End of October Vegetable Garden Update

 

The weather is wild , windy and wet .

It's that muddy ,wellington-boots time of the year again !

I haven't posted anything for a while on here , due to having hurt myself . Pulled/torn a tummy muscle . Ouch ! I cant lift anything and I cant even reach up even to hang something on the washing line.....hurts !

 The doctor has organised physio and I,m waiting for a scan ......and my Flu jab .

 Difficult times right now for anything hospital related , the physio is by phone and over the internet and I have to say how I,m doing with each exercise everyday , so there is no getting away with it .

                            

So I,ve only been pottering about doing light garden jobs really .Which is very frustrating when I usually am very busy at this time in the Autumn .

 It was very hard work planting out my Garlic sets yesterday .

  See the picture above . I normally would have weeded out the grass and brambles that are growing around my African Keyhole Vegetable Bed , but pulling hurts , so I just weeded half of this bed and got the garlic in the ground .The other half of this bed I am covering with cardboard and all the spent compost from the tomato and cucumber tubs .I think I will just just keep that side covered from now on through the winter months .

We had torrential rain over night and  this morning .I dashed out to check on my newly planted Garlic sets .I thought they might have been washed away , but all is well . They've had a good watering in !

We had some of the Carrots that I am growing in this bed , they were both sweetly fragrant and delicious . 

Leeks and Onions doing well . I have a perennial Celery plant that my friend gave me in this bed , only small at the moment but looking happy enough and enjoying all this rain !

A medley of veggies under the netting . I have begun pulling some of the biggest Leeks . Ouch !

 Lots of different brassicas in here too . I have sown more cabbages up in the solar  shed .

In the shed I,m growing succession after succession of Winter Lettuces .

 I am also growing Lettuces ,Pak Choi,Coriander, Dill and spring Onions in the Veg Trug outside  . I have covered that with environmesh now , just to shelter them a little bit from the gales .I did take a picture of that but it was very blurred .....oh you want to see it ? ........ oh here you are then  ! ....

..............complete with planks of wood and bricks to hold it all down with and a plastic sheet wedged up at the end to protect it from the wind . You get the idea ! lol !

  I have a beautiful Strawberry plant in here too , which I,m hoping will put out runners so then I will have even more Strawberry plants :) ..but right now the other salad plants are doing really well and giving us a good variety of leaves for our salads and sandwiches .

                     Winter lettuces and good old reliable Greyhound Cabbages .

Every time I walk up to the greenhouse , I see the Buzzards resting /sheltering on the ground in the meadow . I try to remember to take my camera with me and walk very quietly ....but there is always something that I forget ....such as not wearing a bright red cagoule might help ! 

 I see Buzzard . Buzzard sees me . I take blurred photo as he flies off , turns to take picture of other two ......and they,ve gone too ! 

 Also I need to change over to my new camera , as this one is dying on me now ! New camera is waiting in the wings ! Keep forgetting to do it !

Our daily walk , along the cliffs of Mullion , is becoming colder and windier now . We will probably find somewhere a bit more sheltered inland to walk through the Winter months .

We saw the Choughs again the other evening , but it was getting dark as the sun was setting , so not a brilliant picture of them this time .

                                  The next storm coming in over Lands End .

                                       Always a beautiful sunset here .

       Wishing you all well , take care and stay safe . Go and have your Flu jab !

Veg Trug -update

 

The seeds that  I sowed a couple of weeks ago are all coming along nicely in the Veg Trug . Especially now we are having some rain . Lovely Lettuces , Pak choi , Coriander and Dill , Kale and lots and lots of Spring onions .

                                          I am so happy !

The compost has sunk down quite a bit and probably doesn't have much goodness left in it after a year of growing things . It must be quite exhausted , but I thought I,d get one more crop out of it . I,ll top it up with fresh compost next Spring .

 These young seedlings are at least sheltered from the wind . I will be rigging up some sort of a cloche with environmesh to go over it , for when the weather turns really wild and chilly , but for now , this,ll do .

September Harvest - Clear away - Start again .

 The Wheel of Seasons turns and brings in Autumn .  Leaves begin to tumble from the trees . The leaves on my Tomato plants are also fading away , but I,m not letting it end here..we must try and keep the veg garden going and remember to feed and replenish the Earth .
   My order of Autumn planting onion sets arrives . 200 sets of a variety that I have not tried before , Winter Red .

 I harvest all of the remaining Tomatoes that have reached a good size , both red and green . I cut down and clear away all the vines .
  I carry out all the pots of spent compost  . I will add this to the to the African Keyhole Bed  after I have cleared away all the Courgettes and Butternuts in a couple of weeks time . I,m still hoping for more Butternuts !

                                  Very pleased with all the Tomatoes !

  I had a good sweep out of the shed and planted the onion sets into modules .

 I could just plant them out  , but find that this way is better , because if they grow a bit of a root system , when I finally plant them out in a couple of weeks time , the birds can't pull them out so easily .
  The birds mistake the little green onion shoots for worms !
 I put grids over them as an extra precaution .
This also gives me a couple of weeks , to make ready the bed where I am  going to plant them out .

 The sun is shining into my greenhouse , where the small sweet peppers are still swelling and ripening .

 Through the window  I peer to see how the Tomatoes are doing in there .

