Late Summer Garden Update

Overall I'm really pleased with the performace of most stuff this year, considering I did virtually everything from seed and took a punt on lots of different things. The summer launched into sweltering heat and the last few weeks have been such a contrast - not cold, but markedly cooler.

I must admit the watering has been a lot easier this year and I'm glad I did some homework on how much water different plants were going to need. We had virtually zero rain here all summer up to the last few weeks and I kept to a schedule of just giving the less needy plants - root crops like beetroot and onions etc - a watering once a week, whilst the water-intensive crops - tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, beans and squashes etc. - I have done with buried soaker-hose in an attempt to both save time and keep the water where it's needed in a controlled way. On the whole this approach seems to have worked really well.

This is tomato 'Tumbler' I have been growing in pouches on the walls:


Lovely cherry fruits these, with a good flavour - very tempting as you walk past them! Most of the cordon tomatoes have been ripening too, although just yesterday I noticed one of the ground hugging varieties showing sign of the dreaded blight, so I am preparing to launch into green tomato chutney mode if things spread sooner rather than later.


I've also grown tomatillos this year - often also called husk tomatoes and good used for salsa. This is a variety called 'Violet':


One thing that has taken a real beating is the broccoli. I love butterflies, but the cabbage white's passion for my broccoli could literally be described as 'all-consuming'.


The numbers have been so great that although repeated attempts have been made to remove caterpillars to keep numbers down, i have decided the only real solution will be to cover them in future.

I also purposely let the squashes ramble a bit, but think I might reign them in a bit in future, although the frogs have absolutely loved the shady, moist habitat they've created. I have vegetable spaghetti and butternut squash on the way - and these are a nice compact pumpkin called 'Potimarron'.


My huge collection of pepper plants are now finally coming good. I was really concerned that the sweet peppers might not have a great time outside. It was so windy after they went in, immediately followed by the extreme heat and they seemed to take a real hit. The good news is though that apparently peppers are difficult to kill off - they might go dormant for a bit and then grow on when things improve, or even be a little stunted, but they are fighters. They are in full flow now and I'm hoping to keep them going as long as I did last year. This is a sweet pepper called 'Doux Long des Landes':


And this is a sweet bell-shaped variety called 'Purple Beauty':


It's not all veg though, some flowers too - and you can't beat dahlias for an assortment of colour:


I haven't covered all the garden here so I may do another update before long. I have already been pickling cornichons and various chutneys are definitely on the cards so I might do a post on that soon too!