Home Front.

The weather has been non stop rain this morning so time for an update.

These are the pictures of the hanging baskets that I planted up during May, they have put on a lot of growth and I'm really pleased with them.

They don't take much time to keep them in tip top condition, just a weekly feed and some dead heading.

Hopefully they will continue to flower throughout the rest of the summer.

So far things are going to plan and we have been harvesting lots of veg, no where near as much as I would like but now we have the lottie we are hoping to turn this around for next year.

These are some of thee views around the back garden, I have managed to pack as much in as we could.

Turnip's and Pea's have done particularly well. We had a huge crop from Ezeta's Krombek Blauwschokker. Clarkes Beltony Blue also did well.

Tomatoes.

The early tomatoe experiment has been showing dividends, so far we have harvested sun gold, stupice, balconi red. There are lots more to come as the plants are layden with fruit. I am hoping to make some spaghetti sauce with some of the harvest.

I think I would definitely sow tomatoes earlier as I did this year, I don't know if I would start to sow earlier than February though, as I did have a distinct lack of space before I could start moving the plants into the greenhouse. Next year I think I will do a few varieties of tomatoes along with the chili's which need a long season. Some of the chilis that were sown in february have started to produce fruit, currently we have Purple Jal's, Cveta, Chili Pyramid, Apache and Orangina . Something nasty (slug, I think) decided to have a munch on my lemon drop plant which is now starting to make a recovery! All the chili plants have been moved out of the greenhouse and are now on the patio, they don't seem any worse for wear but it has continually rained since so may have to move them back in temporarily.

Courgettes have produced a huge crop and if you blink you miss them and they turn into marrows.

The picture on the left is De Nice a fruit round, it should have been harvested when it was small sort of golf ball size instead I got a cricket ball! Golden Zucchini is just starting to produce fruit so looking forward to trying these.

We have harvested : Radish, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Courgettes, Strawberries, Cabbage, Kale, Peas, Mange Tout, French Beans with more to come.

Onions are still growing away, some of the red baron have started to bolt so will lift these and use first as they will not store well. The white onions seem to be doing the best. I am going to over winter onions this year for planting out on the lottie. I also managed to get a selection of shallots that I am holding on to for growing through the winter. The garlic that was sown earlier in the year is still in the ground as its not ready but the supermarket experiment produced a crop but rather on the small size. I'm going to keep some of the cloves to plant again in the autumn to see if they can be improved upon.

Next year I am hoping to be able to grow more flowers from seed to fill in the gaps in the back garden as I will be digging raspberries and blackcurrant bushes up to go to the lottie so can plan abit of a revamp.

And finally, my beautiful sweet peas, we have been picking them every few days, the fragrance is fantastic and they certainly brighten up a room and let you know that summer is here even if it is still raining.