I'm starting to feel like everything is drawing to a close in the veg garden. I have dug up all the onions, shallots and garlic and i pulled my last spring onion this evening. The courgettes look like they are slowing down (finally!) and the tomato plants near the house are also looking rather thin now. However, i am still enjoying plenty of beans and the second wave of tomatoes and peas are just getting into full swing so i shouldn't feel too "doom and gloom" about winter approching - it is still August after all (just). I also picked my first marrow tonight, not quite sure what i am going to do with it though. Seems rather a waste to just chop it up for chutney but other than that my experience of marrows goes no further than stuffing them.

Oh, and i was very cross to discover that the one and only cucumber that has survived on my cucumber plant has been well and truly munched by a slug. Grrr not happy at all!

Chutney day tomorrow as i still have 6 courgettes in the fridge that need using ASAP. The yummy recipe i finally chose is in the River Cottage Cookbook. Well it sounds nice anyway, we'll have to wait and see. Didn't manage to find any wide neck bottles for ketchup so made tomato sauce instead which i have frozen for emergencies :o)

Ohh have just found this with lots of yummy recipes! Think i might have a go at making tomato ketchup if i can find some suitable bottles to put it in.

Courgettes in fridge:6
Courgettes consumed today:0

I saw one of my neighbours before the weekend and gave her 2 carriers full of courgettes and with what's left i plan to make some chutney. Going to the library this afternoon to look for a chutney recipe book as i can't find a suitable one in my cookbook collection. I have a few preserving jars and DP's mum has given me a load of jam jars so hopefully i will have enough. I also have a huge amount of tomatoes which i plan to turn into sauce.

The sweetcorn is looking good i am pleased to say. Only two cobs so far but that is two more than i expected so i am quite pleased. The squash plants are just starting to flower so hopefully they will fruit even though they were planted so late.

When we arrived home after our weekend at Grandma's we were greeted with the sunny face of one of Emily's sunflowers. She was highly delighted as you can imagine. Looks like 2 of the others will be flowering soon too. I will try and take a pic to show you.

Courgettes in the fridge: 10
Courgettes consumed today: 1


Well the heatwave is well and truly over now, i even had to wear a cardigan outside today!! We had the first lot of rain for....oh... ages and ages yesterday. The garden was desparate for it even though i have been watering nightly.

I haven't been in the garden for a few days so there was plently needing picking. The "goldrush" courgette plant has 3 more coming on it. They grow REALLY slowly compared to the green varieties. We also have 2 marrows on their way. The butternut squash plants have gone mad, they are trailing about 6ft! I just read that i was supposed to pinch the growing tips out when they reached 2ft long [sigh].
The sweetcorn are still a mystery to me. The last two rows to geminate are now huge and starting to grow the cobs but the other two rows are between 1 and 2ft tall. I'm not sure how this will effect the fertilisation of the fruits???

I don't think the heatwave did my runner beans much good. They seemed to run to seed before they were fully formed - big and fat one end and tiny immature beans the other. At first i thought i was the variety as it is not one i have grown before (Butler) but since things started cooling down we have seen some more normal looking beans. Oddly it didn't seem to have any affect on the French beans which have been wonderful, really tasty. I will definitely grow them again next year.



Another "basket of veg" shot [yawn] Sorry i couldn't resist, they looked so nice!

This little froggie had a lucky escape earlier as i nearly put my foot on him.






We find lots of frogs all over the garden at this time of year. They usually jump out at me whilst i'm gardening and frighten me half to death, like the one that landed on my (bare) foot yesterday while picking tomatoes!

Not quite sure why the comments thingy isn't working. I'll have to have another look at it. I'm hoping that when i do get it working anyone reading this will be able to pass on any gardening tips they may have:o).... Particularly about growing sweetcorn, more about that later.

We waved goodbye to our last butterfly this morning. The first changed on Friday, just a week since it became a chrysalis. I thought they took about two weeks, maybe the hot weather speeded things up??? And BOY is it hot! Too hot for gardening. Too hot for doing anything!




The last butterfly just before it flew off


We are picking loads of beans at the moment. I am freezing most of them as no-one seems hungry due to the extreem heat. We also have quite a few tomatoes and the courgettes are growing faster than i can pick them. We had 22 in the fridge the other day! Decided it was time to do a run around the neighbours and got rid of over half which is good because the would have just gone to waste otherwise.



Mmmm yum!

This was yesterdays harvest


Another giant courgette that had been left too long. Looks more like a small marrow. Speaking of which, the marrow and squash plants that i transplanted to growbags have been eaten by slugs. Very annoyed about that as they were doing well. However, all is not lost as i have another two butternut squash plants and another marrow plant doing well in bed 4.

Also yesterday we picked our first tomato :o) They seem to all be ripening at once now, after waiting for what seems like months since i spotted the first green one.

By Saturday the third caterpillar had become a chrysalis. We are still waiting for the forth and final one to change. It has stopped eating and moved up to the top of the jar and has got fuzzy round things surrounding it??? Look like fluffy eggs - v bizarre, will keep a close watch!





***Update***
Unfortunately the forth one died. Not sure why but possibly the fuzzy little things were some kind of parasite??

Since the last post the caterpillar that is bottom right in the pic has changed too. Wow- i can't believe how quick it happens!!!

We had a surprise today, one of the caterpillars (Small Cabbage White) has become a chrysalis!! It looks like two of the Large Whites are not far off either.





Hopefully you can make out the chrysalis on the left.

Now i've managed to get the archives working again i can see i have not been very consistant in the labelling of beds! So for future reference here is a plan:



Plan of Vegetable Garden (not to scale)


Bed 1
Currently has:
Spring Onions
Rocket
Radishes
Leaf Beet
Cos Lettuce
Red Onions
White Onions
Garlic and i have just dug up the shallots from this bed.


Bed 2
Currently has:
Courgette (Defender)
x2 Courgette (Tando da Nizza)
Sweetcorn
Calabrese


Bed 3
Currently has:
Runner Beans
French Beans
Leaf Beet and i have just dug up the 1st pea row from this bed.


Bed 4
Currently has:
x2 Butternut Squash
Marrow
Pea row (Late crop)


The Greenhouse plot has various grobags on it containing tomato, courgette and cucumber plants and i have a trough of tomato plants near the house. That's about it!