The first tomatoes ripen, it must be mid summer already!

Another great pleasure for me is gardening. I really do get so much pleasure planting things and seeing them come into flower or fruit. My garden is postage stamp size but it does not stop me cramming as many plants, pots etc in as possible.

Today is one of those special days because I have found my very first tomatoes have started to ripen. That's a sure sign that we have reached mid-summer.

I will resist the urge to pick it now as you do need to leave a  ripening tomato on the plant, the chemical secreted by this process causes the other to follow suit.

Also I find that leaving my tomatoes on the vine to ripen in the sun naturally produces much sweeter fruits.

I grow the Gardener's Delight variety, it produces lots of scrumptious, sweet tasting small fruits. They even freeze quite well and can be added to stews etc in the Winter. Perfect!

I have also been able to harvest my first chillies, seen below. This plant produces very unusual purple coloured fruits which are quite mild. This suits me - I am not someone who can eat the really fierce hot varieties but I enjoy adding the mild varieties to some of my meals, especially my home made chili con carne.

This is an unusual Chilli plant which I bought at the Hampton Court Flower Show in early July. I was able to buy 4 different varieties and the purple is the first variety to bear fruit.
Summer got off to a very late start here in the UK but for the last month we have had high temperature and no rain in the South at all. My poor grass looks like hay.

So that's a peek in my garden, I will feature more of my antics out here in my blog but for now it's time to get out the watering can.

Bye for now, Jx