LUT Hive Garden Journal 2026 #7

I'm going to start this month's garden journal with my sunflowers. They've really bloomed in the month and have many heads per plant. And now they're growing inwards towards my garden smiling at me every morning.

Lettuce

This lettuce is my most prized harvest this year. I know lettuce are very easy to grow, but somehow not much is growing my garden this year. No idea why. I watched as it grew everyday into a loose ball, it was beautiful, much more organic and natural than the tight round balls you buy from stores. And it's tasted so much nicer!

Courgettes

This has been a disappointment this year, I only harvested two, this is the second and likely last one from my two plants. Originally I thought the problem may be growing them vertically which wasn't a problem last year. Then I think I found the real problem. I planted a few green peppers next to them earlier in the season when I was looking to fill up empty space. Apparently they both fight for the same nutrients leading to a loss loss in both crops. Lesson learnt for next year.

Green peppers

I planted two other green pepper plants by my tomato plants which also was not ideal. The tomato became quite bushy blocking out the sun the green pepper needed to growth. The green peppers grew really slow, but the good thing is that now it finally has quite a lot of flowers. Sadly a bit too late in the season. One plant has at least four fruits, the largest one as shown. I don't know if they or any will grow to full size as the plant is so small. I feel like it's a teenage pregnancy 😬

Tomatoes

Here are my tomato plants. There are two in the raised bed that have grown quite crazy. The branch on the left extends quite far out overshadowing my teenage pregnancy green peppers which you can see in the previous image.

The others grown in buckets have produced lots of delicious tomatoes that I've been snacking on this month. There were so many that I had to give some away to a friend. The plants look a bit sad now because they're at the end of the season.

French beans

My french bean plant is next to my tomatoes. They've been very productive this month, I've harvested one batch, will harvest another batch tomorrow and there should be more in the coming weeks.

Yardlong beans

Likewise my yardlong beans are coming along nicely. I love going in the greenhouse every morning to see what's changed overnight. Sometimes I see new beautiful light purple flowers, sometimes the petals have turned yellow, the next stage is the tiny beans, sometimes as small as pins starting to grow. And sometimes I miss all these early stages because they're hidden amongst the vines and by the time I see them they're the size of matchstick poking out from the leaves. It's such a wonderful experience ☺️

I cooked the first batch last week,they were so sweet and fresh. The beans grow to around 35 to 75cm and currently my longest one is 55cm long. Others are catching up and I will harvest another batch next week.

Butternut squash

The other week my friend gave a few butternut squash young plants. He sowed too many so I thought I'd have a go at growing something new. They have settled in nicely and have doubled in size since I planted them. Butternut squash takes 6 to 8 weeks to grow from when they're pollinated, and at this stage my plants don't even have any flowers yet. I don't think I'll be able to harvest anything this year, it's too late. But that's ok, I'm still learning how to grow stuff and it will be useful for next year.