Vegging over and out - September
We were away for the first weekend this month, but before we went we checked the kale, purple sprouting broccoli and leaf beet plants in the greenhouse. We removed any caterpillars and eggs, then spread the plants about the greenhouse so nothing could crawl from one thing to another. All to no avail, as when we returned a couple of days later almost all had been munched. The first thought was to throw them on the compost, but as the roots were pretty good and there was an insect netting tunnel handy, they have been planted out with the addition of a ring of Strulch around them. They seem to be doing ok, and hopefully there is time for them to establish before the winter, to give some crops in to the spring.
The pea and bean plants were finished so they were cleared, and the courgettes were getting mildew so on their last legs . But the cucumbers were still prolific enough to make 4 big jars of cucumber pickle.
On the 5th there was torrential rain, which has continued on and off this month. This has given the parsnip plants (all 35 of them) a real boost.
As the month wore on my thoughts turned more to the dilapidated state of the wooden raised beds and what was to be done about them. Having seen fencing gravel boards used in Sue’s garden, that seems to be the way to go for longevity. So a redesign of the raised beds is planned for November, creating one long 4ft wide bed running along the path instead of 4 short ones running at right angles. This will create lots of clearing work in October and moving things like the black currant bushes, and all those parsnips. It also means that I won’t be autumn planting shallots and garlic, or sowing broad beans and peas to over-winter. I will though be saving seeds from this year’s crops, to sow next year.
So it is time to look at what is effectively the final harvest of the year at least in this garden…
With one of the jars of pickled cucumber, here we have my star vegetables, one each of many courgettes and cucumbers. Also there is the one and only squash from the squash plant, and the one and only pepper from no less than 4 pepper plants. It has been pretty difficult year in the veg garden, so I and the green tomato, which has been bitten by our 3 year old, wish you a fond farewell and a better growing season next year.