New Shadehouse and Diary

14.12.2013

Harvesting seeds from dark blue Lobelia, planted some and Virginian stocks, in small pots.

18.12.2013. Created "new" shadehouse. You can see it on the right - it was purchased about ten years ago with a plastic cover - which finally shattered. It may have lasted that long because its early life was under a shady verandah. So we covered the back and one side with a sheet of wooden sticks (how do you describe that stuff?) and attached some shadecloth at the top.

You can see what the cover was originally like on our newer one on the left. We put shade cloth over the top of this one pretty quick. and have it where there is shade fairly early in the afternoon.

In between the two is our new growing-on area for advanced Hoyas that have not yet found a home.

Had pleasant lunch with a couple who garden-share with Italian neighbours, who grow all their tomatoes from seed. They are saying the same thing as us - the Grosse Lisse and Romas are not growing as well this year - especially the Grosse Lisse.  So since their plants definitely originated from a different source to ours, it has to be the season.

Picked and ate the first Cucumber (Lebanese) for the season. Reasonable sized Zucchinis are common.

19.12.2013
First 40 degree day - very hot. Just keeping seedlings and plants alive.

20.12.2013
Another 40 degree day. Not happy with the germination of lettuce seeds, went to put some more in, and found a warning on the back of the Lollo Rosso that they would not germinate in temperatures about 30 degrees. We may have the answer, and will try to germinate the next lot inside.