What is still growing in our kitchen garden?
Raspberries
cucumbers
tomatoes
strawberries
grapes
photo on the right: Butterfly house
September is just starting and autumn is are already on the way, large spiders hang between the branches. The garden has plenty of berries, but they are not edible. They are beautiful to see but not healthy to eat. ;D
Our 'vegetable garden' was never meant to give us a daily meal, it is far too small for that. We were just eager to show the kids where our food comes from. This we still enjoy very much. Sowing the seeds, taking care of the plants and repot them and then the harvesting, kids just love it!
The raspberries keep coming, we pick a handful every day and it does not seem to come to an end yet. The strawberries remain small but the birds still like them very much. We have to be quick to pick them, otherwise there isn't much left of them!
The tomatoes are doing very well, it took them a while but now we can finally pick and eat them. Here are also hijackers on the coast, there are many naked nails in the garden this year, but they don't like tomatoes. It is a mystery which animal is sometimes gnawing holes in the tomatoes and in the leaves.
The Snow Berry had still little pink flowers in August.
But now, in September, the berries are large and white.
The berries from the Fire Thorn hang in bunches from the branches.
Mahonia Berries look a lot like blueberries in the kitchen garden.
The Mahonia in our garden came with the wind, the shrub is mostly used as roadside vegetation. But the root, the little fragrant yellow flowers (March to May), the leaves and the seeds of the Mahonia Aquifolium - as the bush is called in full - contain a toxic substance!
Only the fruit pulp is actually edible, if you remove the seeds instantly and cook the fruit pulp. Then the fruit should be tasty with a lot of vitamine C, on there own the berries tastes sour. Because we have plenty of other berries we can safely eat in the garden we leave the Mahonia in peace.
But if you do have this shrub in your garden, keep a close eye on little ones or cut the berries off when they appear. The youngest kids don't see the difference between an edible blueberry and these Mahonia berries! We are thinking about taking the shrub out, which would be a pity because it is really beautiful.
We cut off a lovely bouquet of the branches, to put in a vase.
The grapes are doing well but we need to have a little more patience.
Another week or two and they will be ready to harvest too.
The cucumbers keep growing steadily too!
This is the harvest of one week.
We still enjoy the garden very much!