The vegetable garden produces...

   It has been a mixed week weather wise. Some sun, some rain, some cloud. Not the most enjoyable from my point of view but for the veggies...they have loved it!
   I am now harvesting a whole host of stuff! Potatoes, cucumbers (x2 varieties), onions (red, white,  bedfordshire champion, Spanish) shallots, french beans (haricot vert), borlotti beans, cabbage, celery, lettuce (x3 varieties), cauliflower, kohl rabi, carrots, melon, celeriac, sweet pepper, courgette, pumpkin, butternut squash..all in all too much but hey, rather that than too little I guess!
   So what has been going on? In the poly tunnel my overhead wire to which the growing string for my tomato's was attached broke! Fortunately no damage to the plants and the result is that I have had to tie the strings to the crop bars. This has meant that there is more space between the plants so that is going to help with keeping them aired and ripening the toms. A disaster turns into an advantage. I have planted out more primo cabbage which is being my most successful summer cabbage. White fly is a problem and I need to research some sort of bio control I guess. Swarming ants which have not been a problem other than a couple of  birds have decided that they are good to eat and are coming into the poly tunnel. More lettuce sown in modules and I need to decide what I am doing as regards to winter crops. Generally I am not happy with the results from growing plants from seeds so I may just buy some in, in particular red cabbage and winter cabbage. In the "tomb" a gourd is growing away and the tomato's I have planted there are doing fine. 
  Outside the garden has gone nuts. Of course, the weeds are there too and are a continual issue. The chickens are still being a menace but in the end the damage they do is not too great and it is good fun throwing lumps of dirt at them. Rosebelle potato's have done well again this year and I am looking forward to digging up the Desiree main crop. They should be great. Borlotti beans and haricot vert are producing a lot of beans. I have a melon with many more coming on. I reckon they need a little bit more sun and they will produce an awlful lot more I am sure. 
  Preparation for next year has started. The onion/shallot bed will become my brassica bed for next year and I have already forked it over and piled on some muck. More muck is needed and it is one of many jobs to do. I have more leeks to plant out and that is a priority as I need them to be established before autumn. The carrots urgently need thinning or I will not get any big ones!
  Right. I am back to the garden before the rain that is threatening starts to fall. Weeds to pull as always and seeds to sow!