picking peas for about 4-5 weeks from the same row and they are still flowering, they do well in the freezer too. Tagetes and Marigolds are lovely dotted amongst edibles I dont like the smell though a nice splash of colour :-)
ReplyDeleteI'll look out for those, thanks. They sound much better than the ones I've grown this year.
DeleteWonderful pictures from your polytunnel. I'm so impressed with the bounty you are harvesting!
ReplyDeleteIs there room for me and a chair?
ReplyDeleteJane x
Always.... as long as you have a trowel in your hand and don't sit down for too long ;-)
DeleteDo you grow all year round in your tunnel? Low tunnels (small poly tunnels just over a garden bed) are popular here in New England for winter vegetable production.
ReplyDeleteI used to. This will be the first Winter with this one, I've been tunnel-less for the past 3 years.
DeleteIt'll be interesting to see what I can manage to grow, it's also colder here with a shorter 'normal' growing season than where we used to live.
Your polytunnel is just beautiful. All that hard work is paying off. I can't wait to see what you will be growing this winter.
ReplyDelete