In the garden

A productive time in the garden, I'm so glad that I did make the effort to grow things this year, not knowing if we would still be at this house or moved. (more on the renovation project in another post soon)

In the greenhouse - tomatoes, both tiny and huge beef ones

and cucumbers …...

…. lots of basil. I can feel lots of greek salads coming our way!

The crab apples are nearly ready - so soon lovely crab apple jelly.

 

Lots of damsons and Victoria plums too. I have frozen lots of plums for crumbles and pies for later in the year.

There are also loads and loads of blackberries in the hedge rows again this year, so my dog walking routes will be visiting all the good picking spots!

 and more figs on my little fig tree!!!!

 The vegetable garden is still productive, with runner beans and french beans, 

 and the butternut squash are really thriving - this one looks like an over grown courgette, but it is actually around 30cm long and about 15 cm across. I hope they all have time to ripen into that lovely buttery colour so they will store - if the weather forecast is correct we may still have some warm weather so that should help.

 I love being able to walk out into the garden and pick veg for us to eat.

Summer garden tour

I was very undecided about what to do with the garden this year. Should I plant vegetables or not? as we are still all up in the air with the new house renovation project, not knowing if we would be here or moved. As it is we are still here in our little cottage in the country. In the end I decided that I would plant seeds - so now everything is a little late - but is catching up with all this beautiful weather we have been having. So this is a little tour of the garden….

 The veg plot first, we have runner beans just coming into flower…..

…… french beans, just about ready to pick (you can just see one peaking at the bottom of the photo)...

 

…… butternut squash, just flowering so I'm hoping they will fruit.

 In the greenhouse we have cucumbers……..

…… lots of big beef tomatoes. I grew these last year and they were so good to eat. I have also planted lots of herbs and some purple sprouting broccoli seeds and leeks.

 

My fig tree, a present for my birthday last year, is now outside and is really enjoying the sunshine...

 

look, just one of many figs!!

 I didn't grow any bedding plants from seed, but bought some as bedding plants this year, so the baskets and pots around the house are all very similar looking.

 I love the blues and whites as they are so vibrant around dusk when they show up really well.

I'm glad I did made the effort, as it would have been so bare without the bright flowers, and it's so good to be able to pick fresh veg from the garden. 

Fresh from the garden...

Supper from the garden.....

 ....... and the hedgerow!

Any new recipes for courgettes welcome - this year we have a bumper crop. The hedgerows are overflowing with blackberries, so lots of crumbles and jam this year. Yum.