Since the end of April, James and I have enjoyed our first real ‘garden’ together. We had a few plants in the yard when we lived in Bristol, but nothing really thrived there. This year? We decided to have a go at growing some veg! Courgettes (Gold Rush F1), Cucumbers (marketmore 76), and Chilli Peppers (‘hot’ patio sizzle). This year’s planting obviously brought to you by the letter ‘C’…
The cucumbers were the most successful, and we have enjoyed quite a few of them over the late summer. They tasted nothing like the cucumbers you buy from the supermarket – the skins were thick (we peeled them before eating), and they tasted so sweet and juicy!
All summer long, we had issues with pollinating the courgettes. I resorted to pollinating by hand, but that was hit and miss. I absolutely adore courgettes, they are my most favourite vegetable (along with peas!); and although we didn’t get as many as we thought we would (and the plants grew to enormous size), we still thoroughly enjoyed our modest crop. I wish yellow courgettes were available in supermarkets – they scream ‘Summer’ to me, and really liven up those cloudy summer days.
Gorgeous!
Unfortunately, we have yet to see a chilli pepper…and don’t think we will this year. They have been blighted by aphids, and to be honest, I’ve reached the end of my tether removing the horrible things! I sure we will try again next year (James loves them), but next time we’ll keep them inside for longer. Since we put the seedlings outside, they have been in the window box, and I think they were rather exposed on the top of the balcony.
It has been such fun to watch the seedlings appear, and then see them take over the balcony. Seriously, I had to carefully push leaves aside just so I could stand out there to water them! We had 4 pots of cucumbers, 3 huge pots for the courgettes, and 4 small pots for the chilli peppers.
James and I are already enjoying talking about what we’ll grow next year – maybe some herbs, and we’d love to try to grow some garlic. More variety next time, and definitely a cucumber plant or two! And we’ll plant the seeds much earlier next year, as this year we were at the end of the indoor sowing season for all three.
Now we just have to work out where we are going to store the empty pots over the winter…
