Late August update

Late August is a time of year when I find there is not much that needs doing in the garden apart from harvesting. I thought I'd just give you a quick tour...

The brassicas (PSB, Cabbage "Mira" and Brokali "Apollo") are growing away nicely. I have staked the 3 big PSB plants in the middle, and apart from the occasional watering there is little else that needs doing to them.

The four "Mira" cabbages were welcomed avidly by the local slug population when first planted out, so their outer leaves are a bit "lacy".

However, once I applied a few slug-pellets the situation improved markedly and they are now beginning to heart-up quite nicely.

The Brussels Sprouts are still getting taller. The one nearest the camera here is unsurprisingly the tallest, because it gets more sunshine than the others. They are all shaded to some extent by the overhanging tree.

Tallest at the left, shortest at the right - Go!

My Celeriac is growing at an agonisingly slow pace. Will it ever get big enough to be worth using, I wonder? I keep feeding it with general-purpose liquid fertiliser and watering it copiously. What else can I do?

The Leeks look healthy enough, but not yet big. That's OK by me, because they are intended for cropping in the Winter, so they have plenty of time yet to put on some weight.

The beans are doing a lot better than last year. Although I like the Runners best, I'm impressed with the yield from the "Kew Blue" French beans. Better than I had expected.

The Cucumbers, on he other hand, have not been very good this year, producing a very modest number of fruits. A stark contrast to the gluts I have had a few times in the past.

Still, having enough cucumbers is better than having too many, in my opinion. I don't like pickled cucumbers and I don't know any other way of preserving them. Maybe there are more to come too...?

As recently reported in another post, the tomatoes are cropping well now. This heart-shaped beauty is a "Larisa".

Cordon-grown or indeterminate tomato plants can get very tall if you let them, so I generally pinch out their stems when they reach the tops of their canes, but even so many of them produce 5 or 6 trusses of fruit. Some of these will not set in time to ripen before the first frosts, so it is actually best to remove the top one or two and let the plant concentrate on ripening a smaller number of fruit. This truss is on "Primavera" and is ripening well.

But this truss is further up the same plant, and I think it is unlikely that it will set fruit - which is a shame, isn't it, because it's massive.

It's not all veg in Mark's Veg Plot these days, so now let me show you some flowers too...

Echinacea "Pom Pom White"

Verbena Bonariensis

Rudbeckia Fulgida "Goldsturm"

Dahlia "Bishop of Llandaff"

Helenium

Coreopsis

Hydrangea

And finally, this one, which is both a flower and a vegetable:

Runner Bean "Enorma"