Sorry not to add anything for a while but we’ve had a holiday - always a dangerous thing being away from the garden for a few days at this time of the year of course. What happened - well perfect growing weather of course - showers and sun. So the weeds have gone berserk along with everything else. This is just a short status report - more later….

Status now - the broad beans are over and need pulling up, and the lettuce is coming to an end (and I still haven’t planted more lettuce seed). That’s the things that don’t need a lot of work - on the production side - the runner beans are still in full production (I picked and froze a couple of pounds just before going away) also the climbing french beans (lots frozen also). The mangetout peas are also still producing (again some in the freezer) and the turnips are ready, though we haven’t eaten any yet. The sweetcorn aren’t too far from being ready, the ’silks’ are going brown now. More courgettes (some still in the fridge from before the hols, though only a few on the plants now). The blackcurrants have almost all been picked (they are in the freezer).

However, the next big production crisis looms - the tomatoes. Thye have just started ripening seriously, we’ve eaten about a dozen since getting back. There are dozens threatening to ripen now, so it won’t take much to overwhelm our salad eating so the recipe books will be studied in the next few days I think for tomato rich recipes.

On top of that the brambles need picking…..

On a positive note the rain and my drip watering system (powered from rainwater butts) meant that the peppers and tomatoes both inside and outside the greenhouse didn’t dry out so a good result there.

Needless to say the grass also needs cutting and the hedges - well what do I need to say.

Courgettes are another problem - we did get rid of some of the backlog this evening in a courgette omelette but more are ready…..

The next glut is going to be tomatoes - there are lots and lots - all green yet but I have that feeling they are all going to ripen at once - so we’ll have to dust off the tomato recipes I think. Still we do like pasta dishes and they can consume quite a lot of toms.

The guinea pigs are consuming some of the salad leaves but we aren’t really keeping up with the growth on that front either. AND - I must confess i haven’t planted any more lettuce yet - but I will - honest   just need that spare time….

The sweetcorn is looking rather fine now and the cobs look as if they are fattening up nicely on at least some of the plants.

Sweetcorn

On the fruit front, my son and I had to tackle the blackcurrants today - one and a half pounds (800gms) off three bushes (two more to go). It prompted my wife to use up some of the frozen ones from some year in the past today! Quite what we will do with this years harvest isn’t yet decided - we have made ice cream, coulis and pies in the past so we’ll see - maybe just the freezer for now. Not only blackcurrants are ready but the brambles (blackberries to you folk not from the North) are just about ready for harvesting - and we have lots in the hedges. Now they go into bramble and apple pies of course (well some of them - we still have lots in the freezer).

On the wildlife front - cabbage whit butterflies have been laying eggs like mad on the nastertiums so it won’t be long before they are covered in caterpillars - good job I’m not growing any brassicas this year! Butterflies of any other variey have been noticeably scarce this year -though I did see a peacock on the buddleia yesterday. Rather curiously I’ve seen the hedgehog wandering off down the garden early in the evening a couple of days last week - very unusual in daylight - a mother looking for food for youngsters? A squirrel made an appearance as well - but we are ready…..

I have at least tackled some of the hedges during the last few days, and I cut the lawn last week….

Since I’ve been concentrating on our produce I haven’t been mentioning some of the other issues so I thought would just make a few comments.

Firstly, the blackfly attack on the beans seems to have petered out - I haven’t pinched out all the broad beans and many plants are untouched. The few plants that were affected and I had to take the tops off and/or rub out blackfly on the pods seem to have recovered. There were a few on the runners at one point but they seem to have essentially disappeared. So that’s all quite good.

I’m still harvesting broad beans but they will all need shelling now for cooking I think - there are still lots left as well. I suspect my son is going to get pleny of shelling practice!

The french beans grown in a pot in the greenhouse seem to have finished really, they aren’t producing many flowers after teh harvest - but I’ll leave them for a while just in case. The bush french beans outside are more or less at the end of harvesting, but the climbing ones are just getting into full production.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the sweetcorn is quite variable in height with the ones nearer the hedge being the smallest - not sure whether this is a result of dryer soil or shading I’m not sure - we’ll just have to see what ind of cobs the smaller ones produce.

