We’ve planted out about a dozen aubergine plants our neighbour gave us – six of them next to a row of peppers on the left below. We usually grow the grafted plants, bought from a garden centre, because they produce so many more aubergines than the ordinary plants, but this year we’ll try these, as well as a few grafted ones. The Greek maize I planted out a couple of weeks ago is doing well (on the right below).
 |  Sweet corn (maize) and a row of lettuce. |
We also planted a row of chard, also given to us by our neighbour, next to the two rows of haricot beans which are growing quite well. I picked the rest of last year’s chard today as it was going to seed, and we ate it this evening with pasta and cured ham.
 |
Our ‘big’ iris has started to flower (left below), later but more spectacularly than our white and mauve irises, and the red salvia was attracting a few bees (right).
 |  |
And the green lizard under the olive tree
 |  |
They’re much more shy than the brown wall lizards, so I was lucky to catch this one on camera!
 | Our garlic is growing quite tall, but I don’t think it will ever be as good as the garlic I bought from this stall in Pézenas market on Saturday. It’s very fresh and tastes wonderful chopped raw onto salads and other vegetable dishes. |
And home to lunch….
 | After working in the garden this morning we came home to a lunch of aubergine puréed with olive oil, garlic and oregano, some broad beans straight from the garden cooked with cured ham, and goats’ cheese from Roujan with thyme from the garden and olive oil that was milled in the village from olives from Servian, only about 10 kilometres away – all local, fresh and delicious! |
