Asalamualaykum, so this month we celebrated Eid Ul Adha. It was quite strange this year because of the situation with Covid-19, normally our home and garden are the hub of the family celebrations. My brothers and sisters normally all gather at our home with their children so the house is buzzing with activity, with lots of food, presents and the children playing, but we still made the most of things even if it was just us. One of the best parts of our Eid celebrations was our Eid meal and what made it even better was that all of the fruit and veg came direct from our garden. We harvested potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, onions, garlic, aubergines, courgettes and gourds to be cooked alongside the main meal, a roasted leg of lamb, not to mention all the herbs like coriander, basil and lots and lots of mint to make my unique mint sauce. This level of freshness is just unbeatable, most of the vegetables were picked that very morning and cooked within hours of being harvested but somethings like tomatoes were being picked as we were cooking just as we needed them, so from garden to plate in minutes. We did a special vlog of our Eid Day celebrations on our YouTube channel, My Family Garden.
Summer is my favourite time of the year not only because the weather allows us to spend more time outside but because the garden really starts to come into its own, it’s just so full of colour, life and produce. One of my favourite flowers my tree lillies really put on an amazing show this year and we also harvested three bottle gourds all of a really nice size with what looks like many more to come, despite the really strange weather we’ve had this year.
Our greenhouse has given us some protection from the elements though, and the heat loving plants have really benefited from that. We’ve been picking fresh chillies everyday with lots more still on the way and it looks like it’s going to be a really good year for aubergines. The Italian Long Purple have done really well they not only fruited early but they’ve been fruiting steadily and continuously.
It’s still not too late to get planting for vegetables throughout autumn going into winter. There are lots of salad leaves that prefer a colder growing environment, things like Pak Choi, komatsuna (a really fresh tasting Asian leaf), Mooli radishes, spinach and chard some of which can be sown all the way until the end of September and you can still buy cabbage plug plants which will give you an early spring harvest. So there is plenty to still grow and enjoy.