Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th June 2022 – A weekend at home….Yay!!

After the last couple of weekends being frantic, one with ringing for the Jubilee, and the other with a retirement party and collecting George from university, I finally had a weekend to myself and at home. Saturday morning was busy with shopping and getting pet supplies, the chickens eat so much. The afternoon was house chores and we had a BBQ in the evening which I managed to get it all cooked before it rained. There are 6 of us in the house at the moment so that’s a lot of food for a BBQ. Still the best thing about a BBQ is the left overs for the next couple of days.

Sunday, after morning ringing, I was out in the garden. I let the chicken out in their extended run and 6 out of the 7 decided to have a dustbath in exactly the same place. Now when I have a bath (not in dust but in water), I like to have a bit of space, but clearly they all love each other so much they want to squash together.

The heavy rain over night had watered the garden beautifully, but the outside tomatoes had been bent over a little. We had thunder and lightning as well, but I wear ear plugs and an eye mask in bed so didn’t see any lightning, but heard the first bit of rain and a slight rumble, but then went back to sleep. So the first thing I did when I got in the garden was to tie up the tomatoes inside the greenhouse and outside in the garden and side shoot the ones that needed doing.

Not all tomatoes need side shooting. If they’re a bush variety then don’t side shoot as that’s where the fruits grow from. If they are tall growing tomato plants then they do need side shooting. I know that some people plant the side shoots and get new plants, please feel free to do that if you like. If you’re growing your tomatoes in pots, and those pots are sitting