An update on the garden

As I mentioned in my last post, this year, Mr P and myself have been determined to have a go at growing our own veggies :) Last year in the old house we grew herbs on the kitchen windowsill but as we didn't have a garden we weren't really able to do more.

Here are the veggies I told you we were growing and how they are doing so far:

• spring onions - these have been great, really easy to grow and look after. We sowed them in quite deep pots and have just been pulling them up to use in salads etc. Really tasty :) I have some Winter Lisbon seeds so I am planning to sow some more of them this weekend
• courgettes - we bought a courgette plant from Wilkos for about £2 and it has been really productive. So far we've had about 5 or 6 good sized courgettes that we've been eating in stir-fries. I just had a look on the plant and there are 3 courgettes well on their way to being ready to pick :)
• tomatoes - we've had 8 plants but 3 of them were bashed to bits during the windy weather we had recently. The ones we have left seem to be doing ok. They all have tomatoes on, but they are still quite small and green yet. We're looking forward to seeing how these taste :)
• peppers - we have 4 plants which all have lots of green peppers on. The biggest are about 3 inches so hopefully these aren't too far off being ready :)
• coriander - this grew really well and we used it in curries etc. I have planted some more and am waiting for it to grow
• mint - this grew well for a while but seems to have died off. I think I might have to bite the bullet and sow some more!
• beetroot - these have grown really well and we've been eating this grated raw in salads. Yummy!
• brussel sprouts - the caterpillars got these :(
• kale - another veg lost to the caterpillars :( :(
• purple sprouting brocolli - and another :( :( :( Mental note to self - NETS
• strawberries - our little strawberry plant is in a large pot and looks like it has thrown out a runner. I'm going to keep my eye on this :)
• rocket - this grew fantastically well and we have some more on the go
• radish - again grew well and we have some more growing now
• runner beans - not sure how, but I managed to kill this off :( I've sown some more seeds but think it might be a bit late now :(

We've also sown some swiss chard and it looks like it's coming along well. This has all been a bit of an expreiment for us this year and as you can see, we have made mistakes but it certainly hasn't diminished our enthusiasm for growing our own. I've sent off for some seed catalogues and am already planning next year's planting plans.If anyone has any suggestions for varieties / veggies to try, please let me know! :)