Aubergines, peppers & tomatoes from the greenhouse
The weather is lovely at the moment - warm summery days and cooler nights - it often happens like this when the children go back to school! It is a busy time of year in the garden gathering in the crops and getting ready for the winter. Overall, I have to say that the garden beat me this year - with all the rain earlier on I didn't manage to keep control of it the way I would have liked and the weeds won! Oh well now there is another year to get ready for - I like that sense in the vegetable garden of starting afresh each autumn.
My best crop, as usual was onions - we had both a good crop of early red onions and a main crop of white onions - Marshalls Fen Globe, which always seem very reliable and swell to a good size. The main crop of red onions though has not got going at all - not sure why? I had a great crop of garlic - especially the variety Christo which Jennifer Birch supplies - magnificent bulbs and a really good size - several beautiful plaits to last through the winter!
Now what's left is mainly courgettes (growing like triffids), pumpkins, sweetcorn and a few autumn salads that I've just planted. Not much in the way of brassicas, other than a few late Savoy cabbages which are being transplanted - I never seem to get geared up for cabbages and brussels sprouts - spring always seems to be the wrong time of year to be thinking about them! In the Orchard we have quite a lot of apples and some pears, though this year our cherry and plum crop was poor, down to the horrible weather when the blossom needed pollinating I think. In the fruit garden the autumn fruiting raspberries and blackberries are doing well, but I need to prune my currant and gooseberry bushes and sort it out a bit!
The greenhouse is very productive at the moment - tomatoes, peppers and aubergines in abundance which is lovely - lots of ratatouille! I did make the mistake of letting the cucumbers share a large open grow sack with some spinach and they have hardly fruited at all - so must give them their own space again next year.
So now autumn digging and the exciting part of choosing all the seed varieties for next year. Soon time to put the garlic and broad beans in again!
My best crop, as usual was onions - we had both a good crop of early red onions and a main crop of white onions - Marshalls Fen Globe, which always seem very reliable and swell to a good size. The main crop of red onions though has not got going at all - not sure why? I had a great crop of garlic - especially the variety Christo which Jennifer Birch supplies - magnificent bulbs and a really good size - several beautiful plaits to last through the winter!
Now what's left is mainly courgettes (growing like triffids), pumpkins, sweetcorn and a few autumn salads that I've just planted. Not much in the way of brassicas, other than a few late Savoy cabbages which are being transplanted - I never seem to get geared up for cabbages and brussels sprouts - spring always seems to be the wrong time of year to be thinking about them! In the Orchard we have quite a lot of apples and some pears, though this year our cherry and plum crop was poor, down to the horrible weather when the blossom needed pollinating I think. In the fruit garden the autumn fruiting raspberries and blackberries are doing well, but I need to prune my currant and gooseberry bushes and sort it out a bit!
The greenhouse is very productive at the moment - tomatoes, peppers and aubergines in abundance which is lovely - lots of ratatouille! I did make the mistake of letting the cucumbers share a large open grow sack with some spinach and they have hardly fruited at all - so must give them their own space again next year.
So now autumn digging and the exciting part of choosing all the seed varieties for next year. Soon time to put the garlic and broad beans in again!
