Early August Back Garden Update

We had two weeks solid of rain in the second half of July. The back garden courgettes did better than the front garden ones (which have pretty much succombed to powdery mildew). While you can see the brown leaves on these plants, they produced a little during the rainy weeks, and are now back in full production.

A new cluster of flowers has come into production on each plant.

I didn't expect to leave the kale going for this long, especially without any protection from the cabbage whites, but it continues to produce new leaves every week. The white butterflies have reached a new peak this week. I saw five at once fluttering around the garden.

The texture is fine for stir fry, if finely chopped, and for soups and stews. A bit too tough and coarse for salads.

The fennel is massive. I gave away 10 or 12 small baby plants to passers-by, so the whole town will probably be covered in fennel next year :-)


The buckwheat is flowering, so we'll see how long it takes for seeds to form. I think I'll try planting them a bit more densely next year.

The strawberries are at the end of their season. The rain meant we lost probably a dozen to mould. I've moved them out of the netted area now.


The cabbages are under the netting now, but are also getting attacked by the cabbage whites. Unfortunately, the netting over it isn't really meant for insect protection, so the butterflies do find their way in.


I'm waiting to see if the broad beans will start producing again. We had quite a harvest, and then production dropped right off during the rains.

This is some sorrel for salads. I've not tasted it yet, but it's supposed to be a bit tart and lemony. The smaller plants are some amaranth that unfortunately never got planted out.

The warm weather in early July caused all the greens to bolt. The borecole is also extremely attractive to the cabbage whites. I've started new plants in the house, so perhaps I'll be better about netting them properly.