 They are looking healthier and greener than the ones in the solar shed , I will leave these to carry on swelling and ripening .

    Husband keeps asking when these mini sweet peppers will be ready !

   I must plant them earlier next year and also try and give them more compost and a better quality compost too . However , I think these are the best Sweet Peppers  I,ve ever grown .

Here is the Veg Trug , I know it looks a mess , but I couldn't afford to buy a proper Veg Trug cover for it so I,m using whatever I could find to cover it and keep the birds off .
  I have sown a variety of seeds , lettuces , pak choi , coriander , dill , spring onions in here .
 The compost needs topping up in here and it has sunk down quite a bit , but I think I,ll wait until next Spring to top it up .

                            Grids and plastic mesh to keep the birds off .

                                      Teeny tiny Onions germinating !

                                                    Pak choi

         Lettuces , lots of different varieties and other leaves for salads.
It makes me feel so happy to see these growing away as we  go into Autumn .
 In the Veg Trug everything is at a nice height and easy for people with aching backs to tend to it .

                                      Feed and replenish the Earth .

 Our neighbour brought round a wheelbarrow of lovely horse manure for us . Thankyou Colin !

I decide to clear a space for it on each of the veg beds, cover it and spread it over the beds next Spring when the worms have worked their magic on it .

 I begin to take down all the bean poles and am planning on re-doing the chicken wire fence around individual beds and tidying up all the edges again .

             Taking out all the chicken wire posts, bamboo canes etc .

 The manure looked liked so much in the wheelbarrow , but doesn't  look  like much when I tip it out !  .....but I am told that I can collect more if I need it .
 Yes please ! :) 
 

                                              Luxury Worm Hotel
 I have covered it over with cardboard and a plastic sheet to keep it dry over Winter .

                                          Apples , Pears and Plums

                                  Lots of lovely Apples for the freezer .

                  Time to think about bringing in my Pelargoniums  .
                          I hope it is all going well for you too .
  Hoping and praying for a vaccine so we can begin to live a normal life again .

The Sweet Peppers are coming !

 I said  I,d show you the Peppers in the greenhouse . Well I grew these from seeds that  I saved from a pack of supermarket Mini Sweet Peppers ...so I had not been too sure of what these seeds would produce . All going well so far , they look like little Sweet Peppers  . Husband very excited as he loves them !

I think we will wait until they colour up to a nice bright red before picking them .

 I dont think they will grow much bigger  now , mainly  because I just couldn't  get any good quality compost back in the Spring due to all the nurseries closing down during "lockdown". What I did manage to get hold of was very poor quality and very expensive .
  Normally I would have them in much bigger and deeper pots .
The tomatoes in the greenhouse are not as fast growing as the ones in the Solar shed which had good quality compost left over from last year and in much bigger pots .

  Our juvenile Buzzard flew over my head as I walked down to the vegetable garden , screaming out to it's mum loudly .

 Here you can see , after the dwarf beans failed I threw down a mixture of veg seeds . Carrots , beetroots, Pak choi ,Rocket , Lettuce , I planted leeks and a few Gardeners Delight Tomato plants that I,d grown  from seed up in the shed .
 It needs a bit of weeding again after the rain we,ve had the last couple of days .
 We have been eating a few things everyday from the vegetable garden . Lovely  to smell and taste such fresh vegetables .
 I would,ve liked more to freeze away , but I am thankful for all this at least .
 The vegetable garden has not quite gone to plan this year . The autumn planted onions were a complete fail and waste of money , effort and likewise the French Beans ...and I have no idea why , other  than to say that we didn't have any April showers at the time I was sowing seeds and beans . Runnerbeans and French beans are usually so easy , but this time they kept being cut down by something despite all the protection  I gave them .
  I sowed another lot of beans a couple of weeks ago , so I am hoping they might give us  some end of season pods , about as late as can be sown .
     Fingers crossed !

                     Carrots are looking good to pull in a few weeks time .

 A few Gardeners Delight Tomatoes , I think my best ones are the ones  I have grown in the shed .

                                         Some beetroot , I love them !

                                 Romaine Lettuces in amongst the Leeks .

 The Leeks are picking up now at last , thanks to the lovely lot of rain we,ve had .

 Under cover Brassicas and Kale and the first lot of Leeks that I planted out are almost at a usable stage now  . I want them to be a whole lot bigger though before  I harvest  them .
 The tomatoes and courgettes are fantastic , we are freezing them and eating them every day .

 Looking through my Runnerbeans to the labyrinth . We had a few Runnerbeans , but something  kept cutting them down at about two or three inches from the bottom and they did not regrow . I have sown more , but it is late now .
 Some you win , some you lose , This is the way it goes with vegetable gardening , so just don't ever give up !
    I,m thinking of pulling them all out and it will soon be time to plant another lot of Autumn  planting  onions . I will give it a good old weeding , take out the Tetrapanax papyrifer rex and all its pups ( let me know if  you want one , if you are local) feed the earth up with something , not sure what yet, chicken pellets maybe or seaweed ...and plant the onion sets to over winter here .
  I,m just thinking out loud , but I think that is what I,ll do .

 The kitchen windowsill at the moment . Mint and Pelargonium cuttings rooting in the hyacinth vases and tomatoes ripening in the sunshine .
  I love early Autumn !