This evening we picked the first of the strawberries. Summer has come early! Strawberry plants were some of the first plants planted in the tunnel beds back in mid February, they were actually last years 'runners'. We have ripe strawberries on the 21st of May! Looking back on this blog we are about three weeks earlier than last year.
Interestingly, we have strawberry plants in the tunnel raised beds, but we also have two hanging baskets, these have produced the biggest strawberries. Tonight, we weighed in at 187 grammes of deliciousness with the largest strawberry at 47 grammes, actually a full 10 grammes bigger than our largest strawberry from last year. The garden guru attributes the early results to the tunnel and seaweed fertiliser. We enjoyed the first fruit with a little glass of wine to celebrate and clinked our glasses hoping for a future good harvest.
The tunnel is really going well, according to the Irish Times the weather (up to this week) has been reasonable so far ‘April was a very dry month with cold, polar air over the country on several occasions through the month, leading to below average temperatures everywhere, according to the latest monthly bulletin from Met Éireann.
The cool, dry conditions, while cold, also brought above average sunshine’.
Temperatures under the polythene have been high during the day and though we have had some frosty nights we covered all non-hardy plants with fleece, so we have not been affected. We are harvesting lettuce daily for the salad, and have eaten quite a few radishes, some onions are almost ready to pull. Everything else the spring onions, peas, broad beans, the celery, onions, are flourishing well so far so good. About ten days ago we planted about six cucumber plants and a couple of “Little Mouse Watermelons”, Cucamelons.
We have finished planting the tomatoes all thirty plants (two of each variety). They have each been moved from the pot into the raised bed each accompanied by a support twine and stem clip(s) and a watering container. Since being placed in the ground they have really bloomed, and one has even begun to produce a juvenile tomato (a Gardeners Delight, circled image below) We watched Monty advising the “consistent watering being one of the keys to a good tomato harvest”. As I watched him the other evening, I noticed his eyes light up as the spoke of his tomatoes… it is a bit like that in our house. The garden guru has support/companion plants planted among the tomatoes to deter pests, marigolds, basil, and garlic, all serve to deter flying pests and poached egg plants are planted for the bees and hoverflies to assist with pollination.
The past week has been very wet, cold, and unsettled, it is forecast to recover please God.
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