Oh, Eeman, the frog is beautiful, really!
Such a delicate, fragile creature.

I haven't caught it or touched it - but I like to look at it.
How wonderful God's creation is!

Barbara and Mustafa, your garden looks wonderful!
Isn't it a joy to eat your own grown vegetables?

The last week here in the UK was very wet and rainy, but not too cold - perfect weather for the courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes, but also the soft fruit.

The raspberries are coming to their end now; we've had the first runner beans; and we are still waiting for the tomatoes to ripen ...

We had a lovely gooseberry tart last weekend, and there are enough gooseberries left for more ...

This is a photo of a courgette flower. Isn't it beautiful?
The flowers are edible and can be stuffed - but they don't stay open for long.
This one is already starting to close now, only a few hours after I took the picture.

Glo, what is a courgette? The plant looks similar to a squash.

I believe you call it zucchini in the US, Mustafa (as indeed we do in Germany).

And yes, it is related to squashes, marrows and pumpkins.
You can tell by the flower and the leaves, can't you?

Yes, we have grown zucchini before, but I prefer the flavor of plain old yellow squash. We planted seed that I saved from a hybrid squash shaped like a lemon. I noticed that one plant has saucer type fruit that was apparently from an outcross last year. As a plant breeder, I thought that I could select for a new type of squash that was not hybrid because with hybrids you have to buy new seed each year.

I have never really tried growing squashes, Mustafa.
I wonder if they need a little more warmth than the British climate can guarantee them.

Personally, I love butternut squashes. Have you grown them?

I like the idea of using the seed of one fruit in the next growing season.
Surely that's what people used to do in the past.

Yes, we have Butternut squash growing as well as Acorn and Delicata winter squashes. I too like Butternut squash split and baked with cinnamon and butter. It tastes like sweet potatoes that you probably don't have in England. Actually, we have 2 different varieties of sweet potato growing in our garden. Barbara and I really enjoy gardening, last evening we picked 8 pounds of green beans and 11 pounds of squash the day before that. Allah's blessings are surely immense.

A new site dedicated for gardening has just opened and we are more welcome to join it :
http://www.muslimgrower.com

I had a peep, Tania, and noticed Dawud_uk's name.
Will you please give my regards to him and his family. That would be very nice!

Thank you

We have had a lot of rain in the last coupld of weeks ... and everything in the garden is growing beautifully!

Here are a few pictures I took today:

I sent him
You will have many tomatoes and cucumbers I have only one tomato plant without flowers

Thanks, Tania

Having been away for a week, two of our courgettes have grown into enormous marrows!

We will have one this evening - stuffed with minced beef.
The other one I gave to our neighbours.

Our garden has done about all it could do.

Lima beans did pretty well with the Persian climbing bean yielding the best and the Thorogreen bush bean having the best flavor.

Green beans that you snap the pod into 3cm segments did well with the Contenders having the best yield.

Cucumbers did OK, but I need to provide better support for the vines to climb on.

Cowpeas did not yield much at all. I think the soil amendments and watering contributed to excessive plant growth. The Holstein yielded well last year.

Okra yielded well after only growing stalk for a long time. The Louisiana Short and Blondie were the best yielders.

Sweet corn (Kandy Korn hybrid) yielded well, but some ears seemed to be diseased. I left the F2 plants unharvested that were planted from last year's seed. I am trying to select an open pollinated type that I can save seed indefinitely.

Squash yielded very well with Gentry and Horn of Plenty hybrids out performing the Lemon from saved seed.

Cantelopes did very well with Athena being the best tasting.

Tomatoes, watermelons, sweet potatoes and peanuts have not been harvested yet.

There is nothing like eating vegetables and fruit from your own garden. Allah is so generous to us in our bountiful sustenance. With Ramadan approaching we will better appreciate that there are many people in this world who are not so fortunate in food supply.