Corn and Beans

The corn is coming along and the beans are starting to curl their way around the stalks. Last year I planted the beans a bit too late and they got shaded out. This year I planted at the same time as the corn. I'm a bit concerned that the beans may choke the corn, but with my trusty secateurs I'll be able to control things. You can see the third sister, the pumpkins, up in the top right hand corner of the photo. These are just about ready to start their rise to perpendicularity.



Mutant Tomato

My Costoluto Genovese tomato has a large mutant flower cluster where the growing tip of the main stem shoud be. I think this is called fasciation. There are conflicting views on what causes this, genetic mutation or a virus. Most views lean towards a mutation. I'm going to take a risk that it is a mutation, leave the plants in place and simply chop of the mutant, and hence to top of the main stem, to encourage the side shoots. Hopefully all will be well.



More Spuds

When I planted out the bed wth potatoes I put a couple of spare seed potatoes in a 40cm pot. I turned them out on the weekend and ended up with 2.8kgs. So the pot was a lot more productive than the entire bed which yielded 7kgs, mainly due to avoiding the slug attack that stopped the ones in the bed from growing to their potential.



More Paws

Here's another of the Kangaroo Paws that are flowering out the front at the moment. These ones are Yellow Gem and have multiple red stems to nearly two meters.



Weekend Past

This past weekend I planted out the last of this season’s tomatoes. These were seedlings I grew from seed ordered from Diggers. I planted out two Mortage Lifters as described in this post. Two Amish Paste that have elongated fruit and are supposed to be good fresh or, as the name suggests, for preserving. Two Costoluto Genovese, another all rounder with meaty ribbed fruit and finally two Sugarlump that have largish, cherry type 3cm fruit. The last three have been planted one in the no-dig section of the garden and one in a pot. I've never grown these three so we'll see how they perform.

I pulled my garlic over the weekend and ended up with twenty two heads this year. I grew them in the ground rather than pots and although they take up the space for a long time I think they'll be in the ground again next year. Here's a few of them

And a few of the nice purple cloves that came loose in the process



First Broad Beans

I started picking my broad beans today. The beans are mostly right up at the top of the plants leaving a couple of feet of bare stems below. Next year I might wait until August. Or at least try planting two lots a month apart and apply a bit of science to the whole enterprse. Still, for the next couple of weeks I'll get enough for a few good meals.



The Three Sisters Revisited

Last year I made an attempt at a companion planting combination called the three sisters. This involves planting corn, beans and pumphins together. The corn supports the climbing beans, the pumpkins shade the soil and prevent weeds and the beans help fix nitrogen for next years crops. It didn't work, mainly, I think, because I planted the beans too late and they were shaded out of existence by the corn. This year I've planted everything at the same time. The pumkins are going to be grown vertically as usual but I've put in a bean seed next to the corn seeds. They're up and going so we'll see what happens.