What are you harvesting today?

Those are indeed rather perfect calabrese. So much so that I'm going to test the Like button on them

Not a bad day today. First six padron peppers, a couple of courgettes, garlic and cucumber for tzatziki, a handful of raspberries and a few beetroot for salad. A few pods of peas to nibble, but most aren't really ready yet.

Still looking hopefully at the tomatoes, but they aren't showing much signs of even thinking to ripen yet

I got excited because I thought I'd got a couple of ripe tomatoes in the greenhouse, but when I examined them, the ones which were coloured had also got blossom end rot
It's been a particular problem this year in the greenhouse - I've squeezed a few left-over tomato plants into odd spots in the garden and none of them are suffering. I've started feeding in the greenhouse twice weekly in the hope that this will improve the situation, and am also watering twice a day on ridiculously hot days (like today!)

Today I've had 4 sungold to.atoes and my first melon.

Picked first crops from the allotment yesterday - enough sugar snaps to put in a stir fry, along with baby courgettes, and some baby carrots from a trough at home. Plus a couple of dried chillies from 2018 harvest. Also have a large bowl of strawberries in the fridge - the only fruit I'm expecting any quantity of this year.

First few blueberries.

We've had a few blueberries too, and had them with strawberries on our cereal yesterday morning (so it looked like the picture on the cereal packet!!) One bluberry bush is doing well - large berries, and good growth on the bush. The other bush hasn't gown much, and the fruit is sparse and much smaller. It also has a bit of liverwort growing over the base of the plant. The two bushes were bought at the same time and have been treated identically in terms of repotting, a little light pruning, and feeding. It's interesting that sometimes a plant just doesn't thrive.

Same variety, Dandelion? I have three different varieties, and growth habit and size of berries differs a lot.

I wont have many blueberries this year - one severely pruned bush and two new plantings but the ones I have aren't even beginning to colour yet. At least I should get them this year as they are now in the fruit cage.

Funny you should ask that Freebird, because I have wondered the same. According to the labels they are both Patriot but they do look different.

My blueberries seemed to get off to a slow start but I picked a good crop from one of them today - probably Patriot because I think that fruits earlier than Poppins. One of my blackcurrant bushes has masses of large berries which I haven't picked yet and the old gooseberry plant is heaving with fruit though I think some of it is a little past its best.

Good haul today - cut n come again lettuce still going well + some spinach and beet leaves, broad beans, strawberries, courgettes, sugar snap peas and 2nd early potatoes. It's lovely to be eating our own produce again after last year's famine due to the move.

I'm starting to pick tomatoes from the greenhouse - I picked off all the ones I could see with blossom end rot earlier, and now I'm actually getting some edible ones! But I don't think any of the plants are going to be particularly productive - the stupidly hot weather over the last few weeks doesn't seem to have been very good for them. The plants I squeezed in to the garden could be more productive hopefully - it's always a bit of a gamble with the threat of blight though. I've got my favourite Black Russian, Golden Sunrise, Buissonante, Ruby (which I may not bother with next year unless the taste is superlative - I grew it a few years back, and I can't remember what it's like. It's early, but few fruits, and it was the main variety which rotted.) I'm also growing Rio Grande, which is new to me - a colleague at school grew it on her allotment last year, and brought some into school to share.

Perhaps we should do a tomato swap to try each other's fruits. I have only Rose de Berne, Artisan Blush Tiger and Tumbling Tom this year, as I hadn't wanted to buy any more seed. Nothing ripe yet.

Ive had my first Bloody Butcher todag and a couple more Sungolds. BB are tasty but prone to greenback.

I have grown Ruby several times. Lovely, huge, tasty tomatoes but not a big crop and I recall an odd growth habit - a bit random and very uneven size fruit.

I had my second melon today, gorgeous. Actually I've missed out a bit with the early hot weather the fruit set really early and the fruits are small. I've got 7 and was hoping for some more but only one other is developing.
I cut 7 cucumbers today. It's probably a good thing the 2nd plant keeled over as I can't keep up with one.

Potatoes, both from a bag-type potato planter at home and out the ground on the allotment. So, the planter potatoes were Swift (first earlies), three plants but the foliage was so slug eaten it wasn't worth leaving them any longer. Washed, they weighed 1lb 13.5oz.



The allotment potatoes were Estima (second earlies) and I dug four plants, weighed in a carrier bag and still muddy - they were a smidgen over 3lb. Might weigh them again when washed if I remember.

