The first tomatoes are ready for harvesting. Hooray!
You don't grow tomatoes in Scotland because it makes economic sense, although they have a flavour that money can't buy. Surprisingly these are outdoor tomatoes, from our sheltered back garden:
The ones in the greenhouse are refusing to ripen, probably because it is shaded by a pyrocanthus and holly hedge. (The hedge is home to an extended family of house sparrows so is accepted as a fact of life.)
I still have high hopes of a good crop before summer is out, this year of all years.
I have been trying to grow a decent celeriac root for about a decade now, with limited success. Rather than accept defeat I have doubled my trouble. This is my second year of attempting to grow celery too!
Last year I grew Victoria, a self blanching F1 hybrid. They were rather straggly an not big enough for kitchen use. Then I heard that Loretta is the go to celery variety for allotmenteers. (It is also self blanching) Above is the first picked plant. It is heading for a minestrone soup pan. Not really a challenge to the shop bought product, it is nevertheless a source of some pride. I grew it close together, next to the celeriac, giving both copious amounts of water. The plants have turned yellow, leaves included, so clearly there is a nutritional issue still to be address. Boron deficiency? I have ordered a tonic, and next year I will use a top dressing mix that contains boron. Yes, there will be a next year for celery.
The neighbouring celeriac has been as bad as ever with 5 out of nine plants bolting. But then again the soil amendment for the celery might work for the celeriac too....
Now how big is the celery? This gives a sense of scale. I do have very big feet BTW.
