When flowers appear on tomato plants it is a good sign that the plant has settled well in either its pot or in the soil. Growing tomatoes outdoors in a city garden can be challenging, all the more so when the spring is very wet. While some spring rain helps the plant to root, too …Read More about Tomato progress in spring
Archives for June 2016
Early blight on tomatoes
Tomato plants grown outdoors do not like wet and damp conditions. This spring in Belgium has been one of the worst in years with constant heavy rain. For the first time in this garden a number of the tomato plants have been affected by the plant disease, early blight alternaria alternata. Tomato blight comes in …Read More about Early blight on tomatoes
Bean flowers
Beans are one crop that really benefit from horrible rainy weather. Once the plants set flower they require plenty of water and should never be left to dry out. Fortunately this is not a problem this year in Belgium. Many beans were originally grown as ornamentals for their delicate flowers on long vines. Most flowers …Read More about Bean flowers
Bean netting progress
Creating your own “hanging gardens of Babylon” in a city garden is every urban gardener’s dream. While using lines of string to draw climbing plants up works well, having the cross strings of the netting enables the gardener to slow down the “shooting to the top.” In a corner space such as this stairwell, the …Read More about Bean netting progress
Bees in spring
There is nothing nicer than to have the first bean flowers appear and the garden to suddenly become alive with foraging bees. Spring time is when bees emerge from hibernation and set about feeding themselves up and preparing to nest. It is the most crucial time in the bees life cycle. A vegetable garden provides …Read More about Bees in spring
Birds in spring
Spring time is a very important time for small birds in the garden. Around May birds such as the blue tit are nesting and can have up to a dozen young in the nest. This requires the parent birds to provide large quantities of bugs and caterpillars to feed the young. The torrential rain of …Read More about Birds in spring