Happy Summer Crops

Everything is coming up roses.  Well, not quite.  Everything is coming up herbs, fruit and vegetables as well.  I feed unashamedly with Miracle Gro and Tomorite.  Last year I applied literally sackfuls of rich compost to my once rocky and impoverished garden, and the expense of that is now being cancelled out by the crops I can pick.  I see very little by way of slugs or insect damage (touching wood here) as I keep a close eye out for them.  Trespassers will be exterminated by either myself or Alfie who is on border control.

I am thrilled (that's a sad admission!) that my courgettes are doing well, so far, this year.  Last year I planted Soleil F1 Hybrid and although it made the effort, no fruits were borne.  This year I have grown the same variety from seed and have planted out three - two in a bed and one in a large pot.  So far so good... 

The strawberries are still churning out fruit and despite various websites turning up their noses at the commercially grown Elsanta, I have found it a delicious variety.  I also grown Sonata and Cambridge Favourite which are great.  I have 19 pots of them but decided not to propagate any, or not many, this year.  There is a limit to what you can grow in a small garden and I don't want everything to be strawberries.  The raspberry (Polka) has done its bit for the year and the fruits were divine although not abundant.  However, it was only a new plant, in its second year, with just two canes.  Now there are about 7 healthy canes already reaching for 5-6ft high with great potential for next year!  The loganberry canes (similar to raspberries) are dripping fruit despite being grown in a large tub, and if you let them ripen to a deep red, they are almost as sweet as raspberries.  (first photo: runner beans 'St George' grown in pots this year, strawberries, and loganberries on the fence).

I love growing herbs despite the fact that I don't know what to do with them half the time. I grow parsley, basil mint, spearmint, applemint, lemon mint, lemon balm, chives, marjoram two types of thyme (lemon and 'Silver Posie', bergamot, sorrel, and rosemary. I love picking bits of herbs in the garden and just eating them as they are. Weird or what?

 Of course, everything is a bit of a jungle but when space is limited, needs must and all that.  Roses, loganberries, runner beans, sweet capsicums (in the homemade polytunnel), dahlias, strawberries, tomatoes, courgettes, all get along together brilliantly.  I think it confuses the insects.  I grew carrots too, in pots, and I stick a clove of garlic in the middle in the hope of repelling carrot fly. 

Usually I grow Tumbling Tom tomatoes but they take up a bit of ground space despite the fact that they aren't giants.  Which Garden magazine sent me a trial pack of Gardener's Delight, a vertical growing tomato and I understand the variety is an award winner and produces small fruits.  I am growing three as an experiment and if they do well, I might grow those instead of the Tumblers next year. 

I grow the Gardener's Delight in big pots, stood in a tomato Grow bag.  Watch this space!

And I think that is all on the fruit and veg patch for now.  Let's see what later weeks produce.  Plenty of sunshine, I hope.