Day SIXTEEN

With the garden beginning to gain a little height it was time to guide & train the snow peas, tomatoes and Lebanese cucumbers. With some thin stakes and malleable wire, I fed the wire over the stakes that met the garden bed then pokes the snow peas that were beginning to crawl along the top of the garden bed to the wire.

Snow peas starting to climb

The tomatoes and Lebanese cucumbers will be secured to the mesh, so they do not topple over when they begin to bear fruit, I began to see flowers on the Lebanese cucumbers but have been snipping them off for two reasons.

1. They are barely have grown an inch since they were seedlings and

2. I had not planted any flowers which wouldn’t have attracted bees therefore not pollenating the flowers on the vegetables which wouldn’t have had the necessary fertilisation that allows the flowers to develop to a fruit or vegetable.

Lebanese cucumber and tomato plant stability

With my issues surrounding bugs and pollination I purchased lavender and marigolds.

Lavendar – a natural pest control whilst attracting bees and hoverflies. The best lavender is (Lavandula angustifolia) AKA English Lavendar. The benefits are this strain doesn’t take over the garden bed and can actually be used in cooking.

Marigolds – an organic pest control but attracting pollinators. Warns off nematodes what is a worm that can feed on the roots of the fruits and vegetables. They also create an attractive aesthetic when the garden is predominantly green (if you are lucky).