courgette flowers

The "take two" courgette plant seems OK in its sunnier spot and now that it has rained a couple of times. Am wondering about hand pollinating but it looks like these flowers are only males so I can't until some females show (with mini fruits behind them).

strawberries

1 strawberry seed (F1 Sarian) germinated and got as far as a mini plant still smaller than a fist (which has taken about 4 months!) whilst only 1 other grew but then died. The one survivor is in a seed tray with its lid on to keep it moist, I will keep trying with this one. I also cheated and bought a small local variety of strawberry plant from Homebase which is outside and has a few little green strawberries on it now, under netting in case of birds or animals. Not too bad for a small plant.

veg outside

So the cherry tomatoes and courgettes have been planted out. To
matoes in a growbag (unfortunately I didn't label them very well so now not sure which are sungold, keeping a newer plant indoors in case the others all turn out to be Gardener's Delight!) and courgette in a pot. I've got upside down drinking bottles of water and a small hole in the lid to try and keep the growbag moist (and that empty pot in the middle is to water through too.) I plan to put a marigold in the middle spot (decided this late hence marigold not ready yet) - I read that you can "companion plant" these with tomatoes to discourage greenflys/pests, also that 3 plants to one growbag is probably too many. The tomato plants are each in a pot of compost/soil on top of the growbag as I've read that a growbag isn't deep enough so this way they can grow more established roots, also I can feed at the top and water at the bottom because the top roots can absorb nutrients better.

I pinched out the little shoots today between the main ones to stop the plants becoming too leafy and hopefully produce more fruit. There are a couple of yellow flowers now.




The courgette initially looked quite healthy but has now wilted a lot. I think it might be the lack of rain as we are having very dry weather in the UK at the moment. I started watering it more often but I think it was too late. Possibly the spot isn't in the sun for long enough of the day too. I didn't bother "hardening off" the plant as advised so I think I will do this with a new plant from indoors to give it a better chance, maybe the other one didn't adjust to the cold nights well. The new one has flower buds now, hopefully it will stay healthy once it is out in the pot, perhaps moved to a sunnier spot.