Poor Growing Aubergines

Part of creating 'The Little Balcony', was that I wanted to grow vegetables I'd never tried before, so the Aubergine was one of these and I thought it would be a great challenge. I started these off at the same time as most of the other vegetables, but I did have some difficulty with them growing at first, so I placed glass jars (my homemade Cloches) over them during the coolers months of the first part of the year and this did help them to survive, but their growth was still very slow.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: July 2011

After months of watering and feeding, they start to grow steadily stronger and by July they were around 20cm tall and looking healthier every day. Finally after much waiting the first flower arrived which meant the vegetable would follow soon, but much to my disappointment, this did eventually die away and fall off the plant.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2011

Its now mid September and even thought there are more flowers appearing on all the plants (I have four), due to the cold nips of weather we are starting to get, I'm not holding out for any fruit this year. I have learned a lot from this experience and like my Courgettes, which so far has only produced one vegetable, I will be planting these again next year to see if I can grow them better.

Strawberries Over Winter

I've been a little puzzled about what to do with my Strawberry plants over the winter months, as most Strawberry plants have a life cycle of 3 to 4 years and as Strawberries are perennial plants, so will die back and re-grow the following year, I wondered if the harsh winters we have would effect them much. After a little research and some advice from the gardeners on the UK Veg Gardeners website, I've come up with a plan.

Last night I headed out onto the balcony and began to remove the netting and homemade brackets I made to hold the netting up, I then removed all the straw from inside the baskets, which has been protecting the Strawberries while they grow and I also started to cut off all the old withering or dead leaves. There were a few Strawberry runners still trying to establish from the mother plant, one of these was ready to be removed, which I did, but the other two still needs a little more time, so these have been left on.

As to what happens next, for now I've left the baskets hanging where they have been all summer, but once the weather starts to get a little colder, I'll remove these and place them in a sheltered place from the bitter wind and any snow we may get this winter.

One of the things I did read about is that Strawberry plants can also be covered with mulch (normally for ground plot based plants), straw or cloche's (poly tunnel, plastic or glass jars, fleece etc...) for a little added protection. As I have a lot of straw and I'm also planning on buying some cloche's for other delicate plants, I may also do this just to make sure they get through the winter safely.