this morning nice and early i cropped up my two best little gem lettuce and a small handfull of beans. i must say it is so true when gardeners say " what you grow tastes better than what you buy", oh darn this is so true. my salad bap's are a winner in the house and two baby lettuce disapeared in under an hour.
i have two lettuce left, and promissed my godson he could have one for himself and his mum.

new addition too the veg family are two sunflowers. the godson had problems so we shoved them into my yard and boosted them with some ferts.

PEPPER !! omg pepper has flowers. i started these peppers indoors in mid march and think they are stunted. my biggest plant is around 1.5ft high max but has a very nice clutch of around 6 flowers. a lovely crisp white with mottled black centers. just a slight knock of the branch and they sprinkle pollen everywhere. Next year i will grow peppers indoors so i can keep the soil at a constant temp that what there is in greenhouse.

moneymaker heirlom tomatos now have two flower trusses and are now around 4ft high im going too top them at 4-6trusses and around 5ft these should then fit just nice inside the GH. One big problem is my roma plum tomatos, these at only 7inch high have started too dump sugar and produce flower trusses. i have removed them and will top plants around 3ft high these will take place over the lettuce once harvested fully.

Cucumbers, i now have three smallish plants at 4ft high and producing handfuls of flowers. 8 male flowers have now become cucumbers and are growing bigger every day.

Feeding. each growbag recieves 1 gallon of water every three days and 1 feed every two weeks.

was in the garden yesterday and took a couple of pictures.

pepper flowers look so nice. i brushed past them and found huge amounts of pollen left on the leaves and my jeans. this is a picture of my best plant. my other three have been savaged by slugs and snails. im loosing the battle against these slimey critters.


look at my prize cucumbers here in the attachments. i planted three cucumber seeds back in april/may. after advice from my father i topped these cucumbers and found that it was the wrong idea. these things love too climb and as of my own fault my cucumbers are now ground dwellers lol. the larges cumber is on the oldest plant and the group of cumbers is on the youngest plant.
Next year i plan on two cucumber plants and allowthem too grow too the high of the greenhouse i may even plant them outside. slugs and snails have somewhat not taken too my cucumbers. and haveleft my tomato's alone too. another good note i now have tomato's forming from pollenated flowers hopefuly i will have a good bumper crop.

Roma tomato's: i dont like these determinate plants to be honnest. at 8 inches high they are already forming flowers. i am very unsure if i should let them flower now or pinch out and if i do will they reach maturity in time before winter


on a sad note i have lost my friend the robin. it has been nearly 4 weeks now i havent seen him. he would visit everyday for freebies i would lay out for him. maybe he will be back in the fall, fingers crossed.

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Over the past few days the heat in my location has soared into the the low/high 80's. but all good things come too an end. in my case a big wet end.

the first rain fall hit us hard a good 2 inch easy fell in under an hour, not bad hey, thats what i thought but sadly i dont have a water but and a rainwater downpipe too connect too. as the green house is plastic it has no guttering. i realy must find some way too harness this gift from above it will save me a small fortune in water bills.

my peppers are doing realy well now. the mini Jihad against the slugs and snails have worked and my bait is slaying these beasts left right and centre. i lost outta 4 plants only one too slugs and snails. but fruit flowers and leave on the other three have taken a hammering, out of 6 fruit on my best bell pepper i lost all but one. my cayenne pepper has lost around 1/3 of its leaves too these beasts and my last bell pepper has been decimated. bit it refuses too die and has produced a huge amount of new growing tips.

beer and the usual old housewifes tales did not work so i had too go with chemical warfare too eradicate these beasts.

i need too charge up the mobile before i take take a few update pictures. so keep tuned in for the next update pictures im realy happy with the results from these cheap gro-bags and a cheap plastic greenhouse. but the north east facing garden is a hard one too work with the greenhouse gets sunlight from 8am-10am then again from 12-8pm its full sun again my garden is surounded by other dwellings too so they shade my garden sometimes.

the garden itself was a rubbish tip for all the building rubbish . when we moved in we found a jcb backhoe, cement bags, sandbags,scafolding,scafolding knuckle fitments. plaster backwash all buried under the topsoil. the list went on and every rainfal the garden would flood. in the end we had too hand dig an 8 foot deep sump hole and filled it with all the brick rubble from the garden. the yard was left too go wild for 10 years apart from the cutting down every few months. this year is the tester i planted two bean plants into the soil with no added feed and will leave them too natures own, if they grow well next year i am bringing in a mini digger and will remove the top layer ready too transform the once wild garden into my own garden allotment.

hello everyone.

it is ok i have not forgoten you all, this month has been somewhat hectic with online mmorpg'ing and searching for work. the green house has come on in leaps and bounds the grass is beating me back and my garden burner has been puffing away like a smokers pipe.

