Lettuces have been very successful this year.
GARDENINGWHAT a difference a month makes.
My daughter, Roseanna, took the first pic on May 25 after her sister, Bella, planted 32 lettuces — one of which was sampled live on air on IW Radio just a couple of days ago.
The second was snapped a month later, showing the inter-cropped lettuces swamped by the tomatos and starting to run to seed.
The lettuces, All-Year-Round and Cos, have been so successful and so tender-leafed that Bella has taken to munching them as a bedtime treat.
Sadly, she’s now too old for Peter Rabbit, but I’m sure that the idea of soporific effect probably comes from younger bedtime tales.
On the other side of the greenhouse, the first sweet Japanese cucumbers have cropped and will continue until the dog days of summer.
They really are one of the best value greenhouse crops.
Cucumbers remain dear in the shops whatever the season and the taste never comes close.
I returned this year to Natsuhikari and was mighty pleased to do so.
The hybrid variety is highly resistant to heat (jolly useful in my greenhouse) and disease too.
Fruits are 12 ins long, very low spined and with dark green skin. The plant grows vigorously and has many branches, producing lots of cucumbers for a long time.