Autumn Harvest

So as the growing season comes to the end, we've been harvesting the last of the produce from the garden . . .

A small selection here of the apples from our two trees.

Add to that the last tomatoes from the greenhouses, and potatoes and green beans from the veg plots.






The potatoes ('pink fir apple') after a slow start, did particularly well, although they wouldn't win any beauty contests!










Cue lots of peeling, chopping, par-boiling, and freezing . . .

Bean Harvest

The green beans seemed to take forever to get going this year, but the first harvest today was fairly substantial.


Saved some for tea, and chopped, blanched and froze the rest - although it looks like there'll be another harvest to follow in due course.

Green Stuff - One Month On . .

Time for an update on the Green Stuff . . .

The greenhouses have both been planted up now - here we have the main greenhouse, replete with plum and beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers and some very small aubergine plants (hopefully they'll pick up over the next few weeks).




The small greenhouse (as well as the vine) has the cherry tomatoes and a few more aubergines . . .





Progress in the main veg plot has been mixed - the potatoes are on their way up, but the courgettes and butternut squash haven't really come on much - fed them today so hoping for better things to come.




Also planted up some green beans, a week or so ago, hoping they'll get going soon too . . . (decided against peas this year after last year's less than impressive harvest).





The onions (and stray potatoes leftover from last year!) are doing ok in the smaller veg plot, and there are some leeks to plant out in due course as well.



Finally we have the broad beans, which are doing very nicely thank you, despite a bit of a battering from the strong winds.

 A bit of sunshine and we should also have our first strawberries sometime very soon!

Green Stuff

Time for a garden update  . . .

We've rotovated the main veg plot now, and planted out the courgettes and butternut squash - waiting for the green beans to come on a bit before they go out.  Potatoes have gone in both the veg plot and some pots.

The tomatoes aren't too far off being ready for planting on as well - the peppers and aubergines are still at an early stage though - sorting out the greenhouses has to be one of the next tasks on the list.






The fruit cage pretty much takes care of itself - the raspberries and strawberries are promising a bumper harvest anyway.



Still considering potential approaches to keeping the mice out mind you - there are plenty of strawberries to go round if only they finished one before starting another!

The biggest success story thus far is probably the broad beans - although Martin's Dad did the initial work of bringing these on - that said they seem to be doing very nicely thank you in one of the raise beds, safely tucked away from the bunnies behind a chicken-wire fence!

One Month On . . .

An update to last month's garden post - as you can see the onions are still going strong - although we're having to watch for flower-heads and nip them in the bud as it were.







The peas have grown somewhat, although that initial row we cultivated so carefully in its nursery gutter didn't really come to anything, except for a few plants at one end.

The other two rows are looking ok, and there are plenty of pods although the peas haven't swollen yet.  The main concern is whether they'll survive to be harvested by us, as the mice seem to be doing a good job of scoffing their way through them at the moment!

On to the beans - the climbing variety in the pot either got too much rain or too little and only one or two appear to have survived.  The other beans did indeed turn out to be a bush bean variety - which means that they are particularly vulnerable to the mice . . .

We know it's mice - the little blighters are quite bold about it - while I was weeding the garden one of them was sitting quite happily under the guttering with baby onions in it, nibbling on something or other!

As well as weeding, I did plant some additional climbing beans and replaced the now died-back potato plant with a few late courgettes (as the ones I planted earlier in the year aren't doing much).

In fact, yesterday's harvest totalled a handful of beans, a few potatoes and one courgette!  Plus lots of green tomatoes, rescued from the jungle of the big greenhouse - here the plants had got out of hand, and the compost we'd dug in had germinated a fine set of weeds.

Generally the tomatoes are still looking a little disappointing in comparison with last year's crop - July just hasn't produced the sun needed to ripen them, and quite a few had gone mouldy / rotten on the vine. Two hours weeding and chopping did reduce it to some kind of order (see before and after shots below) - in fact I suspect I may have over-done the cutting back a little.   Hopefully now there's a bit more air circulating the current crop will ripen in due course, and we may get some re-growth:

 

The 'cheap' cucumber seeds I bought have produced some amazing plants, but very little in the way of actual cucumbers - a bit of a contrast to last year where we had a real glut of the things.  Lesson learned - if you want good produce, buy good seed stock.

More Growth

Said I'd blog something about the other veg plot once I'd weeded it - I've now weeded it twice!

As you can see, the onions are doing well - they're almost unrecognisable now as the rather weedy objects that we planted out back in May.  Some are larger than others, but there are a few potential 'monsters' at least.  A couple of potato plants appeared spontaneously as well - remnants from last year - we've left the two strongest in place to see what comes of them this year.



The peas have made a reasonable show, but I don't think we'll match the success of our first ever growing year - although I suppose they do have another 3 weeks to reach the 6 foot mark of that first harvest.  At least a few more plants seem to have survived into maturity - in contrast to last year.


Finally we have the green beans - we planted up a pot with the same variety we grew last year and they are climbing well.  We were given a bag of what we thought were a similar variety, but despite having a lovingly-constructed cane structure to grow up they are showing little sign of wanting to climb anything - I suspect they may therefore be a bush bean variety - well, we'll see . . .

Will confirm the bean situation, and just how high the peas did grow in due course . . .