So much for the long hot summer. The last few weeks have been wet and windy, hindering work in the garden.  I'm pleased with the tomatoes and aubergines in the greenhouse and poly-tunnel. Despite the damp weather there is as yet no sign of the mould that greatly reduced my aubergine harvest last year, although the battle with aphids and whitefly has begun. 

Outside, the remaining garlic hasn't faired so well. The rust flared up again leaving few viable leaves on the Solent Wight. It should have been my main crop but I was forced to dig it up and the bulbs were very small. This time last year we were drowning in broad beans. This year we have had a steady supply but they are now coming to an end, more than a month earlier than last year. The beans I planted out in the beds have simply failed to thrive, maybe the vole who was excavating beneath them early on did the damage, maybe they were affected by residual herbicide in the horse manure, but they have finally been finished off over the last two or three days by pests. My best guess, from the damage, is a sudden aphid strike although even under very close inspection neither my husband nor I can see any - even with our spectacles on.

Cabbages, chard, beetroot, courgettes, cucumbers, broccoli calabrese and patty pan squashes doing nicely, carrots deformed but tasty and keeping us well fed. I'll definitely grow more of the calabrese next year.