For some reason all the newer salad clops don’t include lettuce, I’ll try and plant some more but I think there will be a hiatus - although the current lettuce crops aren’t bolting much yet so should last a week or two more. Rocket and other salad leaves are now harvest-able from inside the greenhouse - but the outside ones aren’t so good yet.

The peppers in the greenhouse seem less well developed than in previous years, though they are flowering now - but not as tall as I would expect at this stage. Still we’ll see.

Although the last courgette planted outside has finally started to produce a crop (thus adding to the glut…) - the one in the greenhouse is still producing male flowers only - why?

The weeds are really looking good now around the beans and sweetcorn - I really must have a weeding session I suppose - however the hedges and lawn are higher in the queue, plus the blackcurrants are almost ready- that’s an entire family picking session - then coolie or blackcurrant ice-cream - yum.

Anyway, another dry day so I had to use the hosepipe tonight, and give all the tomato plants a feed - and it looks like another sunny day tomorrow - it’s beginning to feel like summer at last…..

Yes harvesting is in full swing now. We are eating runner, french and broad beans plus courgettes and for the last couple of days - mangetout peas.  The climbing french beans are now producing, just as the bush plants are beginning to come to an end.

Our salad bowl is full with lettuce (of several varieties), nastertium and recently some of the salad leaves planted in pots in the greenhouse. See picture below for a typical harvest:

My wife has just about managed to keep up with the courgette crop, we’ve had a couple of lasagnas filled with fried courgette during the last week - and very nice they have been.

It won’t be long before the tomato plants are producing ripe tomatoes - see pic below:

Immature Tomatoes

So I guess we’ll be looking at a few tomato recipes in a couple of weeks……

We’ve had dry weather for a few days now, and it looks like being dry for the rest of the week - so watering is now becoming quite a chore - particularly going round all the growbags.

The sweetcorn is just coming into flower - but there is quite a wide disparity in the size of plants, however all of them seem to be at about the same stage. See a typical plant below:

Flowering Sweetcorn

On top of all that - the blackcurrants are not far from being ripe:

Blackcurrants

 Along with all the crops, the weeds are growing apace - I’ve even pulled a few up - but finding the time to have a big weeding session is proving difficult, so the crop plants will just have to compete for now.

On the wildlife front a curious development the other day - I spotted a hedgehog near the back of the house in the morning around 9 am wandering backwards an forwards along the hedge bottom - usually carrying some leaves and twigs on its way back towards the house. Now, seeing a hedgehog walk about in the day is fairly unusual, but this went on for at least an hour - I even managed to video some of its activity. My theory is that is is a female and was building a nest to give birth. I haven’t delved about to check, and it hasn’t been seen since so we’ll see….

On top of that - the blakbird has been building yet another nest - somewhere at the bottom of the garden now! It’s beginning to smack of OCB.

And I haven’t got round to cutting the hedges again yet - even though they need it- been busy with a shed…..

Well yes - though I’m not really complaining - but of course everything is now ready to harvest at once. So I am harvesting broad beans, french beans and courgettes. However, these are still not overwhelming the cooking ability of my wife - though we currently have four courgettes in the fridge waiting for the next meal. An example of typical harvest shown below: Tonight we had fresh courgette, broad beans (with their shells removed - my son is now an expert at the task) and french beans all lightly fried up with garlic and served with pasta and pesto - yum!

Yes this could become a cookery column as well… I harvested loads of broad beans over the last few days. Some on Sunday and others on Monday (see pic below).

 
Broad Bean Harvest

We had the Sunday ones in a stir-fry with some french beans and several courgettes from the garden (plus other stuff of course). The ones on Monday were treated rather differently. I had found a recipe in a Sophie Grigson book for broad bean and prawn pilau - but this meant shelling all the beans after blanching them, which took a while for about 12oz of beans (with the help of my son), see pic below.

