August Already

If you live in the UK, you don't need me to tell you we have been experiencing the best July since records began. Its amazing, the sunshine has meant that the garden has gone mad, stuff growing at rapid rates and prolifically. That is part of the reason there have been no blogs lately as I have been struggling to keep up, of course I have also been making the most of the weather and getting out and about having a wonderful summer. 

So whats been growing, well all the usual stuff plus a few new things, so its mostly the new stuff I will write about today. 

Beetroot. Its like Marmite, love it or hate it. In this house we have a 50/50 split. I love it Jim hates it. but I planted some anyway. As I have already written about, the leaves were attacked by some sort of maggoty thing, but once I picked them off, they grew rapidly again. 

So here they are, my first beetroot

I found a nice recipe to roast them with some of my homegrown shallots and thyme, so thats what I did. I left them cooling in a bowl in the kitchen, and some time later wandered back to find this

If only I could persuade Jim to try them, they were delicious, but as you can see he has pretty strong views about beetroot. 

So other newbies in the garden include corn on the cob.

And a selection of unusual squash that I got from an American website. They are all growing really well. 

This is a baby Blue Hubbard Pumpkin, it could reach up to 40 lbs.

And this is a Custard Squash, they took a while to get going and the early ones all dropped off, but the plants seem to have got the hang of it now and are growing these perfect little things, they taste like courgette.

Here are a few pics of the summer staples, tomatoes and courgettes, so many I can't keep up. And the spud crop this year was the best yet. 

And flowers, so many flowers, they are just glorious, I am running out of places to put them and people to give them too.

I have grown Zinnias this year for the first time and I think they are heading towards the top of my favourite plant list. Look at this beauty

And another beauty is my Mongolian Giant sunflower. I entered the 2014 challenge, run by the lads at the Vegetablism blog . They sent me the seeds and left me to it. I planted all the giants but only two germinated and this is the bigger of the two. Its huge!!

The stem is close to 8 feet now and the flower head is over a foot wide. I will definitely be growing these again, they look amazing. 

So thats about all from the garden, out and about its been perfect weather for an  old British sports car, so we have been enjoying using her. This month our club run was to the historic village of Bucklers Hard in the New Forest. Not really much of a run for us as its only up the road, but we went anyway, because we had been given permission to drive the cars onto the historic High Street. Not something that happens very often. I think you will agree that the cars looked amazing in this wonderful setting. 

If you are ever in the New Forest the village should be at the top of your list of places to visit. 

And finally Gibson. He hasn't been on top form of late. At the beginning of July he developed a bit of a limp. He had an infected pad, and so two weeks of antibiotics followed. They didn't work, but the swelling went down enough to see he had something in his paw. That meant surgery, so he had it a couple of weeks ago. Its healing very slowly, he can't walk on anything other than grass, so he has been trapped in the garden. Hopefully this week he can get out and about again.

Lets hope we get the best August on record as well. Enjoy the sunshine, wherever you are.