The Garden

After a boring day of chores I just went out to the garden to breathe in the  afternoon breeze and found there were loads of tomatoes that had ripened since yesterday.
Since it's now summer proper, and after the scorching hot spell, the poor tomato plants are looking crisp, brown and somewhat naked. The lush green foliage is a distant memory, but the tomatoes are abundant. This is what happens in my garden every year. I just can't keep the foliage healthy and have good tomatoes. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be - the plant gives up on its leaves to concentrate on the fruit. I have no idea, but it's a theory.

After having picked a bumper tomato harvest, I poked around to see how everything else was going.
The zucchini plants are enormous, prehistoric looking things now, and have just about taken over the raised planter bed. Now that's lush foliage. Underneath, umpteen tiny zucchini were reaching up to me. I cut a few thumb sized ones whilst they're still tender. I could use those in a salad.
A butternut pumpkin that was planted at the same time as the zucchini, is having a hard time standing it's ground. I've trained it up onto the top of the chicken run so it can have full sun, but it has different ideas and has run along behind the salad greens and is setting little pumpkins there. I hope they set properly this time. Last year they came to nothing when they lost out to another pumpkin variety that took over the whole yard.
The chilli plants and capsicums are finally starting to set fruit. I've not managed to grow either before, so fingers crossed.
The beetroot that I planted at the beginning of Spring have only just started forming. They're all foliage. All mouth and no trousers. They have been in the ground so long now I'm tempted to give up. I'll give them another fortnight and then it's curtains for them.
The rocket I planted just a few weeks ago has run rampant all over the more delicate salad greens, and is bolting in the heat. I should have a go at making rocket pesto so it doesn't go to waste.
The herbs are all looking healthy, and there's tonnes more tomatoes to still to come.
I think I'll make Jamie Oliver's tomato chutney over the weekend. Move over CWA, I'm going to start the WCWA (The Wannabe Country Women's Association).



Baby zucchini; Capsicums; I'd better get my pinny on - more tomatoes than you could poke a stick at.