The tunnel is chocabloc right now and the good weather is ensuring rampant growth.
Lettuces I like to have lots of as we eat salad most days. There’s red ones…
and green ones. Full Moon is coming up next Friday so it’s a good time to plant new seeds. I don’t follow the Moon calendar religiously but plants do seem to germinate more quickly and be somewhat stronger. If nothing else it’s a good way to divide up the work. Thursday is a leaf day so the new Lettuces and other leaf crops will go in then.
These oriental salad leaves have gone crazy. Interplanted between the garlic I think I planted them a little too thickly. Still lots of pickings though to spice up our salads. I think I’ll plant some fresh supplies of this too.
Strawberries have started to ripen.
There’s great joy in heading to the house with that first precious handful. Slugs are a big problem this year. I’ve already used as much of the organic slug pellets as I used in the whole of last year’s growing season. Whole trays of seedlings have been devoured overnight. I was particularly peeved at the Icelandic Poppies which I’d overwintered in the conservatory. I potted them on, quite big plants at this point, only to discover the whole lot devoured next morning.
Courgettes will be fruiting soon too. When we went out for my birthday meal Andy had raw courgette pasta with a pesto sauce. It was delicious. The pasta is made with a tool called a spiraliser and I am going to get one. The place we went to was in Westport, County Mayo. Called the Purple Root Cafe it is a raw, vegan cafe and the food is yummy. Highly recommend it if you’re going that way.
Broad Beans are cropping now. Don’t think I’ll plant them in the tunnel again though. They are in the ground such a long time and become so gangly that they need staking. Outdoors for these next year.
Outside the potatoes which were planted in pots in April are doing very well. These are Ratte, a French variety that has a lovely nutty flavour.
The main crop of Setanta are now above ground. These are said to be a floury potato and are also blight resistant.
Red Cabbage is starting to heart up nicely
and the Tuscan Kale is doing well.
It’s looking like a good fruit year. Apples and Plums have set lots of fruit. Home grown Plums are so different to what one buys in the shops, juicy and delicious. Actually I never buy shop Plums anymore as they are mostly inedible. I freeze a lot of Plums when we have them. Just split them, take out the stones, bag them up and into the freezer. Lovely for preserves and baking.
There’s even a chance of Cherries this year. The big challenge here is to get them before the birds. Netting will be required I think.
In the conservatory the Grapes are doing really well this year. This grape was here when we bought the place. It was much overgrown and produced little fruit. It has responded well to being severely pruned last year.
So it’s looking like a good productive year here at Flynn’s Cottage. Hope your garden is doing well too.
fromacountrycottage 
Lovely Bridget and Andrew, I like your tips too, like the raw courgette, as you know we get plenty here too, but at the moment everything is so slow as have had lots of rain and storms, hopefully will pick up soon, although have lots of fruit, apples, pears, plums, lovely
Hi Julie! Everything is very lush here as there’s been quite a bit of rain. Not as much as parts of England though I do believe. Not so much sun in June as April and May but hopefully that will change. As a result flowers are slow to appear. Hope you and George have a great year on the farm. xx
Incredibly productive and what a great season for it. I miss not being able to knuckle down to a food garden this year, my first time as I ripped up my collapsing raised beds to build replacements .. and it never happened.
Very inspiring, and I look forward to the jams that I am sure will be produced from some of the fruit there 🙂
Definitely John, there’s a great crop on the Blackcurrants. Best jam of all in my view.
Fabulous photos thanks for sharing. Slugs are having a field day with all this damp!
They sure are and they’re so big this year too. Monsters in our garden. Someone told me the other day they found a ten inch slug but I think that was a bit of an exaggeration!
It is great to see all the growth and fruiting at this time of year.Your garden and tunnel are looking good,Bridget x
Just had a look at your new blog. Everything seems to be doing great for you this year too. Happy days!
Thank you for the lovely tour Bridget. My mouth is watering. I am so jealous of the long growing season you have….it is always a rush here to get things in the ground before it gets too hot for the cool weather plants and to give the hot weather plants enough time to mature. My dream of moving to Ireland refuses to fade. Time will tell what will happen with that. Meantime I am gardening here and so enjoying your garden as well. 😊
Looking good! I just netted our blueberries for the first time, as the birds usually eat them when they’re sill green, the greedy gits.
What incredible bounty! Nice to see hard work paying off so well.
Everything looks so beautiful. You are so far ahead of us. I am still planting seed. Thank you for glimpses of what is to come.
Oh, I love seeing all the lovely growth…thank you so much for sharing these pictures! I go out every evening to water, and to study my rows at ground level to see if something has popped up. Yesterday, I got really excited about what I thought was a cucumber poking out of the ground…alas, it was a milkweed plant coming back from a bit of root, even after all my intense hoeing. Thanks, Bridget!
I like the picture of your Poly-tunnel as well as the garden. Your garden is looking great! I am sorry to hear that you are under attack by slugs. It seem like it is a bumper crop for strawberries this year. The picture made my mouth water. I can’t wait until our strawberries are ripe.
Honey
Your tunnel looks amazing…. so jealous of all those lovely salads growing.
They all look great!
Looks like you have lots to harvest now, and plenty more to come over the next few months… slugs permitting – aren’t they terrible this year?
You are looking so productive! Can you please share how you deal with pests like snails/slugs and aphids? Your plants just look so happy!
Will do a post on that soon Karen.
Wonderful photos. Reminds me of my Dad’s garden when I was growing up waaaay back in the 70s and 80s. Not sure at what point he made a polytunnel but I have memories of very pleasant days in there picking and eating homegrown tomatoes.
Hmmm, getting a touch of polytunnel envy now…
Looks amazing!
I must say you are chock full of yummy things to eat…my veg garden is finally coming on and we are getting lettuces and radishes….more to come soon!
Nothing can beat those first precious morsels.
Thanks for the tour – everything is looking so fine – especially the strawberries – they made my mouth water! I, too, am feeling frustrated by slugs and snails. The slug bait keeps getting rained away and beer traps haven’t had too big an impact. I’m thinking of looking for copper tape at the hobby store to wrap around the stems of transplants to see if it helps. I have a limited amount of copper flashing I salvaged from a builder that I use to corral a small 2’x4′ bed of my most tender seedlings, but that’s not much. Sigh. The plight of the gardener!
Wow, yes I would say that is a productive garden! Fruits, vegetables, and Potatoes. Very nice! I’m salivating just thinking about all the great edibles, and I already ate supper. 😉