We've been growing loads of different varieties of tomato in both the greenhouse and the polytunnel. Now they are all starting to ripen and look amazing when in a bowl together. Each variety has its own unique taste too.
As well as tasty fruit and veg, we are also growing lots of beautiful flowers in the Big Grow garden - many of them can be eaten too.
Tonight's dinner menu for our last visitor's of the school year. The garden is now coming in to full production and we won't have any visitors for a few weeks..... but we have arranged to sell the produce via local shops, so none will go to waste!
The kohlrabi are getting plump despite the lack of rain and the courgettes are nearly ready to pick. We've got long ones and round ones, grown from last year's saved seed.....
This beautiful red cabbage is called "rouge tete noir" - it will be on the menu for the children soon!
These calendular blooms are lovely in salads - they add a nice bit of colour too!
A scorching Mid summer week in the Minstead garden. Everything is growing abundantly. The school children are picking our fresh peas as a mid morning healthy snack.
The rainbow chard is going down well as an accompaniment to our lovely sausages and mash and the plentiful salad leaves are a vital part of their first picnic in the woods.
The project is moving along and developing into a stunning, educational exemplar of organic gardening.
The polytunnel & greenhouse are full to the brim with tomatoes and other delicious things!
We have a range of salad leaves growing across the site offering the children a chance to enjoy the taste of Summer.
The peas have reached dramatic heights & carry an impressive number of pods. An instant healthy snack.
The BBC have been round filming the garden this afternoon to advertise our big B’Earthday on 14th July 12.30 to 4.30pm.
Persistent rain today – although there were claims that we did see the sun for a few seconds. Fiddlers Estate delivered a second load of seedlings including sweetcorn, perpetual spinach, golden beetroot and courgettes. We planted out golden beetroot in the rain and potted up sweetcorn and courgettes in the rain.
To keep a bit drier, it also seemed a good time to construct some hanging shelves in the greenhouse.
The plants in the greenhouse survived the weekend and the temperature has calmed down considerably. Lots more sowing this week including some flowers, squashes, herbs and some close relatives of the exploding cucumber! We also sowed cucamelons – a vine with fruit that look like watermelons but are the size of grapes and taste like zingy cucumbers…
The volunteers helped us plant out a bed of rainbow chard, a bed of salad and sow a bed of radishes and beetroot.