It's a miracle! My broad beans have been resurrected!

Phoenix-like, my broad beans have emerged from the dead black flowers which gave a very convincing impression of being disease-ridden.  I had an inkling there was hope after googling the problem, and seasoned gardeners always seemed to reply to miserable amateurs like me by questioning whether they had examined the plants closely to see if pods were emerging from the black flowers. 

I confess to feeling a plonker after my last blog post, but am thrilled to see I've got a very wholesome crop on the way, and this gardening game is all about learning.  The plants are very different from last year though, only reach my knees, with beans tightly-packed on the stems, so am wondering if I've used a different type this year, or if it's because I planted them directly into the soil rather than starting them off earlier in pots as I did last year, producing chest-high plants.

Watering

We've had a long hot dry period here in Wales, which has been fantastic for everything in the garden, but has meant we've really had to concentrate on the watering.  Water butts are dry everywhere, and we've been using the hose to soak the plot and fill every receptacle possible.

We fill everything we can find.  We even filled a wheelie bin (not pictured) one
day.  We've since collected more vessels than this.

When it's as hot as it has been, getting wet with the watering is a pleasure.

Tunnel

We're running out of space in the polytunnel, so I've booted out the rickety trestle table and tidied up the tools so I can sow more lettuce and some carrots for the winter.  

Ta-dah! Space created!

The first tomatoes are appearing, and I'm still ruthlessly removing the side shoots so they don't turn into a crazy jungle.  I've spent loads of time weeding in the tunnel and transformed the tomatoes and the sweetcorn.

Before...

First tomatoes,
Oodles of flowers.

After!

I've been advised to trim the grapevine back to the bunches, and now the baby grapes are revealed I can see what a fantastic place a polytunnel is for grapes.  They are way ahead of outdoor ones.

Only planted this vine last year, so have no idea how the grapes taste.  According to the pic on the label they are green (will check the variety) but will they be sweet?  Or will I need to add home-made wine to my list of culinary delights?

I'm picking daily spinach, parsley and salad leaves, and although the rocket is flowering, the leaves are still tender and tasty, and the flowers have a nutty flavour.

The salad leaves continue to be gorgeous, but I'm aware they will start
bolting soon, so need to get a new row in.  For now though they are
mild tasting and tender.

Lovely aromatic basil.

I'd forgotten I sowed another row of spinach.
It's very welcome though, as the old stuff is
only good for cooking now and it'll be great to
have some baby leaves to add to salad.

Purple Sprouting

Meanwhile my purple sprouting broccoli plants were starting to go leggy and yellow, so it was time to dig another bed for them.  

Although this bed had been turned over in March, it was like
digging a field from scratch.

It was incredibly hot and took hours and hours as I had to
have regular breaks.  Once it was dug I went over it and
over it to try and remove maximum weeds.

And then it needed tons of raking...

Before finally getting the little plants in.  I added  my only
two butternut squash plants to the patch too.

 Peas & Courgettes

I've got a few peas in the tunnel and more outside, and although I know they'll never make it back to the dinner table, they are great for snacking on when working.

Along with freshly-pulled baby carrots, they are great for feeding anyone who gives me a hand too!

Oscar's favourite snack.

One day I'll grow enough so we can actually have them for dinner,

but for now they are delicious, sweet and crisp.

I have started picking courgettes already.  I am amazed by the way they go from having a few flowers to suddenly being fully fledged courgettes that need picking before they resemble marrows.

They were supposed to be mixed coloured courgettes, but every plant except one has turned out to be very pale green courgettes.  A shame because I really like the colour combination of having some bright yellow ones.

Only one traditional green plant, and I'll be interested to see if I can detect a difference in their  flavours.

Weeny baby pumpkin.  Every pumpkin is currently at this stage.

And finally...

Oscar cut all the rhubarb.  It was quite thin, probably through lack of rain, but there certainly was plenty of it.  It's now stewed, in a pie, with the rest heading for the freezer.

My favourite bit.  Finally relaxing in my tunnel, pretty exhausted with a chilled
bottle of cider Oscar kindly brought for me.  Bless him!