A miscellany

Most days I take a wander round the garden with my camera in hand, to see if there is anything photogenic. It's actually a very good way of checking on the progress of my plants, because it encourages me to look at them very closely. Here are a few of the things I saw yesterday.

The Japanese Anemone "September Charm" is in full bloom now, and attracting lots of Hoverflies.

The first flowers on the Rudbeckia "Goldsturm" will be opening soon.

Last Autumn I divided my Rudbeckia and put pieces of it in several different places, so it will be interesting for me to see where it does best.

The Blueberries are ripening now:

It's a good job I have them netted, otherwise the Blackbirds would be stealing them already!

Blueberries - bird's eye view

We ate the first ripe tomato a couple of days ago - yes we shared one cherry-sized tomato between us - and now there are more tomatoes turning colour on several plants, particularly the smaller ones like Losetto, Maskotka and Sungold.

"Maskotka"

"Sungold"

The bigger tomatoes normally ripen later. These "Costoluto Fiorentino" ones are a long way from ready. Don't they have an odd speckly colouring?

"Costoluto Fiorentino"

Likewise, it will be quite a while before these Cherokee Purple turn colour. It's usually worth the wait though, because they ripen to a beautiful deep bronzy-purple colour.

"Cherokee Purple"

I anticipate harvesting the first Runner Beans within the next few days. These early ones are very curved; I hope later on I will get lots of nice long straight ones.

Runner Bean "Scarlet Emperor"

Here's a plant you have look at very closely to notice - it's Winter Savory. As you can see, it's flowering now. That's OK because it has done its main job for the year, which is complementing Broad Beans. I think Winter Savory goes brilliantly with Broad Beans - just like Mint goes with new potatoes.

Winter Savory

I have lots of little Lettuce plants coming along, and some of them are nearing the size at which they could reasonably be planted-out. These "Yugoslavian Red" are just beginning to develop red speckles.

Lettuce "Yugoslavian Red"

When my onions are lifted I plan to replace them with endives and radicchio for harvesting in the Autumn, so I have some seedlings for those too:

Radicchio "Rossa di Verona"

I'll conclude my tour for today with a photo of a tiny spider I saw lurking on one of my chilli plants: