Brides and Beans

So it seems that younger brother and me have ongoing blogs about beans; obviously his doesn't hold the excitement of weddings on the side! Older brother has asked to incorporate his growing experiences but has been rejected on the grounds of not having the seeds to grow in the first place! I don't see any reason for him to submit plant photos and updates onto my blog as growing tomatoes in Japan could be considered interesting to some.

The beans are doing brilliantly; in fact everything is doing brilliantly now they are happy in their new greenhouse. The greenhouse took the beloved and I approximately eight to ten hours to build over four days but we did it without smashing a single pain of completely and utterly untoughened glass. I was chief in charge of rubber strips (ooer) and he was chief glass pane installer - it worked well and I feel very chuffed with myself given that I'm admittedly not that DIY inclined. It now sits on our lower deck in a lovely south-west facing spot and still allows us to be able to sit on the deck enjoying our sundowners (never had one but sounded good in this context) as the sun drops below the caretakers house at the bottom of the garden!

So all the seedlings both flowers and vegetables are doing well; so far the following veggies are in there, waiting to be planted out:

Both sets of trial climbing french beans

Spaghetti squash

Pink banana pumpkin

Plum tomato (san marzano)

Beef tomatoe (costoluto fiorentino)
Dangling cherry tomato (gartenperle)

Aubergine (moneymaker)

Sweet pepper (golden bell)

Kale (red bor)

A random brussels sprout (I think noisette but can't be sure until it grows to full size

Beetroot in guttering (chioggia)

Chilli peppers (Chayenne, Apache and something else)

Flowers doing their stuff include:

Zinnia (green envy)

Cosmos (purity)

Scabiosa (dwf QIS mix)

Centaurea (black boy and frosty mix)

Amaranthus (dwf pygmy something)

Ammi major (queen of africa)

Marigold (crackerjack)

Briza maxima

Nigella hispanica (struggling to survive at the moment)

Lots more to come but I wanted to see how the first batch faired especially the toms and other 'hot climate' veggies/fruit (depending on which camp you sit) although given the lovely sunshine we're currently having, I think they will thrive. Fingers crossed for that elusive successful tomato year! Waiting in the wings are my courgettes (tromboncinos) and cucumber (marketmore) plus some yellow beam pear cherry tomatoes and some corno di toro rosso peppers. These peppers are my 2008 garden extraordinary phenomenon - i planted three seeds and five have grown...if only money worked in that way!!