Garden Diary - Tidying Up For Winter

 

I have been busy tidying up the garden. Bean poles are down, potatoes have been dug, and all the sweetcorn have been harvested. Quite a lot of areas have been weeded and covered with sheeting until the spring. I thought I would do one last post. Above are two vegetables which came from the village plant exchange. The aubergine plants have been looking healthy with lovely flowers for ages, but I had thought that it was a bit late to develop into full veg, but then hiding under the leaves on one plant I found these lovelies. They are in the polytunnel so I am leaving them to grow and ripen a bit more.

And above are some cucamelons, also from the plant exchange. I had not really known what to expect with these. They look like very tiny watermelon, but taste like a mouthful of cucumber. To show you the scale here is a cucamelon next to the only cucumber that I got this year. Fun to try out some new plants!

 

I am really pleased with the leeks, which I had not grown before. As you can see below they do look like proper leeks. They like the onions don't seem to be troubled by pests, which is a bonus. I lifted the onions fairly early, as it was raining so much they seemed to be going rotten, but as you can see below they have not turned out too bad.

The other plants that have done well, are these Heart of Gold squash, and the pumpkins not as well as last year, as I only have one large one. But perhaps that is enough.

Although my husband and I garden together, we tend to also have our own areas. I do most of the veg plot and polytunnel, while his area is the greenhouse. Tomatoes are still doing well in both places, in fact so well that we are getting a bit tired of tomato soup, and yesterday I made some passata for the freezer. He has also had success with a variety of chilli pepper, which you can see below.

His other special project are the six grape vines, which were planted at the edge of the veg garden. I notice that he always gives them extra attention when watering. This year we were not really expecting fruit, as they were just getting the plants established, but there have been a bunch or two of very tasty little grapes.

Apples have all been picked, and some of the best I have wrapped and stored for eating in the winter. Following the technique shown on my new favourite gardening programme The Beechgrove Garden. It has lots of very practical advice, and also reminds me of when I lived in Aberdeen for a year. The rest of the apples are destined to be pressed for apple juice and cider. So pretty soon there will be a day of chopping and pressing.

One vegetable which has again not gone well are my celeriac. The plants tops look really healthy, but I have dug one and just as last year it has not really developed the root underground. Last year I thought that perhaps I had not watered enough, so this year despite all the rain I have watered nearly every day. So my next thought is that perhaps there is not enough organic material in the soil. So despite saying I would not try again, I may give it one more go next year, with my new special weapon. I am still collecting the girls poops, and am hoping they will really help in the veg garden next year.