picked in June

broad beans,gooseberries (from Grandma),raspberries,redcurrants, courgettes, alpine strawberries,feltham first peas, rocket, mangetout peas, lettuce,strawberries

cucumbers again

yesterday was a "fruiting" day on the bio-dynamic calendar, so the last cucumbers were planted out. the marketmore cucumbers I was gifted last week can be grown in the greenhouse or outdoors. considering the current weather,and hoping it continues, I have decided to try growing one outside. there was a slight problem with trying to find some space, so it's been planted in a space left by the lettuce pulled for lunch, just in front of the bean row. this area is a bit crowded but, as a curcurbit, cucumbers are the same family as squash and pumpkins so it should be happy as part of the extended three sisters planting.

broad beans

broad beans are starting to crop well. some gathered for dinner, some spare for the freezer(really like these for winter soups) have grown 2 types this year -aquadulce claudia and imperial green longpod. one sort is giving lots of smaller pods, the other a smaller number of large pods- about 8-9 inches in length. the former(probably but not certainly the aqudulces) has suffered more from blackfly.

growing a summer broccoli, green magic. noticed the heads starting to form today.

still picking feltham first peas, though there are fewer new flowers. rondo peas should be ready to pick and day now.

three sisters planting

"three sisters planting" is a native american practice, whereby beans,sweet corn and squash are grown together - the corn provides support for the beans to climb and the squash trails underneath and helps keep down the weeds. we've adapted this idea slightly for our garden. we usually grow sweet peas along-side the beans to encourage bees and generally grow a catch crop just in front of the row - this year we have lettuce

corn just starting to grow beside the runner beans and sweet peas

scarlet emperor runner beans from home grown seed and emergo(a white flowered type) were set in pots in the greenhouse during April. the pumpkins and squashes, for here and elsewhere in the garden, were started at the same time- these are a variety of types, some packet seed, some seed saved from purchased squashes and some now home grown seed.

pumpkin now about 3' high but starting to trail sideways

3 different types of squash were planted out along with the beans in early May - a crown prince, a red kabocha and a halloween pumpkin. the corn was set directly into the ground soon after - this is a baby corn type, used for stir-fries, not a corn-on-the-cob type. there are also some accidental potato plants which must be growing from peelings in the compost.

runner beans,sweetpeas and red kabocha squash in flower, seen from above

everything seems to be doing well at the moment.the lettuce at the front of the row has grown really well. beans,sweetpeas and the red kabocha squash are flowering. the halloween pumpkin is a larger plant with buds on though no flowers yet. the crown prince squash is the slowest in growth,but whether due to its type or location I'm not sure.

frog

found a frog in the garden today. this is quite unusual as we have no pond and there's no stream nearby. our house was built about 25 years ago and at that time there was a drainage ditch between 2 fields running roughly parallel to the back fence about 60 yards away -this area has now been built on as the housing estate expanded,about 20 years ago, and the ditch levelled out but we do occasionally have dragonflies,the electric blue type and a larger brown variety, in the garden as if searching out the old water course.

broad beans

first broad beans off today - enough for 2 of us, about 4oz. expecting more soon as the plants look quite heavily laden. have had some trouble with blackfly but have sprayed with the soapy garlic spray and, although we never seem quite rid of them, their numbers have been kept down.

hidden treasure

its been a bit of a week for pruning and discovering things. cutting back the winter jasmine, I found that there were flowers on the red-hot pokers behind it. a day later we decided to tackle the lilac - and discovered a honeysuckle climbing through it and flowering. sadly,some of this had to be cut back as it was overhanging the fence but I now have a vase-full scenting the house.