Vegetables going and coming, and a rather large Fern
This is the last of my home grown cucumbers – sob!
I will buy the occasional cucumber over the next few months. As usual I will temporarily forget that shop bought ones are tasteless during the winter months. I get cucumber amnesia every year so I’m sure this one will be no exception.
Last of the cucumbers
On a more cheerful note there is the Digger’s success with red cabbage. Usually they refuse to heart up so for us so we are very pleased. Have you notices that a half a red cabbage, finely sliced, mysteriously expands to twice the size of the original. I think this must be why cabbages evolved a tightly folded solid heart – otherwise they would grow to be the size of a small bush.
Cabbage 'Marner Early Red'
The garden is looking wet and miserable at the moment. It forms a gloomy backdrop to some of my planting mistakes. What was I thinking when I positioned this fern in front of the garden seat. The popular name of ‘King Fern’ should have hinted that it would grow fairly large.
When I planted it I had a picture of the fern brushing my ankles as I strolled to sit down. Now it’s more likely to tap me on the shoulder. In addition Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ has leaned over and blocked the tiny gap I might have squeezed through.
Dryopteris affinis 'Cristata'
I wonder if “Think before you plant” could be my New Year’s Resolution? As if that would ever happen.
11 comments
I am very impressed by your cabbage. I can never get lettuce to head, so cabbage is not even in my sphere of possibilities.
I am hoping to visit the allotment tomorrow and pick what might be the last of my cucumbers. Those shop bought ones never seem as crunchy :( If you should disappear in the garden next year Digger will know where to find you :)
I grew cukes for the first time this summer and they were wonderful. Can’t wait to do it again over again next season. That cabbage is gorgeous, good job! We all have these ‘what was I thinking plantings’ in our garden. It’s a glorious fern, maybe you can find a new place for it to show off? :)
That is a seriously impressive red cabbage.
Next year I shall try growing cucumbers – I have never grown them, and I am wondering why not!
Lucifer does have a habit of lurching all over the place at this time of year – but your bench still looks very inviting. :)
K
Love your bench! If home-grown cabbages look like that…! How wonderful!
Think I have had the last of my cucumbers aswell. Your red cabbage looks good too. Everything here is wet and miserable as we have had a couple of days of thunder and lightening storms. So you are not alone with the bed weather.
Crocosmia is designed to fall over. That way cats can discover how comfortable it is to sit on. The following year(s) they won’t have to wait. They’ll know it can be trampled as soon as it begins to grow – and be sat upon.
Lucy
Great cabbage. And I’m mightily impressed by the cucumbers. Think before you plant? if I did that, my garden would look much better, and I’d have more money in the bank.
Ah Lucy, Chocolat likes my small, very small, lemon verbena. Now I know why it looks downtrodden and sat upon. Because it was slept upon!
Thinking before you plant is something we always practice at our home. However, we still end up moving some plants due to size issues. I don’t think it’s bad. In fact, it makes our gardens an ongoing project.
Thanks for the great post and pictures!
Tommy
Your cukes and cabbage are lovely, I’m glad summer stretched out a bit this year so you could enjoy fresh garden produce for a long span. Re the fern, I could write a book about my own planting misadventures: “Wrong Plant, Wrong Place”!
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