With outdoor tomatoes I spent the beginning of summer wondering if tomatoes will actually start to appear and grow, by the end of summer I’m wondering if they will all change colour to red before the shorter, wetter days begin. I never thing either of these events will happen, and yet they always do. I have the same worries during winter trying to imagine 4 o’clock and it still being daylight, I can never imagine it every happening again. Yet, like it has done for the last 50 years of me observing this (maybe not so much for the first 10 years or so), the sun returns every year, almost like clockwork….

The tomatoes have indeed started to turn red, slowly at first but once the first one has done it the rest don’t seem to want to miss out. It has been the best year with our tomatoes, I have finally got to grow them properly. There were planted out straight from module trays when they were still very small, no messing about with potting on and the hassle of looking after and watering them individually until larger to put into the ground. I staked each of the plants up when small, not using wobbly bamboo sticks ending up at funny angles but instead stronger metal garden poles standing straight with the plants tied up to them at intervals. I have been constantly pulling off branches and leaves as they grow, leaving plenty of room for airflow and focusing growth on just two or three trusses of tomatoes, removing the others. When I’ve seen a too large bunch of young tomatoes I’ve pulled off the extra, and as I’ve seen some fruits not really thriving, I’ve done the same. We are left with a couple of neat rows and we are starting to pick, and eat, the results. It’s still a race for how many will turn red, by this time next month it will all be other and I’ll be making green tomato chutney with the remaining, although hopefully not too much.

We are having good luck with pumpkins too, quite unexpected and I’m not sure what we will do with them, how many times can you make pumpkin pie? These were just seed that I had and thought they all give pleasing ground cover near the end of the growing year so even if we didn’t get any pumpkins they would have still done a job, and eventually be added to the compost and so feed into the following year. So far I have counted five pumpkins, most plants have one but some have a couple. At least two of these are going to be large pumpkins, the others a bit more manageable. They are certainly doing their job of looking pleasing, hidden under layers of leaves you can spot them if you look close, and once you have seen one you start to see all the others. Really nice when everything else is finishing off.

The row of spinach is growing, the row of chicory is growing even better and will need thinning out. It will be interesting to see how they cope over the coming months. The old french beans I sowed the other week, are starting to show in places. These are just green manure and will either die off or be cut down before we get into winter.

I thought we had been lucky that pigeons had not been eating the leaves of the swedes but on my last visit I could tell they had started. These are now covered with netting, and while doing that I could see one or plants starting to have viable roots.

In the garden, like all the other squash plants, the butternut squash is covering the bed well but disappointing to see no actual squashes. I spotted one small one this morning and so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it remains and grows into something. We only have two plants in the garden but I was hoping for at least a couple of squashes per plant.

This week we have been picking (from plot and garden):

• tomatoes
• sweetcorn
• raspberries
• carrots
• apples
• courgettes
• cucumbers