My first tomatoes reached a delicious deep red this week. None have made it into the kitchen as yet because I can't resist eating the warm fruit directly off the vine. My pumpkins are also looking quite spectacular, some photos of which I've included below. I also have some images of my newly flowering artichokes, which are fantastic.
But first, I'll share with you my latest excuse for not mowing the lawns:
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| grass, bok choi and rocket: a reseeding dream |
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| some kind of brassica. I think broccoli based on how much broccoli I grow and eat |
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| more bok choi |
This is the turkish pumpkin (I forget its official name). Now, I was advised not to pick pumpkins until the leaves wither and die, but is that true? These pumpkins look pretty ready to eat.
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| nestled up against the fence |
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| Is it just me or do these pumpkins look kind of rude? |
My butternuts are not quite so orange, but I've got a few working hard at the moment. I grew the pumpkins around the young apricot tree, which has worked out well. There's no point sacrificing my good garden beds to such a space-hogging vegetable, and the apricot seems to like the company.
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| this is the most mature of the butternuts |
The green artichoke has burst into flower:
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| totally worth letting the artichoke go to flower for |
My purple artichoke is still considering its position, but the largest bud is looking massive. I'll be interested to see if the purple artichoke produces purple flowers too.
Lastly, thank you to the person who practices the recorder diagonally over the back fence somewhere. I used to be rather anti-recorder following the compulsory primary school lessons, but for some reason I quite like gardening to the mostly harmonic minor keyed songs.
