The Beauty of Nature

I have also been checking on my pumpkins and they are ‘stable’. I’m not sure they are coming on as well as the courgette, but then they usually burst into life later on and go mad. I am going to stop them growing too many fruit this year so they focus on making a few bigger than usual.

Last year I nearly cried when I accidentally cut the main stem when trying to cut them back to bring on the remaining fruit. Not this year, I am going to be more careful and get a second pair of eyes to help me.

I say hope, as this year I would like to have a good crop of courgettes. The last time they took and survived was three years ago. OK, I know I had a few last year, but it was not the bumper crop I had in the first year.

So this year I have grown them on in pots a little longer so that the plant I put in is bigger and better able to survive the dreaded slugs. So far, as you can see, they have not bothered it – but that can easily change. 🙂

I put the parsnips in today. They have grown on OK at home and now need to go out.

I’m looking forward to these for Xmas and beyond. It seems such a long time to wait for them, but then I don’t really want summer to be over as I wont be in the garden then.

I checked on the growing potatoes at the weekend and they are looking good. They are not as far along as other people’s but then I did put them in late.

The weather has been up and down of late. We have had days of very hot weather and then days of rain. It’s playing havoc with the plot, but things seem to be getting through it this year. It never ceases to amaze me that gardening is such a constant struggle with nature, but how reliant we are upon nature to ‘let’ us get a good harvest. No matter how many chemicals and genetics we use, it is still down to nature to play ball.

I went up last night and picked some strawberries. I was amazed that there were so many to harvest. I have not moved them yet since they first went in, though I think for next year I will grub up one outer edge and move the to the right.

I do so love harvesting the ‘fruits’ of my labours, especially when they are so tasty like strawberries are. 🙂

I make no apologies for continuing to take picture of bees. They need the exposure.

I thought you might like to see what’s in my garden at present. So I took some photos for you below.

Can you guess what these are?

That’s right beetroot. Everyone else’s are higher, but I am being late this year for some reason.

I planted out my courgettes this week. I’m hoping that the slugs will not find them as tasty as I do. We will see. I have held a couple back in case of the inevitable.

The beans are out now too. Once again, I hope the slugs do not eat them. But it has rained a little lately and that encourages them to eat.