Autumn is in the air

     A week can make a big difference when you are gardening and the passing of this last week I think was one of those weeks.The signs are there in the garden and in the hedgerows. Autumn is coming. The haricot vert (1st sowing), courgettes, spagetti squash, cucumbers and melons are all showing signs of coming to their end. Lots of blackberries in the hedgerows and what apples there are are falling from the trees. Weather wise the mornings have been cool and yes the sun has shone but mostly to a maximum of around 20C. The evenings are pulling in!

Golden Bantam sweet corn

Sweet peppers aubergine haricot vert

1kg of strawberries

    At last the Desiree main crop potatoes have all be lifted. Grand total of some 131 kgs of spuds! Roughly twice as much as last year despite the blight. It has been a long time since I have had a good crop of sweet peppers. A success this season has been the no dig strawberry bed. Latest picking, a kilogram, is shown in the photograph. A few tomatoes are being picked from the poly tunnel which is a little compensation for loosing all my outside ones. Hitting a lettuce scarcity patch as one lot rapidly came to an end, the chickens decided that they fancied another lot and the third lot have only just about established themselves. As usual grass mowed although I have to say the grass does seem to have slowed up. I  guess that is because there has not been any significant rain. 

  On the chicken front average daily egg production is way down this week. Only 1.3 eggs a day. Half of last weeks average. I cannot think of any particular reason except its August and very often at this time of year a hen will stop laying. Mrs Hen has now abandoned her chicks to their fate and rejoined the cockeral and hen. 

Its coming together....

       Many plants are a week or more late in maturing this year, however, there is most definately a burst of growth going on and stuff is catching up with itself. Oh, there has been a good crop of weeds! Sweet peppers, melons, squash, pumpkins are all at last showing signs of getting somewhere! Winter leeks have been planted and the winter cabbage is well established and looking good.

VERY large beetroot from the polytunnel

Winter leeks planted out

Butternut squash

   Tomatoes have been a disaster this year being struck down by blight. Fortunately my potatoes having been planted early did not suffer so much. I have had one or two potatoes dug up rotten but not in large numbers. Lettuce, sweet peppers, haricot vert, cabbage, courgettes (oh boy how many courgettes can one eat I ask) and carrots all harvested this last week. Usual mowing of grass and weeding and the lifting of potatoes continues! I have started to gather some seeds and I managed to get a few tomato seeds from one plant that I had been given and whose tomatoes are very nice indeed! Variety Burpee.

   On the chicken front egg production has remained steady with a slight increase to 2.6 eggs a day. One of the cockerals, who we had named Mr. Angry, decided to attack the ride on mower and this time he came off second best and badly injured his leg. I had to despatch him. He was due to be culled sometime anyway as he was a very aggressive bird.

I say POMMES DE TERRE you say POTATOES

    The final figure for the weight of DESIREE potatoes lifted from my large triangle bed came to around fifty four kilos. Makes up a little for the virtual total loss of the tomato crop. All onions have now also been lifted and are drying. A reasonable crop but not what I have been used to over the last few years. I have transplanted Great Lakes lettuce and I expect that to be the last for this season.  More weeding done and of course grass cut! It looks like I am going to get some cucumbers of which I am very pleased, however, the melons, water and 5 dessert do not look too good. Haricot vert continue to crop well and are surely coming to an end! Lettuce is good and I have pulled (well my grandson pulled) some very good sized carrots. In the poly tunnel I have pulled some self seeded beetroot and they are enormous! Borscht anyone?

Desiree potatoes from the large triangle plot

   On the chicken front I have to report the loss of one hen who has been hanging in there for a while now. Otherwise egg production is 2.5 eggs on average per day.

BLIGHT!

    The blight has finally struck! Chatting to fellow gardeners in France on Facebook blight has struck across the country. Seems that even commericial growers have been hit. Well, it has finally arrived in my garden. My tomatoes have been hit hard. I am finding the odd rotten potato as I have been lifting the main crop, Desiree. Not in over forty years of growing potatoes have I experienced blight in them. Just shows how weather conditions can affect things. The weather continues to be damp and cool. Where is the summer? According to the forecast it would seem next week might see things improving somewhat.

Blight affected tomatoes

Blight affected tomatoes

   As I mentioned above I have started to lift my main crop potatoes, variety Desiree. This season I have conducted an experiment. I have a bed that I have used this season to plant out Desiree seed potatoes with plenty of room between the seed potatoes. The idea being that given more room I should get bigger potatoes! Well I have to report that so far and I am about half way through lifting them from this plot that I can say that the experiment has been a success. I have larger potatoes and most definately a higher number of potatoes per plant. I have yet to weigh them but I am confident that it will a heavier crop than usual.

  More courgettes, more haricot vert! More than I can eat that is for sure! With this cooler wetter weather I am having great success with Great Lakes lettuce and I have transplanted another lot out. It is unusual to be able to do this at this time of year. It is usually too hot. Another crop that is doing well is my new strawberry bed. The plants are full of a second lot of flowers so I am expecting another lot.

   Chickens are being chickens and over this last week average egg production has dropped to two a day. Pretty poor really! I can only put it down to disturbance in the flock with the introduction of four young hens. Still, I would hope, egg laying can only get better! The chicks are growing fast and it will not be long and they will not be able to tuck up under Mum! I have had to remove one of the oldest chickens who was at the bottom of the pecking order as she is starting to suffer from harasement from the flock. Again I am sure the introduction of the new hens has not helped her. She is now seperated from the flock in her own coop.

Strawberry plot

   

Pick, pick and yet more pick...

Haricot vert over 2kgs

      Yes it is rapidly coming to that time of year. So many different  vegetables to pull, pick and cut! Courgettes (straight and round), haricot vert (see the picture that is just one third of the weight of haricot picked this last week), carrots, tomatoes (small and large), potatoes (currently BF-15 but Desiree and Violet to come), cabbage, onions, sweet peppers, shallots (two types), lettuce and beetroot. So much stuff! I have been giving it away to the neighbors but even then there is still a large surplus. I am freezing haricot vert and I will pickle shallots and beetroot and store onions and potatoes. I also dug up the elephant garlic and I am pleased with the results. Next year should be even better. Oh, the strawberries. They too have done a lot better than I expected and I am picking a good bowlful for dessert quite regularly.

     So work in the garden has been, besides pick and cut, mowing the grass (goes without saying really), weeding (they grow faster than I can remove them!) and attempted and failed with transplaning some Red Top swede seedlings. They just did not take despite me watering. 

On the chicken front the new guys are settling in and are getting the idea of where they are supposted to roost. Guess it will be another week before I dare let them room the garden. Coops cleaned out and dead rats disposed of. Finally upto a daily average of 3 eggs a day this last week.

Elephant garlic harvest