Thin the spin

Lots of self sown spinach seedlings have popped up and need thinning out a bit.

Sun Flowers

Costoluto Fiorentino

Harvested several kilos of these beauties with more to come. The plants are so vigorous that they grew over six feet tall and are still putting out new shoots.

Tabac

Autumn Collection

Turning point

The beefsteak tomatoes are finally turning red and ripening despite a lack of sunshine and a rather damp month. Autumn's in the air.

Ballerina Tutu

The name of this datura belies the toxicity of the tropane alkaloids contained within. The flowers don't last long and wilt quickly in full sun. This one lacked the strong moth-attracting perfume of the white one grown a few years ago (2011).

Amaized (?)

Harvesting daily cobs of juicy sweetcorn a little earlier in the year than usual, thanks to the near perfect weather conditions in July.

Winter hedge fund

Lots to harvest at the moment but also a good time to plan ahead for winter and plant out young kale plants, under netting to protect them from peckish pigeons.

A little squash

August Fayre

Echinacea Purpurea Alba

Sweet

Harvested the first couple of sweetcorn cobs and was eating one, smothered in butter, about an hour later. The recent storm had blown a few of the plants sideways, so it was time to put a curtain of netting around them to prop them up and protect them from badgers and other predators.

Lycopersicon esculentum

                         It's been a good year for cherry tomatoes.

Running away

Into the season for runner beans now and the more they're picked the more they'll produce: Much like sweet peas, once the seed starts to develop the plant stops producing more flowers and pods. Courgette plants behave similarly and one of them has now shut down because one of the fruits was allowed to develop to the size of a marrow. The dill is now flowering. All parts; leaves, flowers and seeds are great for the kitchen.

Big roots

Harvested some early parsnips that had self-seeded on a patch where the broad beans grew, which needed clearing to make way for some winter crops. Beetroot hasn't done brilliantly this year and there probably won't be enough for pickling, but there are always enough to brighten up a salad or stain a bowl of rice or couscous.

Little Roots

Harvested the first baby carrots, more climbing/french beans and some lettuce.

Plum Month

                                    Into August; plum month.

Big Green

Large gnarled beefsteak tomatoes need a few more weeks of sunshine to ripen and the plants need tying up to prevent them from collapsing.

Malus Domestica

Cox's Orange Pippin: Probably should have thinned the fruit out and watered more during the hot dry spells. Many of the branches are weighed down amongst the gooseberry bushes which could do with a prune now. Cox's are particularly susceptible to scab, mildew and canker and these ones are also susceptible to being nicked by passers-by.

orangepippin.com

Fruits of labour

 

So hot recently that crops and seedlings need a daily watering.

 

It's been a good year for gherkins, if watered regularly.

 Courgette plants are particularly hungry and thirsty.

First Runners

                                First crop of runner beans.

Hotter than July

 

 

Successional

A second sowing of climbing beans to replace those recently harvested.

Beanfeast

Redambergreen

Lots of redcurrants and gooseberries to harvest and the first of the cherry tomatoes.

Tassels No Hassle

Sweetcorn pollinated, white tassels and thin, thirsty cobs. The beans and squash amongst them have grown well.

Daucus carota

 

 Haven't seen a carrot look like this before; left in the ground from last year overwinter, it's put on a lot of growth above ground this year and is now in flower.

Potato Salad

 

                                    Just add mayonnaise

Soft fruit relay

As the strawberry season comes to an end there are blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries to harvest.

Trap crop

Flea beatles munch on radish leaves but leave the crop unaffected and are distracted from other crops.

Herbal essentials

                       Dill, parsley and coriander liking the hot weather.

Peas up

Dolphin's back

Delphinium: modern Latin, from Greek delphinion ‘larkspur’, from delphin ‘dolphin’ (because of the shape of the spur, thought to resemble a dolphin's back

Petroselinum crispum

500 a day

The start of the strawberry harvest; expecting to pick around 500 grams a day for the next two weeks.

Six of the best

 

Decorative and / or useful early spring flowers; bluebells, apple blossom, broad bean, angelica, tulip and comfrey.