Finally… things are getting going in the garden. The lateness of many crops has been caused both by the dreadful weather in June and much of July and by my lateness in planting some things. Actually, the latter, the result if inefficiency on my part, has probably been for the best as it helped several crops avoid the worst of the weather.

Tomato #1

So, I picked our first ripe tomato yesterday – all credit to Rich from Coed Hills who gave me the plant, grown from open pollinated seed, making it some sort of hybrid. It’s perfect and yellow and I just can’t quite decide how to eat it! I’ve also harvested what might be the last of our rhubarb of 2012, but it’s now bottled in a syrup including orange juice and ginger wine… that’s a treat I’m looking forward to enjoying later in the year (probably with homemade yoghurt).

Yellow-podded mangetout growing up the chicken-proof fence

We’ve also now got a decent crop of mangetout, broad beans and peppers coming along. To keep the season going (and growing) I planted the last of my mangetout seeds a couple of weeks ago and, just this morning, supplied them with sticks to grow up until they reach the fence. The Boston squash in the ‘waste of space’ dumpy bag is now enjoying a free range lifestyle, the corn has finally started to grow (although too late, I fear), the runner beans are flowering and starting to produce pods… and the sun is shining. Maybe I won’t get a homegrown courgette this summer, or a corn cob, but I will have eaten more lettuce from the garden than ever before and, as I have mentioned before, the potato crop has been great.

Free-ranging squash, plus corn and lettuce

I know that overall it’s been a poor season for home production, but I think the summer is going to end with some abundance and a greater range of fresh food than we have been able to enjoy so far.