A Good Year in the Garden

[kenneal - lagger]

We have got plums on our established tree but it has got, I think, honey fungus and we are going to have to take it out this year after harvest. We have cut out the wilting parts several times but the whole tree is effected now.

We had a really good set of lettuce seedlings earlier in the year but we didn't get them in the ground quickly enough and most of them bolt. The red lettuces are the most bolt resistant.

We have run out of saved rain water and the stream which runs through our cattle field is very low. I'm just off to dig a hole in the bed to give an accumulation of water that the cattle can drink from and that I can pump water from into a couple of IBCs on our trailer so that I can water the veggies. Neither of us are flower gardeners so that side of the garden will have to look after itself. Things like the rosemary, sage and bay tree, all planted in clay in a 750mm high retaining wall are doing just fine thank you. The mint has died off though. Oregano has self seeded in a slate chip covered hardcore path and has done really well and the smell is almost overwhelming. Great!! It's been a good year for Mediterranean herbs for some reason.

Our large polytunnel has downy mildew on most of the plants, even the peppers are starting to show signs of an attack and the cucumbers look as if they are about to stop producing, it is that bad. That tunnel always seems dry. Could that lead to the problem with mildew? Comments would be appreciated. Having said that the aubergines are now fruiting and the squashes are rampant although they have only just started fruiting. The peppers are fruiting really well although we could have done with some more plants.

In our smaller polytunnel the tomatoes are looking good and we are starting to crop them in earnest now. They are easily keeping our two families going and we, I say we when I really mean Carole, will soon be making passata for storage over winter.

Elsewhere, the potatoes and onions have yielded well after having had a couple of thousand litres of water on them from the water butts earleir in the spring: two ten metre by 1.2 metre beds of spuds and one of onions. Some of the potato crop is in the shade of our fruit trees and still appeared to be growing so that got the last of the rain water and a bit of metered tap water and the tops have perked up so hopefully putting a bit more into the crop as well.

Carrots sewn thickly and then thinned and eaten gradually have done well but the most recent planting got trampled by some escaped cattle! I always water the carrots back in well after thinning so that has kept them growing well. The cattle took the tops off some of the carrots and most of our parsnips so hopefully they will grow back without being too woody but the sweat corn was completely decimated. I mix the carrot seed with a lot of sand and that helps to sow a relatively thin bed of carrots so that an intitial thinning isn't necessay and they can grow on to an edible size before further thinning.

We've got a small number of swede and celeriac planted as well. We planted a tall variety of peas and they are cropping well after a slow start and a replanting: I probably didn't water them enough during germination but some of the seed is now showing through so we will probably get a second crop later. The tall crop seems to be flowering over a long period so that should keep the crop going.

Spinach and lettuce plants have had to be netted to stop the pigeons and pheasants pulling them out of the ground but are growing away strongly. Brassicas are not doing too badly although some butterflies have got through the netting. I bought higher metal hoops to support the netting over the brassicas but some of them have reached the top still and maybe the butterflies laid their eggs through the netting. I can get extensions for the hoops so I'll have to do that for next year and get some finer netting. For low stuff I use hoops cut from offcuts of blue polyethylene water pipe which works well and also lasts.

[Catweazle]

It's going to be a good year for apples, not that they're much use. I think I'll try to dry them.

[clv101]

It's going to be a good year for apples, not that they're much use. I think I'll try to dry them.

Absolutely, it'll be our best year for apples. Juice (for sale mainly), cider, freeze & can pie filling, dry etc. Fresh storage until ~March is reasonable.

[kenneal - lagger]

Our apples and pears are looking good and very prolific. The pears will be bottled in a variety of liquids and a lot of the apples will be juiced. We have tried wrapping them and storing them in the past but that didn't work well so we will look at freezing some for cooking with.

Carole will be making our first batch of pasata this week and the rest of the tomatoes are ripening quickly. Our peppers have cropped quite well but have lost a lot of their leaves. I have sprayed them with bicarbonate of soda and given them a good watering and will see how they are doing but they may be harvested green and made into ratatouille along with the really abundant courgettes, tomatoes and aubergines.

I picked up a barrow full of onions and shallots today and they will go into the cellar along with the regular supply of marrows from the courgette plants. We got 10 in store already which will go as a base for soup over winter. Last year we used squash for that but they haven't done so well this year.

I am looking at burying 20 1200 litre IBCs at the top of our hill to collect rainwater in over winter so that we can irrigate next year if necessary. With the 15 to 20 metre head that will give us and some filtration we will be able to use leaky hoses on a timer to better control our water use. A daily dousing of a controlled amount of water should give us a better crop with less wastage of water. The system will also be more durable as it will be protected from frost and UV.

With the judicious use of WWOOFers we are getting more of our garden area back into use now and we will continue that into next year. I have a concrete panel building which I want to take down and use to complete some more raised beds. There is a fallen oak and a Chestnut tree on the common which I want to plank using my chainsaw mill for more raised beds so I have a busy autumn and winter ahead of me.

