The Big Winter Clean Up

The Big Winter clean up has been going on for a few weeks now; I've just about stripped the balcony of all the plants I have been growing. My handy new Secateurs and Pruning Knife have been put to some good use, during this time.

The first to go was the Baby Sweetcorn stalks; these did get pulled out as soon as the Sweetcorn was picked. Moneymaker and Gardeners Delight Tomato plants, which were starting to look a bit on the dead side, along with the Courgette plants were next, I only ever got one Courgette in the end, but next year I'll hopefully get a better crop. After that went the Aubergine plants, now they did flower a lot but much to my disappointment, no much else, like the Courgettes I will have another go next year.

                                                          Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: Oct 2011

Other things done during the clean up included, repotting the Strawberry Runners which are now snug in the Mini Greenhouse and also potting up the Serrano Chili plant and Pepper (sweet) plant that I had in a shared tub hanging over the balcony, hopefully once it gets colder I can take these indoors and try to keep these for next year. The Pepper (Sweet) plants still have peppers on, which are just starting to turn red.

And last but not least the Mini Greenhouse has also gone up and it's now outside, not only does it contain the potted Strawberry Runners, but I've also potted up some Cabbage and Carrot seeds. The whole place has had a bit of a clean and alls I have to do now is cover up the Strawberry hanging baskets and a few of the other plants with fleece and we are ready for the snow, that’s if we get any this winter.

More Harvesting

Its been a busy time for 'The Little Balcony', I've been harvesting even more vegetables including both Gardeners Delight and Moneymaker Tomatoes, Red Chilies including Inferno and Thai Dragon and all the Baby Sweetcorn, which I may have left a little too late to pick as the kernels are very hard, but I may just try to make popcorn out of this, if not the birds will be getting a treat.

                                                          Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: Sept 2011

These plenty more Tomatoes currently rippening away outside, which I'll be turning into a great sauce to store away and use over the winter months, as well as some great chutney and I have a great recipe for chili jam which I'll be using the Chilies for.

Of course all the recipes will be in the cook book.

Baby Sweetcorn Buds

Having just been out to check on the vegetables tonight and to give them a good water, I've just noticed the Baby Sweetcorn is finally starting to come through. So far these around three buds growing, one on each Sweetcorn plant.

                                                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: July 2011

New to Baby Sweetcorn Growing

When I mentioned to a friend I was growing corn, they seemed to think it would be impossible, now I did explain this was actually Baby Sweetcorn not your normal Corn on the Cob type, but they still seemed to have the opinion that it wouldn't grow as we don't get enough sun in England.

As like most of my seeds, the Baby Sweetcorn started off growing in the propagator in early February and once they grew to a suitable handling size, they were then, replanted in small pots and left to grow to around 10cms. These were then hardened off, planted and well watered into a larger pot on the Balcony.

As the months went by out of the five plants originally grown, only three survived, at first they needed a little support, so green garden sticks were carefully and loosely tired to the plants, but later were not needed, as the larger they became the less they needed this.

 

                                                                                   Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2011

Not knowing really how to care for Baby Sweetcorn, I've treated them the same as my tomato plants and watered as much as possible, everyday if not every other day and also fed these with tomato feed every 10-14 days. So far so good as they've continued to grow and thinking they'd never produce any vegetables at all, after checking the top inside leaves last weekend, you can now see the corn developing.