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| The greenhouse in July surrounded and enveloped by borage and bees, cornflowers and onions. Some mornings I was overwhelmed by the humming of the honey bees as I plunged along the path to the door! I can't imagine summer without that wonderful cornflower blue and hope that they have self seeded themselves. |
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| Inside two cucumbers in pots fill the southern end of the greenhouse, the staging has been removed to allow me to plant eight tomatoes, aubergines and peppers in the beds either side with basil in between. Its all growth in July with the very first fruits forming... |
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| One of the first tomatoes - a beautiful Costeluto Fiorentino snuggling into some fresh new basil. Grown from seed this variety does well in the greenhouse and has a classic Italian salad tomato flavour and firm flesh - delicious! So beautiful that I had to push myself to cut it.. |
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| The other two varieties that I am growing in the greenhouse are Sungold pictured above and Black Krim which ripened later on. Both were wonderful. The Sungold were prolific and we had bucketfuls of the sweet orange cherry tomatoes for months on end. See the August posts for pictures of the Black Krim....wonderful colour and flavour! |
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| This is Greek Basil - one of three types of Basil that I planted amongst the tomatoes and aubergines. The other two were Sweet Genovese (a classic Italian basil) and a purple one. The good thing about the Greek one is that it is a bush variety and goes on longer than the other varieties - we should be able to pick it right through the autumn in the greenhouse. There is absolutely nothing like the smell of tomato plants mixed with the heavenly whiff of basil when you water the earth! And the basil keeps the whitefly away... |
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| Cucumber flowers lifting their golden heads to the sun...the promise of crisp sweet fruit to come! |
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| And the soft petticoat like mauve flowers of the aubergine plants drooping shyly under the covering of soft floppy leaves. The greenhouse is a happy place to be with so much anticipation of harvest. I love spending time pinching out, watering and feeding and knowing that the rush of harvest/preparation/cook/freeze for the winter is ahead of me. Now in July all is peaceful and the growth and swelling fruit is doing its own thing. The tromboncino courgettes below are doing exactly that just outside the door...its all go in the Patch in late July! |