We had a wildfire at the other end of the common earlier this evening although I believe it is out now. Luckily it was in a damp, scrubby treed area which doesn't burn so well rather than the open gorsed common which would have gone up like a rocket. Hopefully it will act as a wake-up call for the Wildlife Trust which manages the common as they spend all their money and time on the central areas of SSSI and neglect the rest which is being overrun with gorse and is adjacent to quite a few houses.

What a strange summer we have had!

[kenneal - lagger]

We have had about 5mm of rain so far today. Some came in a downpour this morning but sine then we have had a steady drizzle which will soak into the soil quite nicely thank you. Mind you the soil deficit must be somewhere around 400 to 500mm by now so there is quite a way to go to make up over winter before next year.

[kenneal - lagger]

We've just had about 10mm in half an hour so I'll pump our "rainwater butt" out into an IBC in the vegetable garden in case we get another dry spell later this month.

[Catweazle]

We've just come back from collecting blackberries to go with the copious apples as pie filling and to make jam with. Plenty around, the best bushes are near trees that have suppressed other growth, on an east-to-west hedgeline, or either side of farm gates. Basically, the best berries need space and light.

Some bushes still have loads of red berries, so another collection in a week is likely.

I've made a note of the positions of particularly productive bushes of best quality fruit, I might take a few cuttings of these and spread them around.

[PS_RalphW]

I had home grown apple and blackberry crumble for supper today. Delicious

[kenneal - lagger]

We've had blackberry and apple as well but as a crumble as my wife has an aversion to making pastry for some reason.

I've been picking apples for a couple of weeks now so we can send them off for juicing. We've got a mixture of James Grieve, Discovery and Bramley at the moment. We've got Coxes and Lord Lambourne to come along with even more Bramley's. They won't take any damaged fruit so they need to be picked.

We had spiced, poached pears in red wine this evening and will be bottling them over the next few weeks. They are a good size because they get any water seeping out from the polytunnel which receives all our grey water.

The courgettes have been growing into good sized marrows which is a good thing because our squash plants haven't done very well this year. I trained them up the spiral supports which we use for tomatoes and cucumbers but they have gone really busy and difficult to control so we've got loads of green and little fruit. They have also caught a dose of mildew which hasn't helped.

[BritDownUnder]

Two sets of potatoes in so far and I will keep on putting them in spaced over two weeks for the next few months when time allows.

I should have done some eggplants in the greenhouse as they briefly reached AUD11-30 each in the supermarkets recently. Mandarins and lemons are being harvested.

[emordnilap]

12 kilograms of garden peas frozen. Not bad considering we've had an infestation of the pea moth grub this year, first time ever. All infected pods were burnt.

Onions are looking great. Plenty of garlic but some got a rust of some sort.

[BritDownUnder]

Joy of joys!

After eight years since I tenderly it nurtured from an avocado seed I have seen the first avocado fruit on the avocado tree this year. I just noticed it yesterday when looking for what branches to prune. Whether they are edible is another matter. I will probably know sometime early next year.

Eggplants currently being grown and peas and potatoes are ready to eat.

[kenneal - lagger]

I have dug up three aubergine/egg plants and have them in pots in doors for the winter. I am about to bring in some pepper plants as well and I have about a dozen tomato side shoots in water to root before potting them on for next year. All said plants are perennials which are normally killed off by frost in the UK so they should grow back quickly next spring and give us some plants that will be about 6 to 8 weeks in front of any seed grown plants. It's the first time that I've done this but there are quite a few videos on YouTube about it. will let you know how it goes.

I've got quite a few spuds to dig still and our carrots are still growing well in the garden. I still have to perfect the art of growing brassicas without having them eaten by wildlife before we can get to them. If its not butterflies its birds and if not them its mice or rats. Cows got all the sweet corn! The tomatoes have done really well and we have more passata in the cellar than ever before and before we have always gone through the winter with some to spare. We've got a few more tomato based recipes to use now so we will eat more over winter so will probably need the extra. We've got plenty of pears and apples in store in various ways and have plenty of marrow and squashes to last through. We've just got to kill off the rat/rats that have got into the cellar before taking them all down there for storage.

I've been blocking all possible accesses with wire wool treated with peppermint oil which deters mice and rats apparently. I think that I have all the pipe and cable ducts blocked now so short of the b*****ds chewing through concrete our produce should be safe this winter.

We grew a large tray of pea shoots on an east facing window cill in late summer from which we got several cuttings. We tried it again a month or so ago and got one cut off them but they haven't done at all well nor regrown since. The plants look very brown and dry, Perversely they might have too much water under them rather than too little. Any advice on this would be appreciated. They were thickly sown in trays of potting compost about 30mm deep and the tray placed in another tray with water in. The first lot dried out and the tray was topped up but this lot have never dried out.

[emordnilap]

I've been blocking all possible accesses with wire wool treated with peppermint oil which deters mice and rats apparently. I think that I have all the pipe and cable ducts blocked now so short of the b*****ds chewing through concrete our produce should be safe this winter.

The wire wool should work but when I tried peppermint oil-soaked cotton wool, the rat ate the lot.

[kenneal - lagger]

...........
The wire wool should work but when I tried peppermint oil-soaked cotton wool, the rat ate the lot.

That's not funny. Not at all!!!