Last week I found a lovely community of garden bloggers. They share 6 photos from their gardens every Saturday, so I thought I’d join in this week. It will help me keep track of my garden more regularly as well as getting to virtually visit many other beautiful gardens around the world. Plus, I get to chat about gardening with other enthusiastic green thumbs.
The host is Jim from Garden Ruminations, and you can find everybody else in the comments of his latest Six On Saturday post. I hope you will enjoy discovering them too!
1. First Fruit Harvest – Strawberries!
The strawberries have finally started producing fruit. They were already blooming in their tiny nursery pots when I got them back in March, but I picked off those flowers to encourage more root and leaf growth and I guess that delayed the fruit setting until June.
I’ve only had one so far, so delicious, but there is currently a bunch blushing up nicely and a few more plants have already set flowers. They took about 2 weeks to go from the green state (left) to the red state (right) this morning.
I planted 6 different varieties, but only one of each. Once they start sending out runners I will be propogating them to increase my strawberry production capacity. I’m hoping to have a steady stream of berries coming in soon. I’m excited to taste them all!
2. A New Resident
Cant you spot my new garden buddy? He’s part of my pest control team. A volunteer no less!
It’s a tiny praying mantis! I first spotted him running up the wall while I was doing some tidying up on the terrace, then later, while moving things around, I spotted him right at my feet – so close to being squished!
He happily hopped onto my hand when offered and I put him onto my sage plant, the one that’s constatnly covered in tiny leaf hoppers. He’s remained there ever since. It’s been 4 days!
It’s a mutually beneficial relationship, I’ll get a better looking sage by him hunting the leaf hoppers and he gets to feast in a relatively safe environment. I’ve fashioned a tiny water station for him in the shade of the aubergine leaves. It’s a bottle cap with some rocks in it for perching.
We also seem to have soil that’s infested with fungus gnats, and he has been spotted down on the soil below a few times, so I hope he’s enjoying them too.
3. Tomatoes Incoming
My tomato plants are still in small 12cm pots, but a couple of them have already set fruit. Maybe I should have pinched them off, but I am too excited to taste these varieties, so I left them to grow.
The plants now look like they’re struggling a bit, they really need to be planted out into more soil at this point, but my large wooden raisead bed planters have not arrived yet. I’m just adding worm castings by the spoonful to try to increase nutrients without disrupting them too much. Apparently stressed tomato plants produce better tasting fruit, so maybe it’s not the worst thing?
4. Whimsical Tendrils
I find it fascinating how some plants send out these whimsical tendrils and manage to find a nearby bamboo stake or trellis to cling to. What mechanism are they using to sense which direction they need to grow? Nature is truly awesome.
5. Beautiful Basil
Of all the foliage in my garden at the moment, I must say that the Genovese Basil is the most beautiful. The colour is so vibrant and the leaves are so shiny. They are not just delicious, but absolutely stunning too. And I love that they are also so prolific, I’ve harvested more from my basil plants than any other so far. Using them to bulk up my salads for now. Yum!
6. New Month, New Leaf
I got a pothos cutting in March and it seems to be putting out a new leaf each month. It was just a single variegated leaf that I put it in a glass of water for a couple of weeks and then into soil. It definitely preferred the soil. It hadn’t shown any sign of growth in the water, but once in soil, it sprouted a new leaf very quickly.
Now we are in June and there is one leaf for each month it’s been in the pot. So fun to watch it grow and to see the variations in the mottled patterns.
It was interesting to observe how each new leaf sprouts and peels off from the stem of the previously sprouted leaf. It’s not sending up new growth from the root or soil, but kind of peeling off the stem of the youngest leaf. Fascinating!
I’m learning so much from simply observing the garden.
What is something interesting you learned from your garden?
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Wow, a praying mantis as pest control! That’s amazing. We have ladybirds here, but nothing quite as spectacular.
I like your trick with the little bags to keep the strawberries safe!
Thank you, Kathrin. I’m so happy that my little mantis buddy has decided to stay for a while. It’s been 5 days now, and it’s still on the sage plant! There are significantly fewer leaf hoppers on it now, so the mantis is definitely hunting them down. So cool!
As for the strawberry baggies, it’s a method I started using during lockdown, in my previous garden. We had all sorts of birds as well as spuirrels, so it was important to protect them if we wanted any berries for ourselves. It stops bugs from getting to them too! I do leave some for the wildlife though.
Wow, you have some impressive entries there! Nifty praying mantis! I was just mentioning on another garden blog how I’m jealous of the fresh, homegrown Strawberries! I grew them years ago in a sunnier garden, and I miss them. There’s nothing like picking the fresh fruits off the plant and popping them in for a healthy snack. Enjoy!
Great pest control. A lovely Six.
I love your garden photos. And it’s wonderful to have your beneficial garden helper! They’re always so helpful.
Your strawberries look so good! And clever way to protect them. I love that you have a relationship with your praying mantis. They are amazing creatures. Everything looks delicious and it’s always so satisfying to harvest the fruits of our labor. Enjoy! XO- MaryJo @Masterpieces of my Life