Page 10 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2024

A wander round our garden
EMILY HARRIS FNVS
The time of writing, the end of July, is probably one of my favourite times of the year when it comes to gardening. I’m not sure I will be able to say the same about the time of year when you are reading this, as the nights are drawing in rapidly and the weather has turned much colder.
My favourite period of time for gardening probably starts in mid-May, when everything (subject to the weather!) really starts to get going and where in the South of England we can start getting less hardy plants outside as we hope we have seen the last of the frosts. The garden seems to go from the stark and empty stance that it’s taken from the last bits of clearing up you did last year all through the winter and into the spring to bursting alive with all sorts of hues of green.
However, my favourite time if I have to pinpoint is probably now (end of July) when you still have all those wonderful greens, but also lots of other colours from flowers and vegetables that are in full swing. It’s also the time when most vegetables start being ready to harvest, so the garden (and fridge!) are filled to the brim.
Taking a wander round the garden (and when I say that it’s really not that big so doesn’t take very long at all!) we wanted to share some photos of what’s going on.
Tomatoes
The tomatoes have started ripening over the past couple of weeks, so there is always an abundance of different shapes and
sizes available for consumption. It’s coming up to that time of year where they will be ripening so fast that we’ll have passata,
soup, pizza base sauce and a large pot of spag bol on the go one weekend to make sure we use them whilst they’re fresh and then can enjoy them over the winter/next spring once this year’s harvest has finished.
I asked Chris to pick a favourite for this year: “I don’t know, I like them all!”
On further pushing, he landed on Sun Cherry (a standard, red cherry tomato) and Orange Luxury (a plum shaped orange tomato).
Cucumbers
Who knew two people you could eat so many cucumbers?! Sunday nights have become a cucumber stick cutting production line as I chop up the week’s
harvest into Tupperware pots in ever increasing sizes for us to take to work as
a snack during the week. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t quite cut it versus a bar of Dairy Milk, but I’m led to believe it’s better for your waistline!
This year we have four varieties: Tasty King, Carmen, Topline and Socrates.
The supports had to be put up across the greenhouse the other weekend as the plants had made their way up their first cane. I love to see the fruits hanging down in the greenhouse as you walk in, although planning the routes for each plant in a 6’
x 8’ greenhouse and ensuring they don’t come to blows is not as easy as it first seems!
French beans
Dad gave us a few leftover Venice French bean plants this year which we’ve had growing in our raised bed. These are a great cropper, and produce lovely round, tender pods (much better tasting in our opinion than the flatter varieties like Hawkesbury Wonder). They have pretty much finished cropping this week, but we’ll
10 Simply Vegetables
Tomato crop
Cucumbers