The Early Nantes Catches The Worm?

Not if you cover it with a fine mesh net!

I've started cropping the carrots from the carrot temple:

Thank goodness I netted them.  There's no carrot root fly on any of the varieties. And thank goodness I bothered to label the rows:

Not So Early Nantes would be a true description.  The trouble is that once you have a net in place there is a natural reluctance to remove it so weeding and thinning can be overlooked for rather too long.  Here's the net with parsnips beside and Runner Beans and Sweetcorn beyond.

Encouraged by the results I've even got a second net of (very) late sown carrots; Quick growing Paris Market.

I've weeded and thinned since taking this picture, but they have got some way to go before producing an edible crop. I've got plenty to keep us going even if they don't come good in time. 

The nets aren't so pretty, but when the light catches them at a certain angle...

"Medication Time!"

Sweet Success

Today I decided to grasp the nettle and pick my four biggest sweetcorn to see if they were ripe enough to eat.

I'm happy to report they were.

and boy they were sweet!

These were the same sweetcorn that I sowed too early, but they hung on until it was warm enough to plant them out.  They each developed two side shoots which were a waste of time when it came to producing cobs (but the advice was not to cut these off). One cob per plant was not an overwhelming yield, but today I feel they have fully justified the space devoted to them!

18 Carrot Gold (White and Purple)

Started digging up the maincrop carrots:

Well pleased with the "Blanche a Collet Vert Hors Terre" -  Green-Collared White Carrot.  Trades Descriptions could have no argument with that.

Runner beans been knocked by the high winds and plummeting temperatures, but still cropping

as are the courgettes:

Time for a bit of piccalilli

 and plum jam

Talk about a season of mellow fruitfulness!

What's happening?

It's time for a roundup of the current state of play. 2013 has been a great summer so best to make a record:

Remember my carrot temple? 

Well it's still there and yielding a great crop of carrots.  The parsnips on the one side and the leeks on the other are also doing well.

In fact everything is doing well this year.  Even the newcomer on the block

appears to be on the verge of producing a crop.

The beans, French and Runner, have had a bumper year.

and the spuds haven't succumbed to blight.

Onion maincrop has had to make room :

in the "greenhouse" for basil and pepper plants:

Tomatoes and cucumbers are still on the go but needing some night protection:

Ben Lawers and Beinn Ghlas

As I have reduced my blogs from three to one there are sometimes non veg gardening posts.

Yesterday we set a day aside to climb Ben Lawers and the Beinn Ghlas which is on the approach to Ben Lawers.  It was rather too windy and the rain blew in in waves, but we persisted and were glad we did.  It was reassurring that there were plenty of other people on the hillside.

View from the summit of Ben Lawers

 You can see the ridge path between the two summits clearly in the following picture:

Looking down on Beinn Ghlas and Loch Tay

It took us two hours to drive to Loch Tay, 3 hours to climb to the second summit and 1 1/2 hours on the return to the car, with aching limbs (and especially knees).

Ben Lawers the approach to the summit

A memorable day.

From below

It's back to gardening today.