KITCHEN GARDEN – SEASONAL UPDATE – SUMMER 2025-26

Report from the kitchen garden, February 2026

Successes

We had more success with some tomatoes than others. Two varieties went in very early (mid-September) as seedlings from Patio Plants, and we tasted some delicious Black Russians in November from the first flush of fruit, but the Russians gave up the ghost as the weather warmed up. The second variety, Rouge de Marmande, has proved very vigorous and productive and is still going strong. Of the tomatoes grown from seed, the Santorini thrived from the outset and are also having a bit of a resurgence. The delightfully named Sunrise Bumble Bee (a yellow cherry) has been slow to develop but a couple are now flowering, so we are still hopeful. The Kumato plants, from seed saved by Jo from Harris Farm fruit, has started producing, although the rats got to the first fruit so we haven’t tasted any yet. Stink bugs are a problem.

Of our two zucchini plants, the Lebanese white variety is more successful as a ‘tree’ and we continue to harvest a couple every week. The round variety, Ronde de Nice, is delicious but has a growing pattern that produces side branches as well as the main stem so is not as well suited to the 2-stake vertical method. We will try them again next year, and just let them roam on the bed – or try Potagers’ ‘pyramid’ approach.

The banana at the rear of the garden has produced a substantial bunch of fruit, which is almost ready to cut.

We’re loving our White Spine variety cucumbers – prolific and tasty. And we discovered that delicious things can be made from fig leaves – including syrup, ice cream, and wraps for baking salmon.

Challenges

We didn’t try growing corn this year, as we didn’t want to fight the rats for it.

Rats remain a pain, both nibbling at fruit and digging up soil, especially in pots. We’ve had some success with wire ‘hats’ or skirts’ over young plants. Experimentation continues.