 
Shelled Broad Beans (and their shells)

It was so successful that we may cook it again soon (only this time with chicken and probably courgette) - very easy to do as well. Also, it helps use the broad beans which are almost all ready to eat - I can see a freezing session coming on….

What else, well I actually did some weeding - and the weather again has saved me the effort of watering. Tomorrow looks like being a very wet day as well - such is the British summer….

I have spotted some tiny tomatoes already on some plants as well.

Of course the intermittant raiy days and sun have kept things growing well and now harvesting is in full swing. We’re having lettuce most evenings - but hardly making a dent on the crop - I just cut a selection of leaves plus some of the older ones for the guinea pigs - but you’d hardly know. They’ll be ‘bolting’ next of course…then only the guinea pigs will benefit. Still there are some seedlings coming up as well.

The courgettes are in full production we’re going to have to start being inventive over usingthem. I think my wife was considering a ‘mixed veg’ quiche or omelette over the weekend to take care of some of the production - if only she could see the rate they are coming on (not a part of the garden she visits too often though….). On top of that the broad beans are in full production (we did have a few in our salad tonight). The french beans in the greenhouse have enough ready to use in a meal as well and the ones outside aren’t far behind.

The runner beans are flowering like mad and I can see small proto-beans already - the climbing french beans are in flower as well but a bit behind the runners. The tomatoes are flowering everywhere but their production is a few weeks away.

Tomatoes outside greenhouse

All the salad crops both inside the greenhouse and outside are growing well now - even a row of Kohl Rabi planted as an experiment seem to be coming on. The peas are just starting to flower and almost all have now got the idea that they should be climbing up the twigs.

The pea rows - just about finding the twigs

The weeds of course are also growing well and I’ve even managed to pull some of them up but most of my time over the last few days has been spent on dealing with an overgrown bush, the lawn and other clearing up jobs in the garden.

Meanwhile the hedges at the front and other bits at the back are just about ready for cutting again. That’s the trouble with the plant world in summer - they will keep growing - especially the ones you would rather they didn’t.

Yes that windy day left its mark - when I got down to the bottom of the garden yesterday I thought ‘that’s funny there’s a lot more greenery now’ - and there was - it was one of the lilac trees which had decided that lying down was better than standing up! So I had to spend a while yesterday and today cutting and sawing branches - and creating a large pile of bits. Now they will have to stay in a pile until autumn as there is nowhere to hold a bonfire in the garden at the moment, and there is the equivalent of several of our organic recycling bins full - which is full of hedge cuttings right now anyway - and I have other piles waiting to go in….

On top of that today I had to move 52 paving slabs from the front, where they had been delivered, to the back -  some of them are going to go under the shed, and others to be laid as paths in the veg beds.

So, not much actual gardening was done - mind I did put some plants (impatiens and petunias) into the front garden while waiting for the delivery. I did sort of weed a bit in the vegetable patches, but as the photos will attest, weedng is not my forte - I tend to leave it until I really have to do something about it, so my garden won’t ever be a ‘tidy’ garden.

One point has been running through my mind - I saw an article on another garden blog (sorry can’t remember which one) asking why we as gardeners grow veg that we don’t necessarily like. I was trying to think of examples in my case - but can’t really think of any. On the other hand growing too much of something - now that’s a different matter. We’ve still got runner beans in the freezer from several years ago and yet I have more growing now….. Hmmm - yes I know it’s better fresh, but runner beans in particular always seem to be in excess.

Yes, another variation on ’summer’ the weather - we have gale force winds today (a deep low pressure over the UK) but at least it isn’t raining - here (heavy rain in Scotland). I’ve already had a close look at the runner bean support which are looking a bit under threat. It’s a good job the runner beans aren’t more developed so at least at the moment the wind can blow through the support netting. The trees around the garden are waving like mad at the moment. We had rain yesterday, but light rain all day so good for the garden really. Heyup though - this the summer solstice and all that…..

