Ripening toms

On the kitchen window sill

It’s kind of indicative of the summer – and the August we’ve had.

They aren’t getting enough sun out there on their vines.

So George picks them off to give them a chance to ripen here on the window.

I don’t know if lack of sun and heat has an effect on whats inside the skins also

but i found the taste of these toms slightly bland

They don’t burst into your mouth with sunshine.

Hello, Green Willy

And i haven’t finished yet.

Down in the bottom left corner of the patch this was happening

Courgette plants bursting out and bursting through the fence.

And when you looked underneath those leaves – tons of little penis’s growing!

They’re so insistent they wanted to push and poke at you

There’s going to be many many of these little fella’s bustin up and out

This one’s a bit on the small size. And not as sensitive obviously. But very firm.

And likely to be getting much bigger and firmer in the weeks to come.

Green hearts

And there was more to come.

What looked like a vegetable graveyard turned out to be a veritable treasure trove.

Loads of broad beans dying to be picked

Ok, some were going on the turn, blackening around their cases. But when you picked them out they looked like this

Look how green they are?! Fat little packets of green-ness.

Like green hearts.

It made me feel healthy just looking at that bowl of beans.

Greener equals gooder!

Unearthing goodies

In the process of rescuing the plot from those caterpillars i also unearthed lots of goodies

These potatoes seem to have grown from plants that we put back in. Don’t know if thats true or not, but it kept coming up potatoes everywhere i dug in that top right corner.

Yes, they look a tad pathetic these scraps; 2 half eaten cabbages prized out of the jaws of those monster munchers; 4 runner beans picked off the canes in the herb circle (but there’s more of them to come); and one solitary little onion that somehow survived and struggled up.

Only to be eaten! By us, like this

With sherried kidneys. And very nice too.

Slightly out of focus with this picture. But you get the picture. Think it was cus i was hungry to get stuck in!

Caterpillar Attack!

Look at these little bleeders

Crawled all over our veg patch. Bleeding the cabbages dry.

Already munched their way through the Brussels and Cauli’s.

Those poor Cauli’s. They were never gonna make it really.

And to think when we saw those Cabbage White Butterflies sweetly dancing over our veggies a few weeks back – little did we know the devastation they were laying and planting everywhere … thousands of eggs hatched into thousands of these creepy crawly caterpillars with teeth like razors, slicing and sawing…. on the backs of our brassica’s…. the tenacious little f—-rs…..

I must have picked off 5 million of them, squashing their slushy green insides between my fingers – then chuck!, over the hedge you go matey!….. I was lobbing them over like an Olympic shot-putter….. and slugs and snails were being lobbed and tossed over too…. Behind that hedge must be piled high with smashed up shells and slithery green blood….

Anyway. After de-caterpillaring, de-snailing, and de-slugging (and weeding too) the veg patch looked like it had no longer lost – but found, the plot again

And space now for replanting. If Georgi wants to.

Another garden update

Just been watching a vid i taped for George last Wednesday off BBC 2, “Grow your own veg“.

Funny time to show it cus we’re already in the middle of summer, but It’ll be a useful resource for next year’s garden i guess.

Seems like we got some things not quite right!

Could have dug the pots deeper. Could have planted the cauli’s firmer. Could have been mulching the runner beans with cardboard, etc etc.

Oh well. Things have still grown anyway. The pots haven’t had blight on them. We’re chuffed to monkeys at how much yield we’ve had out of them. (Georgi would eat a bowl of her spuds on their own I’m sure)

The runner beans might still make a late run for glory.

Loads of toms are on their way too.

George has cropped a nice bag full of calabrese into the freezer.

The cauli’s don’t look like they’ll amount to much. The curds are seperating like this

A firm round cauli is the test of a “proper” gardener (along with perfectly tipped asparagus spears)

Anyway, no need to get too pressured or precious about it. The “produce” is all great – but it’s not the only value the garden has.

So much to delight in.

Those pairs of white butterflies flutter-fluttering around the cabbages….. the dappled shade under the apple tree…. sun-hungry poppies waving in the bees….. bats blipping across the twilight….

And the great thing is, you always get another go to grow next year what didn’t quite make it this.

Asparagus here we come!

We’re gonna grow and grow.

Every damm thing!

Tingling the poppies

Georgi left poppies to grow round the rim of the veg patch.

Along comes this little darling

Tantalisingly humming and hovering above.

Just about to land

To tickle it’s way in.

Those little silver eggs underneath must be where the pollen is put.

Another bee was soon on the way (at one point there were 6 bees around these 3 poppies)

I made a little film with the digi too

Suck-singing tingling bees.

Spuds-u-love

A pot full of pots. Our very own.

There’s a kind of glee to digging up the plant and underneath are about 5,000 lovely spuds.

We ate them like this

With kale and green beans (they’re under the kale) from t’garden and creamy mushroomy chicken.

George loved those potatoes. They buttered in your mouth.

She saved hers till last.

Cauli’s are coming!

Georgi rang up excited – guess what?! – ” We’ve got a little cauliflower!!”

It doesn’t look like much, but to us it’s a little miracle!

We devoted the whole of row 6 to cauliflowers but they’ve been slow to grow. Maybe cus we didn’t plant them quite right (they like to be firmly bedded into compacted soil so that the roots can “take” – according to Georgi’s new Veggie Gardener book)

I’ve always been told that cauliflowers are buggers to grow – but if you can, that’s the sign you’re a proper gardener.

So we’ve got one tiny white head popped up so far.

We await the other little curds with bated breath.

Packed full of goodies

The veg patch packed and stuffed with goodies.

Needing to be tidied up. Hoeing and pulling of weeds; the picking off of slugs.

Then you lob them high over the hedge. The little buggers.

They don’t seem to bother with this purple kale. Spectacular isn’t it?

(George likes looking at it more than eating it i suspect!)

The calabrese has recovered. There’ll be enough for a meal soon.

You lob butter on it.