Dwarf beans have now finnished, these poor things had been ravished by slugs and snails they also blocked alot of the much needed sunlight too the tomatos, they have gone and now getting recycled in the makeshift composter bin.

cucumbers wont stop flowering and producing fruit. i have had from count 12 lovely fresh 6-8 inch cucumbers. i have around another 8 in various stages of growth, hopefuly they will finnish before the first english frosts.

tomatos an peppers speak for themselves with the attached pictures.

and would you believe it, i was cutting down some of the long grass ( 2-4ft high) ready too dry and use as a covering too keep my growbag soil good and frost free next years early planting. popped in too get a cool drink and there he was waiting on the fence. my friend the robin had come back. luckly i had hug a apple from a cord onto the washing line. was not long before most ofthe smaller birds inc robin had visited the swinging cafe.

it has been a hectic month or so. but i shall leave you with these few pics and a whole new update tomorrow or monday evening (uk) with new and improved tomato training cane fence and a few shots of the roma's / money makers / peppers /cucumbers.

here's good eating and healthy growing too you all

Tamzi

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Tomatos, those red ripe fruits we tend too purchase from the store without any thought. well thats what i used too do untill Now.

as you have read this is my first year growing a small greenhouse budget grow. most of what i had learnt was as a kid growing the cannabis seeds we found in our smoke. fast forward 20 years its today.


Moneymaker a very popular hierloom tomato grown in the uk a very heavy yielding plant. sounds awesome dont it ?, yeah i thought the same nice small tomatos, oh oh how i was so wrong.


my green garden STICKS have done the job and it is time for me too build a bigger and better climbing frame for my plants. three 8FT garden canes sunk into soil about a good two foot deep and around 1 - 2 feet apart. another 4 canes 4 foot in length are used as horizontal braces.

1hour later in 91F temps, im shattered a job that would take ten mins took an hour. working inside the greenhouse had cooked me alive but my master piece was finnished. Another hour and i had tied all the tomato's up too the horizontal canes and stood back.

the break was short as i started too prune up the plants on thier new climbing frame and turned my mind too the Roma tomato's. These too had been overcome by gravity a few leaders had bent and some had split. the same had happened on the moneymakers and i was worrying. could i loose the fruit too a stupid beginers mistake, leaving the fruit too get too heavy for the plant too cope. Only time will tell now.

one old plastic carrier bag was used too tie canes too each other. my canes came held together with these plastic bag type ties, so i made myself some and they worked a treat. any growers that have a wife or girlfriend will know they wear nylon/cotton tights. the also work wonders for holding up those nice heavy tomato vines as you may notice. being soft then can be used too make a sling too hold the stems of the vines and too thold the main stalk too the canes. when fixing stalk too cane i ALWAYS use a figure 8 tie, this allows the tights too stretch as the stalk swells and grows.

So you have read the wall of text and still can make no head nore tale from it. well picture speak a thousand words my grandad always said. so take a butchers at these.

feel free too ask any questions.

Tamzi

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so here she comes rolling down the hill september on east coast of england.

the poor greenhouse has taken a good deal of damage now from wind and the uk weather. it is still tied down well but these plastic covers are lets say useless. the cloth ties used too hold covering too frame have been torn out leaving good 3 inch tears on sewn seems.

so a dilema i contacted the company that made them in MAY this year it is now september and no reply what so ever not even a email reply or a reply too my telephone enquiry. so now i am going BIG well in my eyes it will be big. a few have complained about my nice CLEAR 6x4 greenhouse and next year they will be slightly more upset.

Tamzi is building a 10ft x 6ft or maybe even a 12x 6 poly tunnel.
im going too use PVE tubing and some poles sunk into ground my tubing will be placed over sunk poles and screwed into place.
next i fit a sideboard around the frame and crossmembers from 2x2 battons, my covering will be recesed into battoning on side rails and pulled taught over the frames that will be covered in pipe lagging ( saving tears an wear), then i build a small 2.4ft doorway and screw onto base frame and tube hoops.

i spent a good 3 days trawling the net on something more better than a cheap throw away GH.
hopeful i can use this years greenhouse frame inside next years new polytunnel if council allow me too have this structure. so fingers crossed for me and a bigger better growhouse next year

well ladys gents, boys and girls.

the time has come too close my first grow journal. it certainly has been a journey into the past for me. bringing back child memorys., the green house is no bare devoid of life and the smell of summer, the plants have been cut and harvested. my nieghbours and friends have enjoyed fresh tomatos and the likes, most have already shown interest in there own plots. my temperatures are showing a marked drop and the green house is more a cold frame. maybe just maybe we will get some white stuff this year and you can see the garden covered in snow.

the cheap £1 GBP growbags have been recycled with my plants from greenhouse. i added some extra grass clippings and the likes. hopefuly this will form a good compost over the next 5+ months. ready for next year. but i will still purchase some more cheap growbags to bulk up my soil.

Be on the look out for my new grow journal in december/january. this will be showing you how and when too start next years plants i have already started with small garden mint cuttings on the window sills, and boxing day is tomato seed day.

The elcheapo green house will return for its second year in growing. but this time Wind proof ( he says lol) !!

next year we will be growing:

tomato's
peppers
lettuce
onion
cucumber
mellons

I would like to Thank everyone who has viewed this grow journal / budget garden /GH, over 1000 views i am so thankful and happy. thank you again and see you in the fall. please feel free too ask questions about this years growing on the east coast UK.


Tamzi