I think the planter potatoes compare quite well. They have been planted longer but I wouldn't expect a great yield from first earlies. So although not a big crop, maybe still worthwhile to grow in a planter. I did what I said I would and moved all the planters to a spot where the containers were shaded, with the foliage in the sunshine.

Nice clean potatoes ! I grow Charlotte in the garden, my little kitchen garden plot has been built up over decades of the greenhouse spent potting compost being discarded there, so it is almost like growing in compost in a planter - little cleaning. The clay at the allotment is a different story !

Back up to 4 cucumbers in the fridge. Probably cucumber raita to go with curry night tonight ! Some padron peppers ready too - useful in this weather that they don't have to ripen to be ready.

I had a good trip to the allotment yesterday. 2.5kg of blackcurrants, and a good punnet of raspberries. I now have a contented tummy after Mrs C-H's summer pudding

I also picked a row of peas, which had come ready all at once. Quite a few maggoty ones, but still got 1kg of peas for the freezer. I also got the first few courgettes, and today I dug some more new potatoes, which are also now eaten.

There are enough blackcurrants left for jam making tomorrow, Our neighbour gave us a jar of their redcurrant & raspberry jam too this afternoon.

That all sounds good CH. Been a long time since I've had any quantity of blackcurrants. It's the only soft fruit bush that came here as a cutting, and to my surprise has a single stem with a few little trusses of ripening fruit. Not enough for anything but a garnish!

I pulled a few onions today, as they were ready.But the birds seem to have been at my blackcurrants!

My blackcurrants are always netted. Interestingly, our birds seem to have no interest in the raspberries. They had been at my peas, but eating the foliage, thankfully not the pods. Strawberries and brassica also have to be under netting to keep the pidgeons off. Indeed, I have no idea how it is possible to grow brassica without environmesh to protect from pidgeons, cabbage root fly, cabbage white butterflies, whitefly and probably another dozen pests I've forgotten. They are the most attacked crop of them all !

Dug up my garlic today. Pleasantly surprised, as in November the only bit of available soil was in the fruit cage. Scratched around and found a bit of spent compost in some old pots and mixed that in, along with a miniscule amount of compost found in the bottom of the dalek that was already here. Top dressed in the spring with some worm compost. Something obviously went right as it's the biggest garlic I've ever managed to grow, although I reckon I could have left it in the ground another fortnight.

Edited to add - agree with you about brassicas, CH. Haven't so far had whitefly or aphid problems, but there are wood pigeons both here and on the allotment. I have discovered that sparrows adore pea shoots. You say thankfully not the pods, but they were destroying my plants to such an extent they weren't likely to make any pods. It is proving so difficult to protect my tall Tutankhamun peas that I may have to resort to growing them at home in the fruit cage next year.

I grow brassicas in a cage with butterfly netting. That keepsthe birds off as well but unfortunately not the mealy aphids.
I too have no blackcurrants this year because I disposed of my massive 21 year old bush ( too big and wrong place for the fruit cage) and started again with a severely pruned, much smaller transplanted bush. The only fruit I will get outside this year is raspberries and a few blueberries.
I'm starting to get a good supply of tomatoes now.

Just picked about a tablespoon of blackcurrants - my entire harvest. Considering that plant was a little stick cutting about 15 months ago, I am delighted to have a little harvest.

They will be carefully cooked in some sweetened water and thickened with a little arrowroot. Makes a lovely topping for vanilla ice cream. Just enough for pud tonight.

freebird wrote:

I have discovered that sparrows adore pea shoots. You say thankfully not the pods, but they were destroying my plants to such an extent they weren't likely to make any pods. It is proving so difficult to protect my tall Tutankhamun peas that I may have to resort to growing them at home in the fruit cage next year.

I have sparrows flying at the Tutankhamun peas, pecking at the shoots, but as I always accidentally plant far too many seeds, it doesn't seem to significantly diminish the number of peas. The problem I have with them is the wind (meteorological not gastric!) - for the last couple of years we seem to have had unseasonably windy weather at this time of the year, and the peas and their aluminium support get blown sideways and need a guy rope!

The blackfly in my garden, having been ousted from the broad beans when I put them on the compost heap, have unexpectedly turned their attentions to the rhubarb. I always consider rhubarb to be fairly easy and trouble free, apart from crown rot, but having pulled some stems this afternoon the leaves are crawling with the little beasts. And as a consequence I now have blackfly - my clothes are covered!!