Kitchen Garden Forum

Is it really that time of the year again!

Well, we have missed all the heavy showers that they were predicting and it is very mild out there indeed….. here anyway!
Just picked a very large carrier bag of runner beans, off the second sowing….the third sowing are just starting to set, so will have to see how they get on with the predicted cold temperatures for next week.
Planted a big bucket full of bulbs at the big house yesterday, and the ground was like concrete, not a drop of moisture in there at all.

My witch hazel, that I thought had died at the beginning of the year, is now in full bloom….think it has got about 5 months out of sync with all this weird weather….

I also missed the rain which came overnight but must have been a significant amount as very wet & lots of puddles on the path down there. A reminder to change my summer trainers for the water proof winter ones! I finally have the spuds dried & bagged & the pumpkins & squash at home as had a lift today as Mr had no doctor's/nurse/podiatrist/cardiac/vascular appointments, in fact has been signed off completely for some of these so great timing for the winter visits.

The next couple of weeks are showing double figure minimum temps so I could get lucky with some of my sneaky late sows if they don't get thugged out by the weeds which are in abundance due to the untended plots nearby all over the summer.

I am really closing down for the winter already, only crops in the ground are carrots, which will stay in the ground under fleece all winter, a few late parsnips, that might be big enough to eat(probably no bigger than the carrots) and my experiment with late planted winter cabbage, which are still growing, but slowly. Still have sweetcorn and tomatoes in the greenhouse and that is it. We have had quite a bit of rain, cut the lawns yesterday, hopefully for the last time this year, big beech hedge will be next on the list for a hair cut.

Well what a beautiful morning it is….warm and pleasant…

Just been clearing up bricks, canes and netting…nice to get it done while the ground is still dry!

Nope I'm not going to get lucky with milder nights as current update is showing min temps about 4C until the end of the week. At least this cold snap might finally rid me of the pesky cabbage whites which were out in abundance today - shame the white fly won't be bothered by it though!

Still very dry here in west Herts. With luck we should get some overnight rain (the best sort!).

After years of failing with brassicas, we have more than we can cope with, so I'm taking a big bag of leaves into the hostel tomorrow.
The other "gardening" I am doing at the hostel is making planters out of old shelving we were given. There is some painting to finish and I will line them with weed-supressing fabric.

very nice planters Stephen!

We tackled the large bramble growing out from behind the greenhouse yesterday. I think we (DH) got it all, he had to feed the ladder down from the garage roof into the narrow space between the greenhouse & next door, under a foot and a half. Luckily he is quite narrow too!!

Last outdoor green tomatoes picked this morning - not trusting nighttime temperatures any more. Also started seed saving process for the two varieties of tomatoes we hope to grow again next year if newly promoted Head Gardener still feels physically up to the task. (As he,s also the sole cook now he still likes to have home grown produce to use but now better appreciates the effort involved.)

Have two remaining tiny butternut squash on the plants (only one harvested to date) so surrounding leaves removed and will wait to see if they amount to anything. Climbing beans now finished. Leeks and Swiss chard still looking ok. Now my husband's the gardener trying to grow more low maintenance vegs that he doesn't have to "twiddle with" too much!

Whilst putting out my washing this morning I needed(almost)to wear a Safety helmet!!.In the high winds the acorns were being blown off the Oak trees and raining down like machine-gun bullets!And they sting if they hit you.

conkers are worse!! Hope you managed to escape injury Snooky!

Well Snooky this free wind generated energy is not be scoffed at now the commercial sort is becoming more expensive. And you can always use the acorns for making mock coffee or ersatz bread if times get really hard !

Closing down the greenhouse is always tinged with a bit of sadness, still a few plants in pots, but all the sweetcorn has gone, once the last tomatoes have finished I will give the glass a thorough clean with Jeyes fluid then start plunging pots into the border soil and once frosts are forecast, fleece will cover the tops of everything.
It's been a very good growing season under glass, never had so many tomatoes and the salad crops were good and the sweetcorn was ok, I need to plant it a bit earlier next year as it was 100% fully grown, the pollination was something I was unsure about, but that was actually very good, just ran out of heat, 6 degrees last night in there.

I think it,s a good thing that gardeners have a break over winter. Like plants they need a time to rest and renew their energy, and a break from all that constant weeding !

Primrose wrote:I think it,s a good thing that gardeners have a break over winter. Like plants they need a time to rest and renew their energy, and a break from all that constant weeding !

I don't usually rest, I climb mountains and go fishing, though since my surgery this year, I doubt I will be climbing far up any Munroes this winter.

well, that was a chilly start to the day. Needed gloves & scarf for cycle to work this morning.