Veggie patch update

I feel that the time is right for a little update on my vegetable patch now that I've got all the "support systems" and "climbing aids" in place and the plants are growing nicely. My pumpkin's blooming and the cucumbers, tomatoes and garden peas are budding.

Here you see my little patch of heaven. The picture's taken today after a night and a day of massive rain and everything's got that clean, beautiful shade of bright green the raid always brings midsummer.


My poor garden peas were falling over and needed a bit of help and something to hold on to, so I gathered my tools and set to work. I have a sweet spot for things homemade and a little rough around the edges so there was never any doubt about the style of the trellis. Reclaiming materials and using what my garden gives me is also something I love and the materials used for this ended up being the trunk from two small trees we took down earlier this summer for the side poles, an old 1x1inch thin beam from the shed as the top support, a "pretty" peach coloured skirt board (you can only see the unpainted side of the board on the picture) as the bottom support and for the bit that the peas were actually going to climb on I used various branches that needed to be cut off some of our garden trees (rowan, birch, apple, pussy willow and elder) and the rest I gathered from our "garden dump" were we've thrown a lot of twigs, trees and branches that only lies there to rot. It's nice that it can be used instead of just waste away. And I'm pretty happy about the result, looks good and it's homemade.


Here you have my five cucumber plants, they've just started budding slightly and the little tentacles has only recently poked out into the sun reaching for something grab a hold of. I decided on letting them grow upwards instead of going all creepy crawly on the ground because, firstly, I sort of think it's better once the cucumbers come that it's not lying on the ground, but rather hangs freely. Secondly, my patch isn't that big and this way they won't require that much space. I found the materials for the support for these at "the dump" as well and I just used regular cotton string to tie the simple triangular construction together.
Next to the cucumbers you can see a few of my tomato plants. I've only got nine left now since I gave away half of the plants I originally had, but I figured that nine plants will be more than enough for my small household. The sticks that support the tomatoes are bought though. Yes, I am a little ashamed about that, but I just couldn't be bothered looking for nine straight sticks that day and I found a packet of sticks for just under


I had to include a close up of my pumpkin plantl since I think it's so much fun that it's blooming and several more buds are about to unfold as well. I really hope I'll get a decent sized pumpkin in October so I have something to carve for Halloween and my birthday.


I have learned to appreciate the rain this summer after realising how much I have to water the patch to get the equivalent of one night of proper rain.

Have a great summer and enjoy the sun! I know I will!