First tomatoes!

We’ve been watching several of our Languedocienne tomatoes turning red and ripening over the past few days and today we picked the first four.  What a treat it was to have a salad for lunch made with tomatoes, basil and garlic from the garden and arbequine olive oil from the Moulin du Mas St Pierre which we bought when we visited in April.

 

A cicada case and rampant pumpkin plants

When cicadas hatch out they crawl up onto a high plant or branch and emerge from these casings.  Lo Jardinièr found one today.  By the time he’d fetched the camera the cicada had flown off, but the casing was left.  Our pumpkin plants are making a bid to take over the whole garden – compare this with the extent of the plants only eleven days ago!  We’ve been watering the garden ever other day (economising a bit on other years when we’ve watered every day, and the plants still seem to be getting enough), and during two days in between waterings earlier this week the plants had completely covered the hosepipe, growing about half a metre.  We’re hoping to have some nice big pumpkins in the autumn, and the butternut squash plants seem to have settled in well too.

First aubergine and a new watering system / La première aubergine et un nouveau système d'arrosage

In spite of the locusts and the Colorado beetles, our aubergine plants are doing well, with a lot of small aubergines growing.  Today we ate the first one, grilled on the barbecue and garnished with thyme, oregano, olive oil and chopped garlic - it tasted wonderful.

Malgré les criquets et les scarabées, nos plants d'aubergine poussent bien avec beaucoup de petites aubergines.  Aujourd'hui nous en avons mangé la première de la saison, garnie de thym, oreganum, huile d'olive et ail haché - elle était delicieuse!

1st aubergine and 74th courgette!

Another new watering system / un autre nouveau système d'arrosage

Throughout the summer we're constantly thinking about better ways to water the garden.  The terracotta pot system which Kate from Hills and Plains seedsavers devised has worked really well for beans and garlic and we'll use it for other crops - leaf vegetables like chard next, probably.

Pendant l'été nous pensons toujours des façons d'arroser le jardin.  Le système de pots en terrecuite conçu par Kate de Hills and Plains seedsavers a marché bien pour les haricots et l'ail et nous l'utiliserons pour des autres légumes - les blettes peut-être.

Now we are trying a new system for watering the tomato and pepper plants.  We bought two plastic dustbins which can be filled with water from the stream whenever it is running.  Lo Jardinièr has fixed siphon tubes from the bins which lead via taps to slow drip hoses in the rows of tomatoes and peppers.  The taps can be turned on in the evening and left so that the water in the bins slowly drips into the soil between the plants.

Maintenant nous essayons un nouveau système pour l'arrosage des tomates et des poivrons.  On a acheté deux poubelles en plastique qui on peut remplir de l'eau du ruisseau.  Lo Jardinièr a mis un tuyau pour siphonner l'eau en passant par un robinet et puis par un tuyau goutte à goutte à la terre entre les rangs.

The leek flower is covered with insects.

The sunflowers are blooming.

And here is a cicada in the apricot tree.

And we've had so many Swallowtail butterflies in the garden this year that I couldn't resist a few more photos of them:

Beetles update / Mise à jour des scarabées

Most of the beetles have disappeared, just a few tiny ones remain, and the Borlotti beans look fine and are growing fast. / La plupart des scarabées sont disparus et les haricots Borlottis sont biens et poussent vite.

Maybe these beetles were good ones / Peut-être ces scarabées sont bons.

The haricot beans are growing well too / Les haricots verts poussent bien aussi.

A salad from the garden today: courgette, cucumber, Lezignan onion, garlic and oregano, and today’s harvest of courgettes and beans. / Une salade du jardin aujourd’hui: courgette, concombre, oignon de Lezignan, ail et oreganum, et la récolte d’aujourd’hui: courgettes et haricots verts.

And something I can’t post on the blog – last week we heard a single cicada in the almond tree in the next garden. Since then we’ve heard their summer chorus all around the garden and in the plane trees along the roads.

Les cigales ont commencé à chanter.

If you haven’t heard them before listen to the sound here:

Cicada / cigale A group of them in a line of trees make a very loud noise! It’s the sound of the south which they are said to make when the temperature is above 26 degrees C.