Anyone for Cucumber?

I love this time of year. It’s so special, particularly when the weather is so lovely, because you know it’s not going to last for ever. Before you know it, we’ll be lurching towards the festive season.

Late summer is my festive season. It’s a time to reap the rewards of all the endeavours of the last few months. Apart from a spot of watering and deadheading, the garden is taking care of itself for now, so my attention has turned to the greenhouse.

I can potter about in there for hours. LBC on the radio. Secateurs in hand. Time to snip off the bottom leaves of the tomato cordons to allow more light onto the ripening fruits. Can’t resist eating a few whilst I’m at it. Some of the larger leaves and immature fruits on the mini aubergine plant can come off now too, to divert its energy into beefing up the egg sized fruits.

I was perhaps a touch too enthusiastic about cucumbers this year, growing one mini, one long and one round variety. The vines have worked their way around the entire length of the wires suspended along three sides, level with the apex of the roof, creating my own mini version of the Tropical Rainforest Biome at the Eden Project! I’ve practically got cucumbers coming out of my ears! I’ve only got myself to blame for such high productivity, as I’ve been giving everything a high potash liquid feed twice weekly since early July.

The greenhouse is also home to numerous seedlings and cuttings at varying stages of growth. Big and bumptious persicaria Lisan set seed in the bordering gravel paths, and I couldn’t help myself from potting them up. Runners of mint, pulled up before they took over the rill-that-is-now-a dry-riverbed, and rooted in water, also growing on. On the bottom row of staging are pots of iris rhizomes, rescued from the neglected roof terrace. And, I have to confess, some of my hope-over experience perennials that have never liked my soil, rescued from extinction and lovingly restored to health, before being sold on or given away to more suitable owners.

It's no wonder David and I never go away for more than three nights over the summer. The last thing I do before departure, and first thing on our return, is water the greenhouse.

Anyway, must get on, I’ve got to tidy up to make room for more cuttings of my cherished salvias.

Love, Caroline x