Sunshine and showers

But mostly showers. In a brief sunny gap I nipped out to take some pics of what's going on in the garden at the moment. The herb bed is looking lovely now that the oregano is flowering



The bit of hedge you can see on the left is now (as of yesterday) gone - I've tried to transplant it elsewhere. The bees absolutely love the flowers. We've had so many bumblebees in the garden this year, it's been really nice to see them. If you want to encourage them in your garden you could do a lot worse than plant some oregano and let it flower:



Only do this if you've got plenty of space (or if you really like oregano), because it will rather take over!

Sadly it's not just welcome visitors that we're seeing at the moment. The blackfly are a bit of a problem - they pretty much did for our second crop of broad beans and now they're eyeing up our runners. Squishing them seems to be pretty effective, but the long term solution will be to encourage predators into the garden. We've had more ladybirds than last year but not many hoverflies. Here's one, having a rest on the lovely white scabious:



We're growing some fennel, which is apparently good for helping ladybirds to overwinter (they have a nap in the hollow stems, I think). And over the next few weeks we'll have a think about planning for next year.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse are producing plenty of fruit:



This is that nice time of year when you can just go and pick what you need as and when. The ones outside are nearly ready now as well, despite the rubbish weather.

One really good thing to do with ripe fresh tomatoes is to make an arrabiata sauce for pasta. Put the kettle on to boil. Put three reasonably sized tomatoes in a bowl and then cover them with the boiling water. Meanwhile chop 2 cloves of garlic and 2 dried red chillies. Once the tomatoes have been in the water for a while you should be able to peel them easily - score them with a sharp knife and peel off the skin. Chop them roughly. Then heat up some olive oil in a pan add a pinch of salt, the garlic and the chilli. When the garlic gives off a nice aroma (if you overcook the garlic you need to start again) add the tomatoes. Cook until reduced.

Finally a little pic of our most advanced marrow: