The garden is yielding up proper food now, too. After dismal results with the strawberry plants, which concentrated more on replicating themselves than they did on making fruit, the beans are now pumping out edible veg almost as quickly as we can pick it. On Sunday we threw 150 grams of French beans and 75 grams of runner beans in the boiling pan. Tonight, another 180 grams of French beans, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say they were the best beans I’ve ever eaten. 180 grams is pretty good going for three extra days on the vine, considering we picked off every suitable pod we could find on Sunday.

The broccoli plants are now a good foot and a little bit tall, and the sprout plants are not far behind. The first batch of potatoes is scheduled for digging up in two weeks’ time when Viv arrives, and the beetroot, although slow, is getting fatter by the day. I even had to thin my newly-sown lettuces yesterday.

The only flowers I have tried growing are sunflowers. I popped one seed in each of two pots, and they have both come up trumps. They’ve spent several weeks racing each other up to the six feet mark, and now are both in bloom, the slightly shorter one just a few days ahead of its two-inch-taller sibling. They make for a very cheery view from the kitchen sink.

Related posts:

1. Has-beans
2. Squash and Dwarf French Beans
3. Flowers in the garden