Tomatoes, Runners, Garlic and Chilli update

Yesterday and today I had the joy of cooking a meal using several veg harvested from our own garden - fabulous.

Here's a photo update:

Summer flowers, broccoli and carrots

Aren't they lovely? All these in the picture have been given to me as cuttings or seeds by my Mum. Looking forward to harvesting some seeds from the marigolds, they are such a lovely cheerful colour.





Really glad I didn't rush to put these purple sprouting brocs in the ground in May. I repotted them in slightly larger pots and waited, as the packet states. They're going in the ground in the next couple of days.



Carrots - love them and so easy to grow, especially in large pots. This is the first wave and all doing nicely. The netting is to keep off unwanted, nosey hens!

Garlic, Spring Onions, Pumpkins, Runner Beans ...

... all coming along really well. Have picked lots and lots of peas (the more you pick the more you get) and have started picking runners too now.


These are the type that wind themselves round the bamboo poles right to the top (and now wanting to go higher) - lovely red flowers. The dwarf variety are at the front of the poles and have pretty pink flowers.



I've harvested all the garlic now. I wasn't too sure when to actually start taking them out of the ground; the book stated when the stalks start to yellow and begin to bend over. They certainly were going yellow, but not really bending. The reason I pulled them was that a few I did pull had mildew on them and definitely weren't healthy. Once the sun came out for a prolonged period I decided to dig up the rest. Have a huge crop with just a small amount of dud ones. This fabulous hot weather has been brilliant for helping them dry out (on a garden bench); they're now hanging in an equally hot spot in the conservatory kitchen to finish off the process.



Spring Onions in the pot and in the ground have grown so fast this year and are all more-or-less ready for use. Have noticed a bit of "rust" on a few and the cats seem to enjoy laying on them too!



I can certainly vouch for whoever said to grow pumpkins in last years compost (Monty Don I think) - they're going berzerk! Under all those lovely large leaves there's alot of gorgeous flowers and alot of mini pumpkins beginning their new lives. Hopefully we'll be able to get at least two out of that lot for Halloween.

Potatoes

Strangely the four bags of free Potato Council potatoes never made it to the flowering stage. It seems we were not alone! Having received a (late) email from them saying it was time to harvest, we went ahead and empty two of the bags. Unfortunately, we won't be able to take part in the big weigh-in competition as the labels had come off making it impossible to distinguish beetween the two different varieties.



So contents of two bags and one small pot which contained a home sprouted spud from the cupboard. Not bad - will do for a couple of family meals. Just love new potatoes. The other two bags will be harvested in due course as we had just bought a whole load a new pots from the supermarket - typical!