Our garden: August 2014 (3)

I popped into the garden for my daily caterpillar hunting duties the other day and got a little sidetracked. I found 7 caterpillars and also a good pile of runner beans, 5 chillies, 3 dwarf beans, 1 cherry tomato and a big plum tomato.

If you read my garden update last week you'll know I found a recipe for runner beans with shallot butter I wanted to try. Well now I have… and it was a party in my mouth. Slightly caramelised shallots in a sweet butter with fresh beans, yum! I used a bean slicer rather than cutting them in chunks.

The cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen now. I'm hoping we'll get a glut at some point so I can make pasta sauce to squirrel away.

We finally have a female courgette flower which means we might get 1 courgette - if we do I shall declare my courgette growing a success!

It has this lump at the base of the flower which I'm hoping is a courgette. Or have I got that totally wrong? I've not grown them before so not sure what I'm doing.

The leeks are starting to look more substantial. I've only put a couple of rows in as this is our first year in this house and we are experimenting to see what grows. We don't have tonnes of space so I don't want to max out on one crop in case it flops.

I've sown some salad leaves but something is nibbling the seedlings. Not sure if it's slugs or caterpillars. I think the sparrows might be having a go at it as the second row seems to be getting shorter and shorter.

Elsewhere in the garden the sweet peas are just about hanging on. There are only a few flowers left now.

The geraniums are filling out and I've spotted a few flower buds growing. I really like how the leaves look in the sun, they smell good too.

And my bargain £1 hanging basket is looking really good. It's full of petunias.

The wild flowers in the front are starting to fade and a lot of plants are going to seed. Better get seed saving for next year.

What are you all planning to do with your gardens during the next few months?