The summer potager

I just walked out to take some photographs of the potager and spotted a most unwelcome visitor.

Cheeky little thing. It is way too young to know that humans are a menace in its life.

Right now it thinks humans supply the most delicious range of summer veg.

I’ll need to do a bit better work securing the gate.

Once Bambi had ambled off I was able to get in among the raised beds and try and capture the verdant jungle for you.

It’s all go.

I planted up (way too many) courgettes / zucchini plants in the end raised bed. This one bed gets a bit shaded from the Melrose apple tree nearby. But so far so ridiculous.

I’ll be walking over to neighbours later to leave a basket of the little things at their door. And that might be the pattern until the mole rats take over the bed and eat the roots, or the deer can get past the prickly leaves and feast. Or mildew and heat take the plants.

For now it’s just a daily treat to pick them small and see the new ones emerging from the jungle.

Another daily success is the bean picking. I swear these things grow when my back is turned. I head down first thing and hunt in among the leaves for small beans, and tuck the tendrils into the overhead grid to try and create shade for the plants growing underneath.

You have to be vigilant about getting the tendrils to snake in the right direction. Otherwise they don’t offer much in the possibilities of shade cover, but more as a trip hazard between the paths.

The rampant borlotto and even the Blue Lake variety are the most vigorous so far. I had high hopes for the monte gusto yellow bean. Imagine being able to actually see the beans as they grow rather than miss them in the foliage and end up with an inadvertent crop of whoppers.

But so far they are a bit weaker in growth; much more delicate in stem and climbing dexterity. But they might come on later this summer.

The kales are lush and merrily filling out two of the raised beds.

The hungry gap ones on the left are by far the most successful. But we still prefer the cavolo Nero fighting for space in between. Luckily I have two beds of that one variety at the top potager.

Other daily harvests include the raspberries.

Not many; just enough to munch on them as you work your way down the rows. And of course the mother load of soft fruit has to be the jostaberries.

Which reminds me, I need to get some out of the freezer for a tart. We are starting to run out of deep freezer space which is amazing. And it is definitely thanks to an absurdly mild winter and damp spring. Or do we just call it ‘wet’?

I’ve never seen so much growth on all the shrubs and fruit trees.

Cucumbers are starting to really bulk up now. And my sungolds are just the perfect treat once you have picked the raspberry pips out of your teeth and need an astringent palate cleanser.

Fear not, those monster tomatoes aren’t mine. I’m not that advanced in the garden.

But the little yellow orbs definitely are. Cherry tomatoes are just the perfect thing to give you hope for the just growing larger tomatoes to come.

If the mole rats don’t eat the roots.

Are you detecting a theme here?

This one bed has had an invasion.

I have been finding digging holes in a few places for the past ten days. And was wondering if it was a mole rat. There are telltale runs all over the lawn.

And this looks like the smoking gun..

What other animal will dig at the base of a raised bed and chew threw some fabric liner and burrow up and underneath?

Grrrrrrr.

If it chose the courgette bed I might be a bit more chilled. But the cucumbers and the beefsteak tomatoes? Really? It will be the dahlias next.

Never mind. There’s room for all…(she says, lying through gritted teeth.)

At least the deer and mole rats won’t get the lettuce. They are growing in pots safely out of the way in the potting shed.

The slugs will probably get them. But let’s be optimistic.

That’s what gardeners do best.