A last-ditch effort?

As my regular readers will know, my cucumber plants have been a dismal failure this year. So dismal that I planted some beans in the "cucumber bin" to see if I could get at least some return from that space. The beans in question (climbing French bean "Cobra") have grown away quickly and the first one has reached the top of its 7-foot bamboo cane. Hopefully it will soon start flowering, otherwise it will be too late to set pods before we get the first frosts (eek, that might be THIS month!)

The sole surviving cucumber plant however, though by no means what you could describe as "vigorous", has finally produced a cucumber that might eventually turn out to be half decent...

You can see from the size of the old brick that the fruit is resting on that this cucumber is still small  - maybe 6 inches? With a bit of luck it will grow to double that size. And it even looks a respectable shape!

Next door my grapes are coming on quite nicely. You didn't know I had grapes?

Actually they are NOT grapes - they are berries of the Callicarpa or Beauty Bush. In a few weeks time they will be a deep purple colour. The bush on which these are appearing is the one at the right of my first photo, supporting the cranky wooden contraption that was intended to support my cucumber plants.