Trying to keep busy!

I have been busy but I have had to do it slowly as I have Achilles tendinitis, it is bloomin painful, in fact it is the worst pain I have had in quite a few years and requires rest, gentle stretches and ice!! Apparently its quite common in 'middle aged women'  I said to the Doctor 'I am thrilled to still be classed as middle aged'!!!

So whats be going on here........

well the hydroponic system is doing well and as you  can see the roots are growing like crazy. What is being a problem are the PH tests I have to do, about twice a week. When I do the test it is always at the top end of alkaline, (7.6)so I add a half measure of 'downer' to get it down and this 'always' with out fail takes it down to acidic (6.0) so then I have to bail out some water and add tap water. After much too-ing and fro-ing I can usually get it to just about 7.2.
I did contact the company about this and they told me to do basically what it says on the instructions, but I haven't found this works. I have also found I must not add the 'full' dose of the 'downer' (yep thats what its called) as it will take me forever to get it balanced again.
So I am monitoring it and will contact them again, we obviously have strange water in Wiltshire!!

This is my front window box. my dad had it built on board ship at least 60 years ago, there were 2, they sat under the windows of the french doors of our lounge at our family home. When mum moved she took one but didn't want the other so I had it. Mums died, well collapsed actually,  I think because she put compost in the wooden box, I always use a plastic trough and sit that inside.
So it was that time of year when I always clean it and treat it, but I found the base was parting company from the rest of it. I was heart broken. Now I can do DIY but I really wanted someone who knew what they were doing to do this, so put a shout out on our village facebook page.

 Lo and behold a lovely man said he would have a look at it, so we took it round. After much discussion about what I wanted we left him to it.
This is what was returned, all fixed, new base and he reused as many of the solid brass screws that had held it together all these years. It is made of oak and now has many more years left in it.

Just need to plant it up now.

He even cleaned and oiled the old base and gave it back to me, it is such a beautiful piece of wood, I really need to find somewhere special to use it.

I just wanted to share a picture or two of my Paulowina's. I have 3, but 2 are up near the patio. I can't remember when I planted them but I have had them a number of years they amaze me every year.  As you will remember every year I pollard it, in the spring it starts budding in various places on the trunk. I usually wait till the frosts have passed until I decide which buds to keep and which to take off.
Well we have been really caught out this year by that really late frost we had, but, this last week I removed all but two of the buds and I just thought I would share with you a couple of pictures of just how fast they grow.

I showed you the picture above and below. back on the 15th May just after the bad frost.

The next 2 pictures where taken Monday 1st June.

The next few where today!! The first one is closest to the house and is relatively well protected.

I just cannot believe the size of these leaves already. Just love them.

This one is a little further down the patio, by next week I reckon it should have caught up.

All my seed planted plug plants have been planted out and it still amazes me that once in the ground the speed they grow.
I have also found a lot of self seeded plants popping up everywhere, this is quite exciting for me as this very rarely happens. So I have very carefully been transplanting them around the garden.

I am hoping this will be a good year. Next post will be about my new irrigation system I will be setting up. Which will be needed as for the first time ever at this time of year all and yes I mean ALL my water butts are empty!!!

Back soon.

Vivigrow Soil-Less Planting

I haven't grown tomatoes in years, something I have never been very successful at. Whilst in lock down I have Facetimed my sister loads. She is a big veg grower and told me about these tomatoes she had found, that if left on the plant 'self dry'.
I always like to try something new and bearing in mind I had sold/given all my tomato growing 'stuff' away it meant starting from scratch. The problem with my greenhouse is it is in a south facing garden and even with shading it gets extremely hot and no matter how much watering I do it never seems enough.
So I did a bit of research and came across a website Greenhouse Sensation where I found Hydroponic Planters. Hydroponics has always fascinated me and I was delighted to find a rather interesting piece of kit 'Vivigrow' and yes I went mad and bought a kit and a very large parcel arrived.

Inside was everything I needed, it all looked very scary. .

 I had to make up bottles A & B and I wrote on them so I didn't get them mixed up. Eventually during the set up I will have to add 3ml of bottle of A to the water and then 3ml of bottle B has to be added separately.

The all important pump.

So off I went to the greenhouse with the Vivigrow kit.

Apologies for the reflection in the above pic it was very sunny when I set this up.

The pump outlet, pumps water with added nutrients from the reservoir below to the growing area on top. The fun bit was getting the PH level correct.

I live in a very hard water area so it took a number of goes, the above is our water with only the nutrients added after an hour of running. The PH is supposed to be between 6.2 and 7.2.

Because it was way off and at the top of the scale I had to add the 'downer' and run again for another 1 hour and as you can see it went to the opposite end of the scale.

To achieve this I had to bail out about 1 litre of water from the reservoir and add 1 litre of tap water and we got there in the end.

So in went my tomato plants that I had potted up. Yes the whole plant soil and all went through the little hole to sit on the membrane and thats it. I have to check the reservoir to make sure it doesn't drop below the pump. Pump it out every 3-4 weeks and refresh the water going through the same PH checks. But being in a nardwater area I have to do regular PH checks.

The photo above and below was taken after just 2 days, you can see the roots stretching out to the membrane.

Its quite odd not going down all the time to water.

The photo above and below are on day 5. The roots are really going for it. I find it a bit creepy but fascinating as well.

The plants themselves are looking really good.

I have to rig up something called a 'yoyo' which is a string support for the plants. I will keep you posted on how my new hydroponics system goes and how the tomatoes grow.
Lots more to come as the great big plant out begins for me.

Frost fried plants!!

It was just as well I protected my plants earlier this week, but as you will see from the following pics, I probably didn't protect them enough!!

This was the sight that greeted us early Tuesday morning, a -2.3C frost and what has caused most of the damage.
We had another lighter frost last night 0C

The tree ferns are a bit brown round the edges.

Both the Paulowina have been hit even though they were double bagged!!

I learnt many years ago when I first got these never to rub of the growing points until I am sure all frost has passed. hence all the growth points, as you can see some are ok and some are not!

Random buckets and tubs used for frost protection, fortuately my neighbours are quite used to seeing me dashing madly around the garden late at night because a frost is due.

As you can see Lobelia Tupa (left), Canna Cleopatra (middle) and a dahlia (right) have come through unscathed, but  had to dispatch a number of  unwanted baby slugs that had also taken shelter under the boxes.

The Cyphomandra corymbifolia has survived just, I think, we will see over the next few weeks. This was wrapped and bagged.

Good old 'Colocasia Pink China' only had a fleece sheet over it and seems fine.

Solanum laciniatum, wrapped in fleece is looking a bit brown!!

Canna Stutgard, has survived.

This TRex had a very large plastic plant pot over it and seems to have come through unscathed.

Whereas this one, further down the garden and double bagged has been 'fried' for the 2nd time this year!

The Gunnera had a whopping great tarpaulin over it and still got caught.

My Washingtonia filifera and Cyathea only covered by a tarpaulin came through fine. 

I must admit it is not often, we get such a heavy frost at this time of year. This is one of the challenges I have when I choose to grow these different types of plants!!

Lets hope the weather improves and all the plants I have waiting in my greenhouse will at long last be able to come out.