How Nasturtiums Saved Civilisation: A Horror Story
More on that in a minute.
Pretty!
So, as it happens, I'm terrible about keeping up with this blog lately, for which I am heartily sorry, and shall endeavour to do better.
Meanwhile, something something seasons change and all of that. The beans provided a few meals worth of produce, which was very satisfying, and even The Feel Good Story of The Year, Runty Mr. Bean managed to get in on the action. The plants were largely unmolested by wildlife, which was unexpected and fabulous, and we'll definitely grow some, next year, especially because the plants were short and manageable.
Cleared out to make way for new things!
The big story, now, is The Invasion of the Caterpillars, and nasturtiums earning their keep. Earlier this Summer, you might remember, we were overrun with nasturtiums because I was a bit overzealous with their planting, and we thought that, as ways to die, being overrun with nasturtiums wasn't all that terrible. In the background, however, black fly and Large Cabbage White moths were busily laying all sorts of eggs. We tried to stay ahead of the game with some spray, but quickly lost momentum and basically forgot, until we looked more closely at the plants and were grossed out so pretended nothing was happening. Also earlier, this Summer, you might remember the lacy leaves of my beloved peas after the snails had a run at them.
That is what we now have with the nasturtiums, but with the added horror of wriggling caterpillars brazenly in the open (except we came out the other morning to see that many of them were gone, and there was a little pile of barf in a corner, so we think the Chupacabra came through, had a snack, and then perhaps regretted his choices. We are unsure.). The up side is that they're doing what they do, which is to serve as a decoy for these fucking things - our Cavolo Nero is decidedly better off than it could be, under the circumstances. The down side is that now they look awful.
Hungry hungry jerks caterpillars.
The view from the kitchen door
Bees love borage!
Herbs and flowers
Tomatoes and lettuces
Happy marigolds in the midst of it all
Courgette, more flowers, hidden turnips, carrots, Cavolo Nero, and radishes
The next big story is the tomatoes. We planted cherry and plum tomatoes, with no idea how it would go, and now we have a hedge. We're both hoping that this current run of screamingly hot weather will encourage them to actually ripen, or we'll drown in an enormous vat of green tomato chutney after we've alienated everyone we know by giving as much of it away as we could. The possibilities are heady, though, and we're quite happy that it's gone as well as it has, thus far. William keeps apologising to people about not knowing we'd bought bush varietals (I knew, but I'd chosen them), which I don't really understand, but ::shrug:: I'm not sure why it matters, as long as they grow, right? Next year we'll put them in some tomato cages, though, because they're falling under their own weight a bit.
Tomatoes for days
I tried to start some more things in the seedling trays for late planting, but I couldn't get them to work. I think they actually got too hot, so I'll probably just go back to the tried-and-true "stick seeds in the ground and hope for the best" method that seems to work. And there's weeding to be done.
At any rate, the honey bees have been regular visitors, of late, and I saw an actual butterfly, just now, which is incredibly gratifying. Some wasps, now, too, heralding the waning of the season.
And now it's time for a Pimm's.
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