A new brown bin

My new brown bin has arrived at last. Our council will collect garden waste once a fortnight so I am planning on using them rather than setting up a compost bin at the moment.

The first sad addition to the bin was the remains of the courgette plant. Still not sure what happened to it. Maybe a combination of not enough soil for two plants, not enough water and food, too many black fly and all manor of other things that i don't actually know about. On the plus side, i did get 5 courgettes which are on the menu for this week.

I have also put in the bin the first of the mile a minute stuff that Lianne has cut down. I cant remember its proper name but it is growing over the fence from next door. This is part of the appotment expansion scheme as we clear the patio ready for use.

Courgettes - good and bad!

11th May 2010

6th July 2010

The first courgette

13th July 2010

15th July 2010

So in the beginning were two little plants. They grew and grew and looked great. They produced 5 courgettes. Then they went yellow. What went wrong??

Three more pots

In this pot there are two pepper plants. "Bell Boy" and "Yellow". I have planted all these three pots very low on soil as there is quite a wind on the balcony and i am hoping that this will give them some form of protection. I discovered today when potting the plants that i bought yesterday, that i have bought too many for the pots that i have. Need to go to Mums and see if i can liberate a few.

The courgettes are called "all green bush". Where do they get the names from? It seems that the more I read about plants , the less i know. Apparently some courgettes grow up and some down, i e trailing or stake i guess. Not sure what this one does. Does a bush need staking?

Last but not least, tumbler tomatoes. I did try growing these in a hanging basket last year but they got blown away. Hopefully by planting them below the surface of the pot, they will have some protection. As I am typing this, i can still smell tomato on my fingers even through the soap.

So now i have to go stand on the balcony and try and decide what pots i need to complete potting up all the plants that i bought. I can see that i will end up with too many pots, then too many plants etc etc.