I haven’t written about the vegetable garden for a while, but we are enjoying the home-grown produce so much.  After a long time of producing a handful of cherry tomatoes, the tomato vine is beginning to flourish.  These small tomatoes are packed with full flavour – so much tastier than the ones available in the supermarket, and even in the local fruit and vegetable shop.  It really gives us the impetus to plant a few different varieties of tomato in the greenhouse.

Our teeny tiny capsicum plant has had a growth spurt too. Although small, it is becoming adorned with capsicums.  The first two capsicums to come off this plant I picked today.  They are quite small, but a glorious red colour.  Flowers and small bubbles of green indicate that more capsicums are on their way.

Our zucchini seem to be growing slowly, and we pick two or three small zucchini each week.

We’ve also got three or four kilograms of potatoes we dug up in the bottom of the pantry to use, along with the last of the shallots. It’s getting to the point where we can create a meal using all of our own vegetables.

A couple of weeks back I planted some beetroot seeds, chilli seeds and basil seeds.  The basil has not sprouted, so is unlikely to do so now.  However, the chillies are growing, and the odd beetroot.  The dwarf beans I planted a couple of months ago are finally adorned with flowers and small curved beans, so with a bit of luck, in a couple of months time we will have a different crop of vegetables to cook.

Over the next week, I am going to work out which of the seeds I have put aside can be planted, and where – the open air vegetable garden or the enclosed greenhouse.  I’m reading up on crop rotation to thwart pests by changing the type of plant grown in specific spots. So, the potato patch is still unplanted until I work out the best vegetables to grow there next.

I am SO looking forward to Autumn.