Bountiful Harvest

Everything is bearing fruit and I can hardly carry the stuff home. My colleagues at work are benefiting from the glut of summer squash and round courgettes. and I have to take them to work in a wheeler as it is all so very heavy.

Beans are really taking off too. I have grown an Italian yellow climbing bean which is completely stringless and very attractive growing over the archway I constructed this year. It is not as tasty as I had hoped it would be but it is perfectly acceptable; however, I probably will not grow this variety again. I have some dwarf green French which are also starting to crop now and these are tastier.

I have harvested all of my overwintering onions; they are mostly large and juicy. I 've had some go rotten but on the whole these have been extremely successful.In particular the red onions are the best I have ever grown. I will definitely be growing these again and I will increase the number of sets I plant too.

This is my mum checking and cleaning the onions for storage.

I have had a few cucumbers, Burpless Tasty Green are my favourite outdoor cues. They are all female and without any bitterness and the skins are not too tough so need not be peeled if sliced very thinly.

Cabbages and kale are doing well too as are beetroot.

I have also started digging up some new potatoes, Linzer Delicatesse, these are delicious. I haven't started to dig up the Desiree or Kestrel yet. The experiment of growing potatoes in a large pot was relatively successful for LD, the potatoes were a bit small; they probably could have done with more water whilst I was away on holiday and possibly they could have done with a bit more chicken manure. It still worked quite well and I still have two more pots to turn out.

We had the bbq two weeks ago and who should turn up but John Ram, all the way from Oz, by lucky coincidence at the right time for the barbie. In addition to this Jim and Imelda also turned up. It was quite a surprise. There were probably 50 or more people who came and it was a great success. I was really pleased that both mum and my Aunt Evelyn were able to come, auntie is just about to celebrate her 92nd birthday and I thought she might not have been up to it; but she really had a great time.