I *think* i have fixed the archive problem i was having. Fingers crossed.

Very Hungry Caterpillars
When Millie and i were in the garden on Sunday i found my Calabrese plants had been munched to death by literally hundreds of caterpillars. Some of the plants were just stems!!! I consulted my books and it said to pick them off and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. Now call me an old softy but i couldn't really bring myself to do this (most were just babies!). So i selected 4 for us to observe and put them in a jar, and the rest i distributed about the garden (ok, secretly hoping they would be eaten by birds, frogs, hedgehogs.....).


Browsing Merry's Blog the other day i discovered she was having the same problems (see Sat 26th July) Merry's caterpillars look just like ours.

and The Enormous....courgette!

Been in the garden this morning and found this!!!!



It is obviously one i missed when i checked on Sunday - i can't believe the size of it!



Dd found it highly amusing too!

Yesterday we picked our first lot of beans, runner and French. We had them for lunch and they were yummy. I've never thought much of french beans in the past - always seemed a bit tasteless- so i was pleasently surprised by our crop as they were lovely, sweet and crisp.
The peas that i planted the other day are starting to emerge :o) We have taken the other lot down now as they were making the whole row unstable and also i think the had powdery mildew on them???? Or something like that anyway.

It has been very windy here today. I just popped up to the veg garden to make sure everything was ok and disaster....one of the canes in my pea row has snapped in two! This wouldn't be too much of a problem (as the peas are all but finished) except for the fact that the row is lashed to the bean row :~((( I have had a little look, but i tied it on so well that i can't undo them. I am awaiting DP's help - hopefully it will survive that long.

I planted a row of autumn peas (Kevledon Glory i think??) yesterday evening. A bit late but hopefully not *too* late. The Alderman peas are just about finished now. I also planted another row of leaf beet and radishes.

I saw our neighbour whilst i was doing the watering and gave her some courgettes (only about a kilo left now, lol) and in return she gave me some of her tomatoes and some beans, which is great as mine are no where near ready yet!





The round ones are "Tando da Nizza", the yellow "gold bush" and the regular ones are "defender" all recipes greatfully received!!!

Now, because i finally know how ...some pictures.




This picture of the herb garden was taken at the beginning of last month





...and this was taken today.


The coriander has run to seed now, always seems to happen so quickly. The dill has also gone to seed. The parsley that i fretted over all those weeks ago is now flourishing as you can see (bottom left bed). The basil (bottom right) is just about to flower so i think i will nip some leaves off and freeze them.





This is the pea and bean row (bed 3).

This was also taken at the beginning of June. The peas were starting to climb but there were no beans to be seen. In fact they maynot even have been planted at this stage - can't remember!




Today!

The peas (Alderman) are just about finished now. I'm thinking about planting an autumn crop but not sure if i've left it too late. The first lot of runner beans are starting to form and the second batch (bottom right) are just starting to climb. On the other side of the supports are two lots of climbing French bean (Neckar Queen). The first lot of these are now in flower.




This is bed 2.

There is Calabrese (at the bottom of the photo), then my block of sweetcorn, then three mammoth courgette plants. The huge plants you can see against the fence at the back are Jerusalem Artichokes. We have loads of them and don't even like the bloomin things that much. They are impossible to get rid of!! The sweetcorn is doing ok. the top two rows don't seem to be doing as well as the other two though, and i have no idea why.

Well i have succeeded (i hope) in changing the skin AND adding photos!!! I will feel quite chuffed with myself if this actually works!

Will not post much more now as must go to bed but things have grown SO much in the past month. Will try and write a bit of an update and post some "before" and "after" type shots tomorrow.