November 2019 in pictures

It has been a relatively mild autumn so far with only a couple of frosty nights so far, but it was definitely time to pick any chillies still on the plants outside and bring indoors to ripen. And while I was tidying up the strawberry beds I found some beetroot stragglers. They were not massively big but there was enough for a couple of meals and the leaves were a welcome addition to our green veg.

The kales come into their own at this time of year and I'm wondering how long I can keep the larger of the two, shown on the left, going. Both have been in the ground for over a year.

I always have to remember that I have Jerusalem artichokes in a growing sack as the leaves have now died back. There are always some left behind ready to spring into action in the new year.

At the front of the house I decided to see how field beans would fare. I have tried various heat loving plants in this area but very few survive without constant attention and watering. In the summer, the patch is hit by full sun and quickly dries out. The rosemary bush loves it and you can also see some garlic coming up next to it. This was missed when I picked the few bulbs that grew there in the summer. 

In the winter, the sun is low and we usually have enough rain to let the plants look after themselves so I am hoping the beans will do well. The seeds looked to be from two different varieties and they are growing at different rates. Although, usually grown as a green manure they can be eaten and there is an interesting article comparing field beans and broad beans on the Garden Organic website - Growing field beans for human consumption 

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/growing-field-beans-human-consumption 

Also at the front of the house is the last of the rudbeckia (self-seeded). It is in a sheltered spot against the wall and shielded from the worst of the cold weather by a neighbour's bush and a wheelie bin. I was tempted to cut the flowers and bring them indoors but it such a pleasure to see a splash of colour outside at the this time of the year.

August 2018 in pictures

August was yet another hot month with temperatures in the upper 30s. Great weather conditions for the salad vegetables, chillies and tomatoes but, of course, the pots required constant watering. 

 

Tomatoes: Indigo Beauty and Jersey Devil

Southern Hawker dragonfly on nearby elderberries

October 2016: time to bring in the chillies and tomatoes

October is often a mild month and many of the summer crops are still growing, albeit slowly. There were some cold nights and the threat of frosts towards the end of the month so time to pick the chillies. There was a good crop on the plants that made it past the seedling stage but I lost most of them right at the start of the year. 

I always start the chillies indoors but we don't have an area in the house that is consistently warm enough for them. So, I use a propagator. Unfortunately, it is a very basic model: either on or off and if left on for too long it can get too hot. I was away for two days running some workshops and forgot to switch it off. On my return I was greeted with cooked chilli seedlings. A mistake I won't make again and time to invest in a thermostatically controlled propagator.

We picked all of the tomatoes and brought them indoors regardless of whether they were ripe or not. Some were beginning to turn and have been left to ripen in the kitchen. Others were nowhere near ready to ripen and used up in stir fries and omelettes. The last big green courgettes were picked but the baby yellow ones were left until frosts and slugs threatened. 

And I found I had a single, lone aubergine. When we started growing our own veg we had several years of successfully growing aubergines in pots outside (we don't have a greenhouse) but we then had three years when we didn't have the right weather at the right time. We gave up after that but this year I was given a plant so I thought I'd try again. I was underwhelmed by the yield but it was probably not the right variety for growing outdoors. They are not on my list for 2017.  

The runner bean seeds have been collected for next year. I've been saving these for so many years that I'm no longer sure what varieties I have apart from the white ones, which are Moonlight. Moonlight, however, has been a perennial disappointment. I have tried different suppliers as well as our own and grown in different locations. The plants grow well, they produce plenty of flowers but we get hardly any beans from them. All the other varieties we grow have been fantastic this year. 

I have no idea where we are going wrong with Moonlight but we shall try again in 2017. We are enlisting the help of friends who will grow some plants from two of our batches of seed so that we can see it really is us or the seeds that is the problem. 

The garlic has been planted and this year we have three heritage varieties: Red Duke, Mikulov and Bohemian Rose. 

Outside of the garden it has been a good year for Rowan berries. There is still rowan berry jelly in the cupboard so this time I made marmalade with the juice and some citrus fruit. 

The wasps that have been nesting in the kitchen roof space have been dying off in small batches over the last couple of weeks and this morning it looked as they were all on the way out. This sight was repeated across all three kitchen windows. But there are still dozens, if not hundreds, of them buzzing in and out of the nest so a lot more to go. The windows are covered in streaks of some sort of sticky goo but there is no way I am going to attempt to clean them while there are wasps still around.

Squash harvest minus five already eaten!

October 2016 Zone 2 and 3