Elsewhere, in the garden things are moving on. Tomatoes are flowering in the greenhouse, and close to flowering outside. The coourgettes are producing - we had three yesterday - one curious point though, the courgette in the greenhouse is only producing ‘male’ flowers - I’m sure there must be a reason for this….

Courgette Row in full flower
The french beans in the greenhouse have some baby beans already, and the ones outside can’t be far behind as they are flowering like mad.
I think there are enough broad beans ready now to harvest - they should be small and sweet as well, they do tend to be at their best when young. The blackfly menace hasn’t spread too much, I’ve had to cut off some badly affected stems but most plants are relatively unaffected. I haven’t had to resort to blasting them off with the hosepipe yet - pity that’s quite enjoyable…

Young Broad Bean Pods

The lettuce I planted in a pot in the greenhouse are finished now and I have resown the pot with more lettuce seed, so we are harvesting the lettuce outside now.

One disaster has struck though, I was watering section B the other night where the peas are planted (coming on nicely) and I planted other salad seed a few days ago - I thought ‘I will make sure I give the spinach-beet row (the only survivor of the first salad planting session and growing nicely) a good watering’ - and the more I looked the more they weren’t there! Except on close inspection the base of the leaves could be seen - they had been zapped by pigeons I suspect despite the protection. Very annoying - security has now been tightened over that section, especially as new salad crops are coming through just now. My annoyance was slightly reduced that day when I heard that Yorkshire had beaten Lancashire in the 20-20 cricket. Such victories are always worth savouring…..

I’ve also planted some other salad cops in pots to grow int he greenhouse - from salad ’seed collection’. Some Mizuna, which I don’t think I’ve grown before and some ‘land cress’, also new to me.

As for wildlife, a week ago or so I noticed the female blackbird was collecting nesting material again, but flying off to the other side of the garden from the ‘cat’ side - very wise I think. There always seems to be at least one house sparrow collecting for a nest as well. The great tits have suddenly started feeding on the peanuts again as well after ignoring them for a while. Toads have taken up residence in growing bags in the greenhouse and outside as usual - they get very upset every time I water. Oh - and I caught and evicted the squirrel so we are squirrel free for the moment.

Elsewhere in the garden, the apples and pears are coming on and it looks like a good blackcurrant crop this year. I’ve managed to tackle more of the hedges, though there is still more to do of course - bit like the Forth Bridge painting really. Preparing for a shed to go up (in the garden near the house) has meant removing the roots of a large forsythia bush and a mahonia - I’ve got most of it out but it has been a fair struggle but the ground is almost ready to be levelled off now.

Baby Apples (Lord Lambourn)

We have got some flowers growing in the garden as well, mostly perennials but some annuals this year as my son planted a pack of ‘flower seeds for kids’ a while ago and he has kept the patch watered well - and now the mixture has started flowering - I even managed to cut the hedge above the plants without damaging them - so they brighten up he garden.

Well the weather has stayed relatively dry, so I managed to get a few jobs done in the garden yesterday. The main achievement was to finally get some more seeds planted - so I now have rows of rocket (2 rows from different packets), carrot (different variety from the previous planting), pak choi and mixed salad. They are all in section B - more or less where the original rows were planted. Hopefully this lot won’t get eaten by pigeons as the protection is there now.

I’ve also had to take off the tops of half-a -dozen broad bean plants as they were infested with blackfly, but so far only one plant seems to have blackfly on the main part of the plant. I rubbed off as many of the blackfly as I could on that one -I may have to resort to the water spray method if the blackfly spread much more. I’ll need to take the tops off most of them over the next few days I suspect.

Today, I harvested four small courgettes for use in a stir-fry so the courgette glut has started… Broad beans are only a few days away from being harvested at the stage where the pod and beans can be cooked so production is beginning. I noticed that some of the tomato plants have flower buds now as well. Lets hope the weather stays reasonable for the next week or so to help things along.