Three weekends away and the veg garden and greenhouse have gone bonkers.

The purple sprouting broccoli has all gone to seed and is no good to anyone and will need to be pulled. Most of the courgettes have grown into great fat watery marrows. We may be able to use some of them for soup but the rest are going to look brutish for a week or so before being discarded.

Great swathes have been taken over by nasturtium so we will have plenty of flowers for salads although all the salad has bolted.

Inside the greenhouse the tomatoes have all turned into mini triffids and collapsed over themselves. They will need to be cleared of extraneous growth and lifted so they small growing green tomatoes can get some air. Pulling them back it appears the chilli plants are doing okay and I was able to spot the one Padron Pepper making its way out into the world.

One of the advantages of going to Ireland early this year was that at the last visut to Bantry Market I was able to buy some small trays of veg to plant some of which may actually survive. So I have some mixed salads to replace those that have bolted, cabbages and calvolo nero all ready to plant out.

Calvolo nero are one of those veg you read about but can never find in the shops. So if want to eat it you have to grow it yourself. I bought the tray at Bantry Market in case the stuff I had planted already failed for some reason whilst we were away. It didn’t and it appears we are going to be eating a lot of calvolo nero over the next few months.