My first eggplant of the season
It’s exciting picking the first eggplant of the season from your own garden, or picking anything you’ve grown. It happened very quickly once it emerged. Within a week it was ready for picking. The sun had shone, I’d remembered to water it every day – it’s in a pot so evaporation is a constant concern.
The bees have been busy and now a little white one has emerged. It’s grown heaps in two days. It will be the first white eggplant I’ve ever grown. Another first!
And the zucchini started blossoming. Out came the first flowers, and a few female ones with baby zucchini growing. It’s been stinky hot with not much rain so everything has got a march on. Good. That’s what I love about gardening – you get results for your work.
I planted butter beans and something went wrong. They weren’t particularly healthy specimens to begin with but I bought them anyway as I was desperate to get some. And guess what? Although they look terrible – nothing that a little trimming won’t fix – they are the first to flower with teeny weeny beans already. Beans for Christmas? You betcha. The leaves do look yellow though … maybe the compost was not dug through the soil evenly (only one person to blame for that).
I saved scarlet runner bean seeds from last year and popped them in the soil wondering whether they would come to anything and about two-thirds of them have! I think it was a bit wet when I stuck them in the soil so some may have rotted. Mmmm. Now I’ve got them climbing up the little piece of trellis from last year with a couple of bamboo canes to support as well once they get going. And I’ve snipped up old winter tights to use as ties for the plant – no need to pay money for something like that. I’ve also planted a borage plant to encourage bees to visit this part of the garden, and edged it with golden marjoram. It’s a first for golden marjoram and it looks to have settled in well.
When I had to dismantle the garden in May I potted up all sorts of things including tarragon and it’s come away nicely in pots. It’ll carry on for about 7 years if you cut it back at the end of each summer.
