I love our family garden. A year and a half ago, we dug four big plots for fruit and vegetables, and have been enjoying homegrown produce alongside the standard flowers in the garden ever since. Having an urban kitchen garden makes me fantasise, à la Marie Antoinette, about having my own little farm with greenhouses, chickens and beehives. Maybe one day.
The first half of this summer was fairly slow in terms of harvestable produce, but the yield has just exploded in these past few weeks thanks to the combination of heatwave and rain we've been having in London! In June we had strawberries, pineberries, rocket and broadbeans. July brought rhubarb, gooseberries, artichokes and spinach. This month, we're enjoying absolutely tons of cucumbers, tomatoes, several varieties of courgettes, tatsoi, pak choi, Russian red kale and brambles! We've also had beetroots all summer long (which is amazing seeing as I only planted a few seeds over Easter!) We've also got dill, basil, rosemary, sage, tarragon and French beans in pots and the plots and almonds, olives and figs growing on the trees, but I doubt the latter two will ripen without another few weeks of concentrated sun. It's been a prolific summer.
Here's a mix of DSLR and phone photos to show you some of the things we've been growing in the garden this year!
Regular basil and Thai sweet basil.
Pretty rhubarb.
White cosmos, planted by Alex.
Essential gardening kit!
Mini tomatoes.
Lavender.
Almonds.
Sage flowers and a white allium.
Baby figs.
Beans, an 8-ball courgette, cucumber and tatsoi.
My mother's pride and joy.
A tromboncino d'albenga, so named because it looks a bit like a mini trombone.
While we were away, the vegetables went crazy. 8-ball and chiaro di nizza courgettes that turned into marrows, and the tromboncini d'albenga grew insanely long!
We filled the marrows with minced beef for lunch.
A tree-like tatsoi leaf.
The garden in the early morning.
Matching my nails to my beetroots. Because vegetables are the best fashion accessories...
Brambles that stained my fingers, with a borage flower on top.
With limited space, gardening can be difficult in London, but it's very therapeutic to look after plants and reap the benefits a few weeks later. I especially love growing vegetables because it means we hardly need to buy them from the supermarket over the summer!
Do you like gardening, and if so, what do you grow?
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