A pleasant surprise
I haven’t planted much in my garden this year, some potatoes in potato bags and tubs, tomatoes, cucumbers and chillies in the greenhouses. Pots of strawberries have been left to their own devices with the minimum of attention, providing us with a lovely crop of berries earlier this year and the rhubarb has grown bigger than ever and is now ready for splitting with a section destined for the school garden.
But back to the chillies, mentioned in passing as one of the crops in the greenhouse this year. That’s only partly true. I’ve started off two crops of chillies this year, two months apart and both of which suffered dreadfully with aphids, causing their eviction from the safety of the greenhouses into the garden, where the wren has happily hopped from one to the other, clearing the plants of each and every aphid.
Potato bags to the fore and rows of strawberry pots in the background
And there they stayed, tucked away and, I have to admit, forgotten about.
So imagine my surprise and delight when I wondered over to their corner this afternoon and discovered that in spite of the damage done by the aphids early on, not to mention the high winds, torrential rains, cold evening temperatures and almost complete neglect, the surviving plants have managed to produce a small crop (and by small I mean a handful) of chillies, proving once again that Mother Nature will always find a way.
The Land Rover Owners Ex Wife 