The broad beans and the peas finished at the end of July. The peas had grown so well that they pulled over the support that I had given them and broke a few stems. I’ll have to investigate options for a stronger support system for next year. The broad beans were extremely tasty. The climbing French beans then took over and I’ve had a good helping every day throughout August and they only finished a couple of days ago. I steam these climbing beans for about three to four minutes and they have been wonderful.
My onions and garlic were harvested in July and they have given me a much better harvest that last year. Last year they had suffered in the heatwave, but this year I have been much better at keeping them watered during the warm spells that we had. I left them to dry for about three weeks and I’ve now put them into their storage bags and they’ll see me through the winter. They were replaced with the broccoli and what I thought were brussels sprouts but have turned out to be cauliflower! I have covered these two crops to keep them protected against the cabbage white butterfly, although somehow a couple of these butterflies have got into the broccoli on a couple of occasions.
I’ve been really pleased with the raspberries and they are extremely nice. I’m now trying to work out how I can fit some more raspberry plants in. This may be at the expense of the strawberries, but I’ll wait until they have been through a second year before making any decisions on this.
In the greenhouse, my tomatoes have been tasty. I have a good crop on the chillies and the sweet peppers. I have two melons on the Alvaro plants. I also have some fruits developing on the Pepino melon plants.
