"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin
I love tomatoes. I probably eat them every day, all year round. So it’s really great to be able to grow them in the summer and pick and eat them fresh. Our tomatoes in the garden are developing. We have all shapes, colours and sizes growing. Some yellow tomatoes in the yard have already ripened.
We are busy trying to make the garden look as good as we can, ready for the Royal Horticultural Society to come and judge it on the 31st. We have won awards for the last 2 years. Something we are very proud of. It takes a lot of work keeping the garden tidy and interesting.
This year we have the theme of children’s books in the garden, so small scenes are gradually appearing. New in the garden this week we have Beatrix Potter pictures and pebbles. An owl and pussycat have just docked themselves on the raised bed. Oh, and a wire robin is sitting by the lettuce now, ready to talk to Peter Rabbit.
Volunteers have produced some lovely bunting for the entrance to the garden. One half of the entrance has crocheted Peter Rabbits, the other crocheted chamomile. What a great way to welcome people to the garden.
In the veg garden, beans, spinach and chard are being picked. And multi-coloured baby carrots were found and eaten when I started thinning out the container. And I’ve added a few labels to the herbs, so visitors know what they are. I’ve added anti slug wool to the container with my kale in. Hope that will stop the slugs getting them, but not sure about the cabbage white butterflies. There are a lot of them, and other butterflies, around at the moment.
And last but not least, an exciting lavatorial event this week. Our toilet in the garden has been replanted in celebration of being twinned with a toilet in Uganda. It’s now officially ‘latrine no. 30550’. The Soroptomists have donated to Tearfund. Their donation will be used to provide clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education in areas of the world that need it. Did you know that 1 in 3 people in the world don’t have a loo? Details of the toilet that it has been twinned with are on a certificate by our garden toilet, including a picture.
The Blooming Old Gardener