Just a quick post, this, to put up a few more pix, and to link to Rose Elliott's rhubarb crumble recipe from Guardian Weekend mag a couple of weeks ago.
Can I say "comfort food"? I think so ...
The pic to the right is one of the fab Link-a-Bord raised beds, featuring at present some red baron onion seedlings, a few leeks and some rainbow chard. The backdrop is a rampant May hedgerow, and the source of bindweed (aka all that is evil in this world).
And to the left, there's the comfrey monster to the left, the self-seeded cornflower mountain in mid-shot and a lot of molehills - I mean potato mounds - in between. Rather than the whole ridge thing I go for little bumps for individual tubers, which seems like less work somehow though I suspect it isn't. A bit of rain in the last few days since this pic was taken has transformed the weedless view you see here into something rather more, er, lush.
Current worried: will my squash germinate? Are my tomatoes too leggy? And will my passion flower ever grow any new leaves?
My recommendation for leggy toms is to pull off all but the top 2 or 3 sets of leaves when they are ready to transplant, and then bury them up to this point--no matter how tall or leggy they are. The stalk will send out more roots, hence more nutrition and better toms from what once looked a bit weak and spindly. But of course you knew that. . .It is worth experimenting too, to see what works--plant some as is, bury some without pulling leaves and strip a few naked and see what happens. This goes true for starts from the garden center too.
Posted by: Podchef | May 18, 2006 at 12:35 AM
Our passion flower has only just this week started to sprout new leaves and we live right on the south coast, with the passion flower growing on a fairly sheltered west facing fence...so don't give up hope. I think all will catch up quickly now after quite a late start to Spring!
Posted by: Annette | May 18, 2006 at 08:14 PM