Chores and payoffs

We've just had two nice days for garden work, despite predictions of rain from the weather services. Tant mieux. We've tried to take advantage of good conditions to get outside and get things done.

Still tilling up garden plots for planting in August

It's a little strange to be tilling up garden plots in August. Usually all that work is done in April or May. This year, though — almost out of necessity — we'll try to have a fall crop of carrots, white radishes, greens, and chard. If mother nature cooperates, we'll be harvesting in November or even December.

The tomato plot seems to be healthy despite damp conditions.

But not all the summer crops are failing, by any means. Neighbors and friends around the area have been telling us that their tomato plants either aren't bearing fruit or that the tomatoes themselves are diseased because of dampness. Ours are doing fine, and we even have a couple of big tomates out there that are starting to turn red — not to mention dozens of green ones that look healthy.

Thank goodness for the rototiller. Getting it repaired
and serviced in June was a good thing to do.

Yesterday afternoon some friends came over for apéritifs and we took them on a garden tour (at their requiest) before they left to drive home. Walt pointed out an aubergine (eggplant) that I hadn't yet seen, and we noticed quite a few poivrons — long sweet peppers and bell peppers — on the plants nearby.

A first harvest of cocos plats and a few haricots verts

And beans! The long flat Romano beans Walt planted are really bearing fruit right now. They're called haricots cocos plats on the markets and at the supermarkets around Saint-Aignan, and they can be really delicious (and expensive). We picked a pound and a half of them, 700 grams, a couple of days ago, and we're having them for lunch today. That's just the beginning of the payoff from garden work, we hope.