A brief potager update

I admit it. The potager has not exactly received the same level of attention as it did last year. Last year it was a bit of a novelty - the first time I had been able to successfully grow my own vegetables and the summer weather provided the perfect conditions for ripening tomatoes, aubergines, capsicum and chilli peppers. It was easy. I was enthused. Ah, The Good Life. This year, au contraire, summer stuttered and never really got going. We had no prolonged periods of heat and the potager suffered as a result. But problems began even before the lack of summer, with my spring module sowings failing for unknown reasons. Then when tomato blight single-handedly destroyed what promised to be a bumper crop of a good variety of fruit, when the aubergine fruit struggled to set and the capsicum likewise, I became somewhat demoralised as such matters are outside of my control. But hey, that's veggy growing for you! However, it hasn't all been a disaster. I have had two aubergines from the 3 plants that gave flowers, the Winter Festival squash have produced copious fruit........the French beans, carrots, Rocket variety potatoes and beetroot have done well and the autumn-fruiting raspberries that I brought back from mum's garden last year are now producing copious fruit - yum! And I guess I should be pleased that my first attempt at growing celery was a success, as was the baby sweetcorn which I really should have thought about harvesting before it grew out of the 'baby' stage! Doh! You live and learn.