Bolted

Yellow flowers everywhere on the pe tsai and cime di rapa, which has developed woody, inedible trunks. The leaves are still good, we just can't eat it fast enough.

A gale last month left the bean wigwams sagging and askew, and today I took down the worst one - surely the beans must nearly be over now? We've eaten about half a kilo a week for the last four weeks, and I've frozen about two kilos for winter nourishment. The gale also snapped off the flowering spikes of the sweetcorn, but the cobs seem to be fattening well enough without them. The courgette plants are still producing, although they look to be coming to the end of the season now.

I've been clearing more plot, and have planted the apple tree and gooseberry bush, and put in the beginnings of a lavender hedge beside them, and some cyclamen and chrysanthemums for a bit of autumn and winter colour. Another raised bed has gone in, and there is one more to do; one for some optimistic winter seeds, and one for raspberry plants. I have a lot of clearing of the existing beds to do, too, to make room for winter crops.