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The Grow Dome blog is merging with its parent, Fluffius Muppetus, in a new home:

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The new site is a home for all of Emma's gardening activities - the blog, the Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast and Emma's articles.

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Aubergines

The aubergines were badly in need of potting on - so I've put all 3 in a big pot with a dwarf marigold for a companion.

Tomatoes, peppers & pepinos

I've been potting on in the grow dome today. The last two Gartenperle tomatoes (the others went outside in windowboxes) have been given a large pot and a dwarf marigold companion.

The three pepinos are also rooming together, with another marigold (they're good for attracting beneficial insects and repelling pests).

I have 6 peppers - 3 'Sweet banana' and 3 just called 'long red' because they were saved from a supermarket pepper (not by me, they came my way in a seed swap). I'm interested to see what happens with those, because when you save seeds from unknown varieties you're risking growing one which won't thrive in your climate. Worse still, it's parents were almost certainly F1 hybrids, so the chances are high that your fruits won't be like the originals. On the plus side, you might get something better....

Build day: 15

It's really too hot to work inside a greenhouse at the moment, but yesterday we managed to do a bit more work on the door. Now all we have to do is fit two more glazing panels and the external structure is pretty much done.



This little fella seems to like it the way it is.

Bean factory

The Scott's beans have started to produce the first baby beans. They're also home to some of the tiny baby spiders which are living in the grow dome.

Self-watering trays

On Saturday I remembered that I own several self-watering trays, so I dug them out and set them up in the grow dome. Lots of plants are now much happier as a result. Peppers, aubergines, pepinos, watermelons and dragon fruit are living it up in the picture above.



The larger tray is home to tomatoes, marigolds, a half pint pea and two pots of tiger nuts.

More beanz and peppers

Last year I went mad and sowed more than 50 pepper seedlings. This year I was slightly more controlled, and then half of them didn't germinate. But I've got enough - 3 sweet banana and 3 long red. Both sets of seeds were from a seed swap and the 'long red' were saved from a supermarket pepper (apparently) which was likely to be a hybrid and so the results should be interesting. I've also got 3 pepino seedlings. All of these have been potted on today.



I've also potted up the rest of my beans - climbing French beans Barlotta di Fuoco which I bought because they're supposed to do well in a long hot summer (unlike the ones I had last year) and Hestia dwarf runner beans.



I didn't get the hang of these last year - they flopped all over the place and didn't come to anything. I'm not sure whether they're supposed to need support (you can't tell from the pictures in the catalogue) but mine are currently looking like nice strong plants.

Both these sets of beans will be staying in the grow dome with the dwarf French beans as I don't trust the weather. I can always move them outside at a later date.