Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

Finally the weather has heated up for summer in this part of the world...so now everyone should stop complaining, except they will now moan that it is too hot...oh I guess we wouldn't be British if we didn't constantly moan about the weather.

So, here is an update on how all the fruit and vegetables we've been growing are flourishing in the summer sunshine.

Courgettes - excellent and very tasty

Tomatoes - excellent and very tasty

Lettuce - excellent and very tasty

Summer squash - very good but not ready yet

Butternut squash - keeps trying to escape from the pot and is therefore failing a little. I blame Prince Charles for this one - they were Duchy Original seeds!

Bell peppers - tiny but loads of them! Still green at the moment, we think they're meant to redden, and hopefully get a bit bigger!

Chilli peppers - doing amazingly well considering the struggle the plant has had.

This is the story of the chilli pepper plant:

We went shopping to buy exciting things to grow in our little garden. We bought some seeds but we also bought some plants that had already begun to grow. One of these was a chilli pepper plant. We prepared the pots and soil and began to plant. It was all going well until I picked up the chilli pepper plant and dropped it. The soil that had packed it into the little pot in the shop went everywhere and the plant lay on the brick patio limp and sad. I tried to save it, all fingers and thumbs as I tried to plant it as quickly as possible. Next to the bell pepper plants it looked pathetic.

A couple of weeks later we had to remove both types of pepper plants as they couldn't cope with the British spring - who can? So we moved them inside to the study. The study is in the roof with a window at the front and the back, each with large windowsills. The room is the warmest in the house and catches sun the entire day (when it is shining of course). Therefore, it acts a little like a greenhouse. The bell pepper and squash plants loved this. I think the chilli did too but alas! it was being ravaged by aphids! My husband bought it back to life many times, attempting to kill the little monsters with washing up liquid or diluted methalated spirits, and cutting away the most diseased leaves and stems. Just before we went on holiday in June he bought in a ladybird larvae (they look like crazy little scorpion beast things!). Settling him down on the chilli he ran about and hungrily began to devour the aphids. My husband named him Larry.

When we came back from holiday there was no sign of Larry. We hope he gorged on aphids and then lived a full life as a beautiful ladybird, but we will never know. My mum was meant to check on him while we were away, but he had disappeared. Good job we didn't waste time looking for a 'Thank you for looking after our ladybird' gift... Anyway, the chilli plant now had peppers growing, and it was looking much healthier.

Finally, at the beginning of this week the first chilli had turned red, and now awaits use in a curry or bean chilli. Another chilli, although much smaller, had also turned red so we decided to try it. My husband had a taste first and declared it was just right, so I bit into it and oh...dear... Just as my husband declared that actually it did have a real kick my whole mouth and lips began to sing with fire! Wow! Those chillis are HOT! Several minutes and a large glass of milk I still hadn't recovered... And it's not like my lips weren't fat enough to begin with. Nevertheless, a grand ingredient to many a spicy dish those chillis shall make!

So thanks to Larry the Ladybird and indeed the chilli's own fiery, I mean fiesty, nature we now have some uber chillis to add to this hot hot hot summer!

Photo & picture courtesy of Google Images.