Summer seems to have got itself into some sort of a rut and is in need of a reboot to get it up and running again. Tuesday was cloudy and dry with a bit of a breeze but the temperature was around average for late July.
Our raised bed at home is doing what we hoped it would and providing us with freshly picked salad leaves rather than having to bring a bunch ready chopped from the allotment and trying to keep them fresh – assuming we remember to cut them when we visit. The cucumber is our first of the season from a mini variety called Cucino. It was very tasty, finished in one go in our lunchtime sandwiches.
It’s now getting tricky for me to walk down the greenhouse path. I’ve done my best to keep our Himrod grapevine under control but this year as an added difficulty it’s decided to have the best bunches of grapes growing directly over the greenhouse path doing its best to prevent entry. It’s a case of bending down rather low and squeezing between bunches of grapes and tomato plants growing on the other side of the greenhouse path.
We had another exotic crop to pick in the greenhouse today. Following on from our earlier success with a couple of apricots a few weeks ago we were able to pick a few figs today. Then of course if we’re very luck we’ve still got nectarines and peaches to ripen.
It looks like our nectarines will be the first to ripen as they seem to have stopped increasing in size and have started to change colour.
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It takes a whole team of Victorian glasshouse assistants to keep a grapevine under control. I've got Cucino cucumbers on the plot this year and they seem to be doing well on nice compact plants. Sweet, crunchy, smooth skinned and mini-sized - they are a different thing altogether to the old style, thick skinned, outdoor ridge cucumbers.
ReplyDeleteI've given up on the outdoor ridge cucumbers having tried Mini Munch and Cucino. Ours are growing in the coldframe but I might try a couple outdoors next year.
DeleteI'm on the look out for a team of Victorian glasshouse assistants. I'll try Amazon or E bay!