July in the garden…

 July started HOT - just keeping up with keeping everything watered was a challenge! I got my second salvaged wine box planted up with herbs though - it’s in the background there planted with a golden marjoram, a variegated sage, a blue hyssop and an upright thyme - plus a sprinkling of chive seeds which may or may not germinate. Best thing was that the four herbs used there were all bought for a bargain reduced price from a garden centre we’d not visited before. The sage is struggling a bit but the rest look happy enough,

In that picture you can also see another little project I’ve had in mind for a while - namely re-using old peanut butter tins to plant herbs. 1 has a mint- just a classic garden mint - and 2 others have “rescued”  supermarket basil and coriander - each bought for pennies because they were apparently pretty much dead… 

The beginning of the month saw the runner beans really take off - and start flowering. We’re growing two varieties this year - Scarlet Emperor and Polestar. Strangely enough we had little success with the Polestar seed last year, this year they’ve done OK, particularly those we sowed direct into the ground. 

The biggest thing we’re noticing about the garden is the contrast between when we moved in and now - I mean obviously we use the garden very differently to how our sellers did - to them it was a place to sit in the summer I think, and not a huge amount more than that. The pictures above show one side after and before the veg bed was dug out though and give at least a taste of how the feel of it has changed. The other side has the arches now, we’ve let next door’s honeysuckle and winter Jasmine continue to romp over the fence, and of course both sides of the path now being planted up has given that a very different feel.

Harvesting has now started well and truly - we’ve been enjoying wonderfully crisp, fresh beans with most meals, and although we’ve only had a couple of courgettes so far, there are an awful lot of flowers and I suspect very shortly we might be over run with them! The cucumbers too are flowering really well - and we seem to be getting a decent sized cuke every few days. The tomatoes are still a bit behind where we’d really like, but there are fruit forming now on most of the plants, so hopefully not long now before I can take them off my weekly shopping list! 

One thing I am really pleased with this year is that I’ve managed to get a decent crop of Basil. Last year every time I showed a pot of it, the squirrels came along and dug it up - the best I managed all year was a few handfuls of leaves for throwing into pasta dishes. This year is a different story - I’ve been doing successional sowings and it’s doing really well, I’ve managed to make a couple of batches of pesto as well as doing plenty of cooking with what is definitely one of my favourite herbs! 

Finally - and a first for us - is successfully growing peppers.We did chillies last year, and have a few plants of those again this year too, but we’d always assumed that peppers would be a bit optimistic allowing that we have no indoor growing space. So far though they seem to be doing well - they’re in tall pots tucked in front of the compost bin to provide a bit of shelter, and we’ve got some decent sized fruit forming! Very exciting! 

Robyn