By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Weeding and watering are starting to get a bit boring now, in the South-East of England at the end of May 2011, seeing that we have been at it ever since March of this year.
But we also know that we have to keep it up, especially the watering, or we'll have no vegetables later but it can really start to get you down after a while.
Weeding too, obviously, is a necessary task so that the weed do not compete for the veg for water and nutrients, but it is less of importance than is watering in this time of drought and a drought it, officially, is by now.
Mind you, on the morning of Sunday, May 22, we woke to some dampness on the ground and even a little standing water here and there on the hard surfaces but it is nothing in way of what really is needed.
The trouble is that tap water, while fine for us for drinking, somehow only just about keeps the plants alive; a discovery that I shared with the readers before. Rain water, on the other hand, especially in the form of rain, immediately makes everything perk up and get going and growing.
Now I have also have to consider planting a couple of tomato plants that I have got – bought (I cheated, as those i tried growing from seed - a new variety – did not do much at all) – into grow bags.
The problem with using grow bags, however, is that they dry out quickly and thus there will be need for even more watering and being in a bag that, to a great degree, remains closed rain does not get to the plants easily either.
However, this year I have a few things here to trial for review. One of them is a set of three GrowPots (from Garden Innovations via Lakeland) and the other being the GrowTube, a watering system for grow bags that employs a 2liter soda bottle, (also from Lakeland).
Tomatoes, like potatoes, like to be fed, and that quite a good deal. You can use Tomarite or Tomato Food from Chempak which was voted Best Buy Tomato Food in May 2010 by the Which? Magazine.
I am also using the Vegetable Fertilizer from Chempak and must say that my potatoes, which are one of the primary recipients of this fertilizer under review, are doing very well with its help.
© 2011
