July veg patch update

by Mars

It’s been about six weeks since we planted and seeded the bulk of our summer vegetables and things are coming along nicely. Despite setbacks from slugs and pests, the bulk of our veg is doing well, and we’ll cover the top performers in the veg patch to date.

The pumpkin ‘racer’ was a late addition to our patch, and after a slow start this little guy has had a huge growth spurt, and as the name implies it’s now racing to produce pumpkins in time for October. Full speed ahead.

Pumpkin Racer

We have yellow and green courgettes on the go, and both are now doing very well. The courgettes had a few issues with slugs when they were small plants, but they’ve settled in and both have plenty of fruit now. If they remain unscathed, I reckon we’ll be enjoying the first of our courgettes in about 7-10 day’s time.

The other slow starter in the veg patch was the marrow. We planted two, but only one has truly taken off. The one that is now doubling in size every few days has also flowered and has its first tiny fruit.

Lovely flowers on the marrow bush

Our cucumbers didn’t get off to a great start. These are the mini petita cucumbers from Marshalls, which arrived in a terrible state. In recent weeks, they’ve really bounced back and the fruit is now growing at a rapid rate. We love cucumbers, so we’re very excited to be growing our own.

Mini petita cucumbers

I know that this is going to sound strange but I’m really excited about our carrots. I planted and grew these from seed; it’s an organic carrot called Autumn King 2. Initially, they wouldn’t germinate, but I nurtured and watered the seeds, and finally we got our first shoots. Since then, I’ve looked after them, and the greens above ground look strong and healthy. I’m just hoping that the carrots will be as healthy in the ground and that they’ll remain unaffected by pests.

Autumn King 2 carrots grown from seed

Last, but certainly not least, the runner beans are now also growing at a rapid rate, and they’re in bloom. No fruit yet, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer. We have a variety called Red Rum as well as runner beans from our neighbours that they’ve grown from seed for us.

Runner beans grown from seed

As fruit starts to develop on our various plants, we are getting excited by the prospect of having our own courgettes, pumpkins, cucumbers and beans, and I can barely believe that three months ago the area that is now our patch was just an unproductive grass field.

Veg patch update
Three months ago, there was no veg patch.

There’s a lot of other veg in the patch too that are doing well, but the ones mentioned above are presently the plants that are well on their way to being top performers this season after slow starts.

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