OwnGrown

There are differences of opinion about picking and using these beans. This is what is done here which works fine. Picking starts from late July when the growing beans start to go from green to streaky red and then to a more purple colour later. The beans inside will also go from a green colour to speckled red or in some cases more than speckled. The green beans should be eaten fresh and the coloured ones can be eaten fresh or dried thoroughly for a few weeks and then stored in airtight jars for use in the winter. They will keep for many months and certainly until late the following spring if dried properly. Picking stops around mid to late September when the plants are pulled up. Picture here are the green beans which will be used immediately and the speckled red / purple ones which are being dried.

Picking starts from early/mid August. Pictured here are the small Gardener’s Delight and larger Harbinger tomatoes plus a few plum tomatoes. A personal view is that plum tomatoes are not worthwhile growing outside so will not do so in future. Don’t make the mistake of over-watering when the tomatoes are at this stage - they don’t need as much water as most people think and the tomatoes start splitting if over watered. Your biggest problem may be a surplus of produce even if you only have a very few plants!

Providing the summer is reasonably warm, aubergines can be successfully grown outside either in the ground or in pots on a terrace or balcony. Grown like this, aubergines should be ready from mid August onwards - earlier if in a greenhouse. they are easy to grow and need plenty of water.

They take a while but finally get there! Start picking the green peppers as seen in this picture in early August and we shall continue picking through to lateish September. Very little time or effort is needed for these and they can be successfully grown in pots on a balcony or terrace. 

Lifted all the Red Onions and half the Onions Hercules at the beginning of August. The remaining were planted a couple of weeks later and will be lifted in mid August. The only work applied here since planting has been a little weeding and the required watering. Red Onions are the more difficult to grow - some always bolt and there are always a few failures. Red Onions drying in racks are shown here and ordinary Onions hung in bunches of five in the second picture. These will dry for three to four weeks when the dried foliage will be cut off and they are then stored in cool, dry conditions. The Red Onions will last until the following Spring and the Onions Hercules about three months longer until the middle of next year - whether they need to depends of course on how many you have grown.