Serves me right! The night after the day I had said that a frost was needed there was a frost! Pooh! Killed off my runner beans, courgettes, haricot buerre and haricot vert. That has just about finished this season for me. Really is time to move on.
Most time has been spent on getting the strawberries sorted out. I really ignored them this season and they have suffered. There are three beds of strawberries. Well, there were. There are only two with plants in and they all needed weeding and forking. No problem with bed 1 as it was a new bed dug last year and was cleared up quite quickly. Bed 2 was another matter. I found once I started to clear the weeds that all the strawberry plants had died. I decided to dig the bed and replant. Mistake. I think the bed had never been dug. I think someone just put down a load of soil and planted the strawberries into that. About four inches down it was pretty much solid clay and that was for over half of the bed. The rest was not much better. So it was to Irish navvy class for me and I learnt how to swing a pick axe! Several days later all is done. Bed 3 still had plants in it so I decided just to fork it over and remove the weeds. Even so it is going to be the same problem as bed 2. That will be next Septembers job!
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| Three strawberry beds |
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| Rocks removed from bed 2 |
Outside tomato's have now been cleared. There is more and more open ground as crops are cleared and beds given a fork over.
In the poly tunnel the tomato's continue to ripen and look a picture. They will have to be picked soon. Other plants continue to grown and cauliflowers are forming. I fear these autumn ones are not going to be as good as the spring ones. We will see.
Over the next few weeks broad beans to sow and winter peas. Seed box needs sorting and consideration given to buying new seed is required. Next years crops need to be decided on now and an action plan put in place! Not that an action plan always helps! Nature has a way of upsetting the best laid plans of mice and men!
Here we are in the middle of September and it is time to start to plan and get set for the new garden season.
My compost experiment laid down in the spring and encouraged by my good friend Keith who has had good results by it, I have declared a success. Layers of leaves and grass cuttings have turned into a very useful mulch for my new apple trees. I am sure the chickens will not be able to resist scratching in it though.
In the poly tunnel brassicas are being seriously attacked by slugs, caterpillars and white fly. I need to resolve this issue or maybe I will not bother with brassicas next year. The tunnel plastic is in need of a wash and I really need to do it before winter kicks in. Tomatoes continue to ripen, lettuce, cauliflower, beetroot,
kohl rabi, purple sprouting are growing away. The toms in hanging baskets are all but done now and I have removed one. The other still have viable toms on it and I will leave them to ripen. Thinking now of creating the poly tunnel fleece clouche.
Outside Chou Milan and the brussels sprouts planted the other week are going great guns. Celeriac and celery still look good. I have picked ripe (red) peppers and got two "quart" freezer bags worth. Still some to pick. Carrots looking good and I am currently pulling from one row. Harricot Vert/Buerre are in flower and as long as the weather holds I should get something from them. Runner beans are in their second flush of flowers and there are even some beans forming. Better than the first flush. Courgettes are all but finished as is the sweet corn. Leeks look good and I am pulling some and others are growing well. I still have some onions in the ground and according to the label they are shallots but they do not look like shallots to me although I have learnt that you can have shallots that do not divide! Weeding and forking continues getting ground ready for the winter.
Work to do includes clearing the strawberry beds and dealing with the raspberries. I have cleared, weeded and forked one strawberry bed. There were still some plants left! Not so good on the second bed. Having cleared the weeds I found very few strawberry plants. I have removed those that did survive to plug the gaps in the first bed. I have started to dig strawberry bed 2 but it is proving to be hard work! The bed has had little work done on it since I started in this garden.
Ok, enough for now. The warm sunny spell continues and I am having to water every evening but that is paying off in that plants are growing well still. About a month to go before the possibility of a frost...ha!
The rain that fell freshened up the crops and they now look a little happier. The grass though has not budged. Horray! Downside. Leaves are falling and I have been gathering them up for the leaf compost heap.
I decided to dig up all the rest of my potatoes and that has taken some time. Reasonable crop but a fair few have been got at by bugs. Note to self. LIFT THE POTATOES EARLIER! Still, I am happy with them. Desiree, Blue Avergne and Rosebelle. I have cheated and bought some winter cabbage and brussel sprout plants. As it is fairly late for these it will be interesting to see how they do. I reckon to have (fingers crossed) about five, maybe six more weeks before the winter really kicks in. I have concluded that growing cabbage from seed is almost not worth it. Golden Primo works well for me but just about everything else fails. For this season I even prepared a brassica bed last autumn but it did not make any difference. Cheltenham green top beetroot has done well and I will be sowing them again. Haricot vert not so good this year but again this year the De Colmar carrots have been good. Must remember to plant more in the middle of the season rather than just one row. Parsnips were a disaster! Melons excellent and I shall grow them the same way next year, celery very good, sweet peppers very poor. Onions grown over winter and from sets poor, onions from seed brilliant! Shallots good. Leeks from sown seed, ok but could have been better, leeks from bought plants good and I believe I will have a good crop over the winter. Runner beans - jury still out. Outdoor tomatos were ok but that earlier frost caught me out and I feel happy that I got any at all! Sweet corn - first lot grown in pots in the poly tunnel were frosted after being planted out, however, a sowing of seed directly into the ground did just fine. NOTE - forget growing sweet corn in pots in the poly tunnel. Courgettes - not happy with the variety, they grew into large courgettes too fast! Broad beans grown over winter were a big success. Cucumbers outside successful, in the poly tunnel just amazing! Butternut squash has been ok, 13 so far, fingers crossed for two more! My herb beds are now well established and I am very happy with them. For the first time I managed to grow peas successfully. Result. I am going to try to grow some over winter and I have bought a variety that should be ok. We will see!
In the poly tunnel I have now planted beetroot, kohl rabi and corriander. The tomato's are still doing well but the days are getting shorter, less sunshine and less time when the air temperature is high enough to ripen them. Still, considering the setback of the frost in May I feel overall I have done ok this season.
