Summer treats

It's surreal to see my last garden update which was more than 3 months ago, and compare it to how my garden looks at the moment. It's been ages since my last post as the house renovation is consuming us and we have no free time at all. It's been crazy busy in the last few months and we can't wait to finalize the project and move in. My only pleasure right now is my garden. It's flourishing even though I don't spend a lot of time there. I try to keep the weeds under control, but I'm not being very successful, so I've learned to live with them.

Last year, I planted a few potatoes, and it was a disaster. It rained all summer, they got sick, infested the tomatoes as well, and in the end we only harvested a couple of them, so I was not very keen on planting them again.

This year, I needed some easy plants, so that I wouldn't have to go to the garden every day, and as you might know potatoes kind of don't require a lot of attention, so I looked for a more resistant variety and found these purple ones. I planted 18 potatoes and couldn't be happier with the result. It hasn't rained so much, so they stayed healthy and gave us these pretty purple treats.

There are not too many potatoes per plants, but it is more than enough for the two of us. They are purple on the inside too, and I find that they have better texture than standard golden potatoes. You can cook them, bake them, fry them, etc just like your regular potatoes.

Purple and pink are my favourite colours so these potatoes are a big hit for me 😊

I learned last year that cucumbers belong in the greenhouse. When it rains a lot they get sick quickly and stop producing, so last year we harvested just one tiny cucumber, but as I said I have learned my lesson. This year, I have 4 plants that keep giving us these huge cucumbers every day. It's just the beginning of the season for them, and we have already harvested almost twenty cucumbers! And they are so good!

I also have 6 pickling cucumbers plants as we love snacking on those. I tried to pickle them two years ago and failed miserably, so this year we only eat them fresh.

We got the cardoon from our neighbour. It's also called artichoke thistle, and I must admit that I have never heard of it before. I expect it to grow to about one meter in height, and then I will harvest the leaves. They can be used for stir fries, but I have no idea how they taste. I guess they are bitter, and I will let you know later if I like them.

As every year we have an abundance of red currants. I let them ripe a bit longer this year and they are so sweet and juicy. Well, not sweet as strawberries, but very sweet for red currants.

It's our first year of gooseberries, and we have so many of them out of just two tiny bushes. I don't know what's going to happen when the bushes will grow, but I might be able to feed all our neighbours with them 😊

Every day is a gooseberry day!

There are raspberries too!

I didn't manage to plant carrots on time, so I simply sprinkled some seeds in the raised bed and this is the very first carrot of this year. And to be honest, so far the only one 😉

Cucumbers make me very happy...

Borage is my favourite volunteer plant. It found its way to our garden last year, and it's spreading beautifully now. Some people remove it, but I keep it as it's the bees paradise. They love it some much. We can eat the flowers and leaves too. Honestly, its leaves are not so good as they are kind of hairy and not so pleasant in the mouth, but the flowers brighten up every salad that I make.

My roses are blooming for the second time this year already. Time flies!

I'm happy that I managed to take a photo of my peonies as a couple of days later they were destroyed by a storm. Their flowers are so heavy, and when there is too much rain they tend to bend to the ground and never come back up.

I cut down the English rose as it was becoming impossible to handle, and I thought that it wouldn't recover so quickly, but one lesson that I learned is not to underestimate the nature.

Another volunteer spreading happily across my garden are foxgloves. They are new and I have them in this purple/pink and white. Let's see what next year will bring.

Love in a mist is spreading out too. If this trend continues I will have problems to find place for veggies. In the beginning, I didn't want to plant flowers, but now when I see the bees and other insects buzzing around I like it very much.

I have no idea what this is. It started as a bunch of green stalks that took forever to grow and suddenly opened up to tons of tiny white flowers. I never pull out plants that I don't recognize, but let them grow to see what they are, and this is another success.

My olive herb is flowering this year too. I love those fluffy yellow balls of goodness.

Calendula is a tradition in our garden. It spreads by seed and I love seeing it coming back every year.

And last but not least - my perfect hydrangeas!

Look at the size of them!

I cut them each year just about 30 cm above the ground and they manage to grow up to 1.3 - 1.5 meters to make me happy with these beauties.

There are still tomatoes and peppers to show you, and if you remember I'm a tomato junkie, so this year I planted many new sorts again, and I can't wait to show them to you soon.

See you next time...