As the vegetable garden is looking so promising today, I thought I would share a few pictures. Above are the runner beans grown from seeds that I bought at Chelsea earlier this year. As the plants were started off in June I am not expecting crops until September. This fits in well with my aim of avoiding over production. As the various peas and broad beans are just coming to an end, the baby runner beans will make a welcome change in my kitchen.
I have plenty of beetroot ready to eat – I love to roast beetroot and then eat it cold in a salad sliced with feta cheese and toasted pine nuts.
The courgettes were slow getting going, but are looking good now. A baked courgette topped with cheese and seeds makes a lovely light supper and chilled courgette and pea soup is a favourite summer lunch dish.
All the tomatoes in the greenhouse are fruiting and many are ready to eat.
As well as the summer vegetables, this is a great year for fruit. I have pears on my espaliers for the first time.
There are three peaches looking almost ready to eat.
And the blueberries are delectable. Whilst I love to eat them, the unripened berries are stunning in flower arrangements so I have a continual battle to decide when to pick them.
Finally, Gardener’s World this week was all about gardening to encourage wildlife, so I am sharing a picture of an Echinops flower (blue globe thistle) that I took earlier this week. These flowers are the bees current favourite in my garden and I often see five or six bees on each globe.
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AMAZING!! I am absolutely green with envy at your perfect peaches in particular! You certainly have that special green fingered touch, since all of your produce looks immaculate – it really is a joy to see. Please talk us through your planting and preparation process – perhaps I could make a start on some peaches of my own if I had a ‘planting by numbers’ or step by step guide – ha ha!
Paula x
Thank you Paula – I am so glad you enjoyed the peaches! I need to look up the variety for you, but in a nutshell I ordered a peach tree in spring 2011 as a one year old whip and planted it against a sunny south facing wall by the kitchen. I have kept it well watered and three years later I have 3 peaches! Hopefully there will be many more next year. I have largely let the tree grow freely with minimal pruning – it is not espaliered despite growing against a wall. So far this tree has avoided peach leaf curl without any help from me.
I am planning to introduce more “how to” posts from September, when I start making preparations for next spring. Hopefully these will be of interest to you and please ask as many questions as you like – it is really nice to get feed back!