Summer Garden Goodies

This summer we've been busy trying to grow a variety of stuff in the garden with varying success. Peas have been great, the girls have had lots of fun shelling them (and eating them in the process) you can't beat fresh peas, they taste so great and are that easy to grow even I can do it! This year we did ours in a large garden pot, just sewed them in a z shape, as per the packet, and kept on watering them, the result is as below, with the only hardship being the purchase of some pea/bean netting for them to grow up (we scrounged the canes from my mum!)

I attempted a few lettuce too and the result is below, two Lollo Rosso just about ready to eat.

A few years back I purchased five strawberry plants that did nothing...then last year, they kicked into life and sent runners off everywhere and fruited like nobodys business! unfortunately I developed a slight rodent problem too, so we didn't get any fruit for ourselves, but this year, rodent issues sorted, I learn't my lesson and got the netting out, which miffed our local friendly blackbird, but got us a prize haul of strawberries for the last two weeks!

A strawberry ripening, they taste so lovely, freshly picked.

The end result, one days haul, ready for some sugar, cream or ice-cream!

The funniest thing was, after a whole week of eating strawberries, the kids started to beg me not to feed them strawberries the next week! so we made a huge pile of milkshakes and smoothies with them instead! (who ever thought we'd get sick of strawberries eh!)

Strawberries Nil

This year I've been attempting to grow various things in pots. We've not got much border in which to do growing left, as I seem to have covered it all in bushes and herbs! So in an effort to show the girls how to grow their own food (like they paid much attention really) earlier we sowed a few trays of seeds, plus a few outdoor pots and now here are the results starting to come through! The pot above contains spring onions, I nibbled two for a taster with some sausages yesterday lunch and they were lovely, although they could do with another week or two to grow a bit more yet, so I shall refrain from harvesting any more just yet (Richard its a good job I forgot to send you home with some!)

The pot garden in all its glory.

The Grow bags contain far too many tomatoes, so I'm expecting a bumper chutney season in Autumn, although I may loose one plant yet, that is growing sideways mainly I assume due to the wind, but its stem is getting rather waterlogged, so may rot......

You can also see (left to right) Spring Onions, (back pot) Strawberries, 2 x Carrotts and finally Peas! Hopefully we shall have good crops from all, but we shall see........one thing I have learnt is that the table could do with moving, as whenever I put up the umbrella, it puts half the pots in shade....sigh.

Here's a photo of my fantastic strawberries. Well they were fantastic, we've had some very good eating off them, right up until the point that a small rodent, I think its a vole, has decided to start nibbling them.......we saw it bold as brass yesterday, running through the patch, taking a nibble out of each of my lovely ripening fruits......it ran away for all of 10 seconds when it realised I had spotted it, then it crept back.....I need to borrow my friends cat.....or get one of my own, dratted vermin. So yesterday it was Strawberries nil, invading nibbler 6........I was going to get netting, but they tunnel right? (the strawberries are in the remains of the border) sigh, moggy it is. I really wouldn't mind, but these strawberries did nothing last year, bar chucking off other runner plants, so to get all this lovely fruit this year, was something amazing! yet now I'm foiled again, who'd have thought gardening was so painful?