Harvests

 I love this time of year when the veggies start to grow and ripen and we can eat them fresh from the garden. My first chilli has ripened and will make a nice addition to a Bolognese sauce. The courgettes will be spiralised and used instead of spaghetti. I've plenty of garlic and onions but wish the tomatoes would hurry up. I'm still using up the shop bought ones but hopefully I won't need to buy any more for quite some time.

I've made a cover for the planter as rain is forecast and I don't want the baby seedlings to get damaged. The pop bottles are to stop people from poking their eyes out on the canes.. 

The Cuca melons are growing well and we are starting to nibble at them. It's the first time I've grown them and they taste very much like a slightly sour cucumber. I bet they make a nice pickle and as soon as we get a decent crop I'll pickle some

I think  the plant below might be a long red pepper.  The labels got mixed up earlier in the year so I'm not sure whether they are chillies or the long red peppers that I sowed. Whatever it is the crop is going to be great. The plant is smothered in fruit and they are all a decent size.

Earlier this year I got a bargain pot of basil in Aldi and used it for cuttings.  The plant is enormous now and we like to add it to salads and Bolognese. The leaves are huge and the fragrance when I water the plant is gorgeous. Basil is so easy to grow from cuttings in a glass of water that it's hardly worth buying seeds. Don't buy it from a garden centre just buy a pot from the herb section in your local supermarket. It seems to prefer the shadier part of the garden and does really well in a large pot.

Basil from cuttings.