Those who have any interest in my regular produce updates might think it is (figuratively speaking) all a garden of roses. But there have been some failures, too.

Specifically: a whole crop of rocket fell victim to a weird creeping weed, as did half a crop of carrot seedlings. I don’t know what these things are but they’re small and insidious to begin with but as they grow they dominate and choke the life out of the other plants. Both those patches have had the equivalent of a gardening carpet bomb dropped on them – total rakeover.

Yesterday, our – to date quite successful – courgette plant (pictured) said its last farewell. Whilst it had done well for a time, something was afflicting it: it had stopped flowering and all its leaves were sprouting and growing out withered and filled with holes. No idea what the problem was… But as luck would have it, we had a second courgette seedling that had been sitting in its pot in the greenhouse awaiting a planting opportunity, which it duly got last night. We’ll see what happens.

There are also a couple of plants that I don’t think will come to (literal) fruition this summer. The chilli plants I think just went in too late – whilst the four or five we have are doing rather well, there’s no sign of flower or fruiting. The aubergine plant has been sitting sad and sullen in its greenhouse bag all summer and still only stands at about four inches tall. And whilst the pepper plant does have a fruit on it, we think it might be the only one. Its hard to say on the squash and the pumpkin – whilst the plants are doing very well, we planted them very late and they may simply not have time to get to where they need to.

Still, successful tomatoes, cucumbers, rhubarb, carrots, garlic, strawberries, blueberries, apples, plums, courgettes, potatoes (not to mention chives, sage, parsley, coriander, mint, oregano) is not a bad crop for a first summer of gardening…