Harvesting in earnest

Another week without rain and this in Scotland! Suddenly, lots of things are ripening. It was a week of many firsts - first chili, mangetout, Swiss chard, spinach - but the most exciting was probably the first outdoor cucumber. Proof of concept that we can grow them outside here. And the first new potatoes, but they'll still need another 10 days or so. Still, the tiny Epicures were melt in your mouth delicious.

Wednesday morning's bounty

We finished laying the weed-suppressing fabric around the beds, and things are looking a lot tidier. Jim used a boatie tool, the hot knife, to cut it so that the edges wouldn't fray but seal instantly. It worked a treat. I'm now looking forward to 'maintenance weeding'.

The paths are no longer weed fests

Our first strawberries are on the cusp of being ready. The juiciest one, which was three quarters red, was pecked by a bird so we put up an impromptu strawberry cage this morning.

The strawberry cage

 We've been eating a large bowl of salad every lunch and often another starter-size salad at dinner so I've been sowing a lot more saladings this week, plus some winter spinach.

The Brussels are forming

Oregon sugar mangetout. Not many will make it as far as the kitchen methinks

Broad bean De Monica

Purple Delicacy kohl rabi - trouble-free so far

The first outdoor tom has appeared

The onion patch

While we'll definitely have enough of some veg, I can already see that I woefully underestimated the onion numbers. It was the first thing we planted out and looked like a lot at the time, but next year I'll plan for 400 plants.

Very chuffed that we've been eating all our own stuff this week. Supermarket runs will be mainly for cheese, beer and chocolate in the near future. Now can we have a little rain, please, but only during the night?