I couldn’t wait any longer.  I dug my first parsnip today.  I had been waiting for the first frosts and this is supposed to make them taste much ’sweeter’.

With no sign of frosts on the way, I decided to dig one up to see if there was anything under the mass of leaf growth which had virtually now died back.

In with the fork – twice!  What a shock.  I pulled out the biggest parsnip I’ve ever seen.  Fully intact and smelling as fresh as I imagined it would.  All these weeks and months of waiting, battling with the black fly and continuous watering during the dry summer.

If the first is anything to go by, I’m in for a a few great roast dinners through this winter – can’t wait!

I have a new enemy in the vegetable patch. It makes lots of tunnels and eats my parsnips and carrots from below ground. Whilst weeding the other day, I noticed 3 parnsips had disappeared with only the leaves left in place. The parsnips had been pulled down from underground.

Next to these are my carrots. I found 4 carrots, all chewed to pieces and some with only the carrot tops left strewn on top. The following day, I checked again. Another parship and some carrots gone.

What is this mysterious creature? It’s not my other enemy the mole. Mr mole will only eat worms, not my prize vegetables.

Someone suggested it was probably a field mouse or vole. So straight down to the hardware shop and promptly purchased 2 mouse traps. The first night I laced with with a nice piece of banana and some nuts. The next morning, they had been eaten, the traps set off but nothing caught.

The next night I tried a different tactic. I place a pea on the spike as I thought the banana and nuts were too easy to reach without standing on the trap.

It worked. The next morning on checking the traps, there was an extremely large rodent. Not a field mouse or vole. After speaking to Lucien next door, he told me it was a rat. They are regular visitors to his garden, especially to eat the pigeon food which gets strewn everywhere.

Apparently they have very diverse diets and will eat vegetables from underground along their tunnel systems. I’ve never seen a rat before and always thought they were really big brown rodents. There is a wide variety of them and I’ve done the research on the net and found mine.

I believe it to be the Wild Norway Rat – it had the same grey colouring and was about the right size.

I don’t like killing wildlife and I try to avoid it as best I can, but I only had 14 parsnips in the first place and within 2 days they were down to 10.

So another lesson learned for next year. I’ve already started the research for ways of stopping them getting into my vegetables in the first place.

After battling for weeks with the bizarre weather, we are finally enjoying some of the first sweet pickings from the vegetable patch.

I picked a couple of dozen pea pods swollen with juicy fresh sweet peas. We’ve had them both raw in salads and cooked – they taste sensational.

The small strawberry plants I was given by our good friends George and Ali have settled in well and we have had a few bowls of lovely sweet fresh strawberrys. Luckily for us, wild strawberrys grow all around the garden and although small, a great addition to their larger conterparts or just sprinkled on top of icecream – delicious!

My final sweet picking of early season is some new potatoes, freshly dug. I only put a few in but each one has produced a good 6 to 8 succulent tubers which we’ve eaten with a variety of fresh fish and good local Limousin Steak.

The vegetable patch is looking really healthy and the space is now full. The dwarf beans which started off very slow, are now full of flowers and the first signs of small green beans are appearing. The tiny leeks I put in have survived the onslaught of rain during the storms and are now beginning to get bigger.

I have finally managed to get some lettuce going and have planted a variety called Battavia. I started them off in small pots and then put a bottle cloche over each one to give it a good start. Between all the longer growing salads I have continued planting rocket, raddish and cress.

There was a major attack of blackfly on the Parsnip and Beetroot. I mixed a solution of vegetable soap and water into a spray bottle and this seems to have done the trick. Everything looks like it has survived although some of the leaves have shrivelled and browned.

The leaves on the garlic are just starting to go over so it will nearly be time to dig these and dry them for storage. The cucumber plants I put in now have small yellow flowers so I hope to see the start of some cucumbers soon. I am also trying a couple of melons but I’m not convinced they will make much progress but we will see.

Squash corner at the back has taken off and is now looking more like a jungle. I hope I get a good crop of squashes this year. There are already signs of small pumpkins showing.

Finally, the tomatoe plants have surived so far with the help of a strip of plastic sheeting to protect them from the worst of the weather. I have a couple of cherry tom plants which are now looking quite strong and healthy with about 4 to 5 other varieties – although small – are still alive!

So far I’m pleased with progress and will report on the pickings over the coming months.

It’s official, the first day of summer (according to Google) and it’s come with a bang. Temperatures are up into the 30’s and we’ve had some spectacular thunder storms.

Everything in the garden is growing at a full rate of knots and some of the flowers are flourishing in the warm weather.

There have been a few surprises with a fantastic crop of deep red lillies growing at one corner of the pond (sure they weren’t there last year).

Also, I’ve had more time to plant some perenials this year which I’ve grown from seed.

These include geraniums, pyrethrum and geum. It’s been a bit hit and miss with things like rudebeckia and echinacea and the earlier cold weather killed off most of my attempt at growing lobelia from seed.

The sweet peas I planted by the patio doors are glorious and their scent is outstanding.

So far summer is off to a good start, long may it continue ….

Cosmos in full flower

Spectacular Red Dahlia