Autumn is upon us

The tomatoes in the greenhouse have been struck with blight :-( The Builder has pulled them all. We have some in a brown paper bag, accompanied by a banana. Some of them are slowly ripening. On the other hand, the Cape Gooseberries are starting to ripen :-) I have had three so far, and there are lots more to come. The pumpkins are trundling along, though the little one seems not to be growing. Hasn’t died but is clearly not getting any bigger. We are thinking next year of growing all the cucurbits outside, and providing them with trellis to grow up. The Builder says he was watching a gardening program recently and they had a little trellis up over the sweet potatoes for the leafy bits to grow up. You can use the leaves like spinach, though we never have. I wonder if they are producing anything underneath the ground. Interestingly enough, the tomato plants (self invited) in that greenhouse do not have blight and are looking quite well.

Things are slowing down in the kitchen garden. We are still getting runner beans and zucchini, although we have not been over run with zucchini this year. The sweet corn is fantastic. There are two large cobs on each plant and they are lovely and juicy and sweet. The caterpillars are still making determined attempts at the cabbage plants, but the weather is against them now. The savoy cabbages are beginning to heart, and there are some more small caulis making an appearance. I bought some white sprouting broccoli seedlings in Wilton. Had no idea where I was going to put them, mind. But I rather like the white sprouting and we’ve got lots of green and no white. The Builder has suggested putting them where we put the first, not every successful overwintering peas last autumn. Good plan!

We have quite a lot of apples on the bramley tree. They are not quite ripe yet. The apples on the other tree were ripe and have been picked and put in the fruit bowl or in the freezer.

The flower garden desperately needs attention. When I have time, it is raining. When it isn’t raining, I am not there ;-( But I must get on and sort it and the planters out. I’ve bought some winter flowering pansy seedlings and some jonquil bulbs that I want to get into the planters, and I’ve got some hollyhocks and things that need planting in the garden before winter really kicks in.

We’re doing well, really. The freezer is nearly full of fruit and veg. There are still potatoes to sort out, pumpkins to ripen, a few beans to come from the allotment, as few more runners perhaps. The potatoes in the tub in the bottom greenhouse, which I bought to grow for Christmas, look nearly ready for harvesting. I assume, given that they should be protected from frost, slugs and other potato predators (and it is getting a bit late for blight now) in their tub in the greenhouse, that they should be able to stay in the tub until we want them. I guess we’ll find out!

I’m planning to buy a small electric propagator for next year. Get the soya beans, kidney beans, Cape Gooseberries and all the other tender little things a head start