Sunday 7 October 2012

October: I'm tidying-up, but still harvesting

The weather last weekend was surprisingly good - very conducive to a spot of gardening!


I did a lot of tidying-up jobs: for instance, I cut down the cucumber plants and the aubergines, both of which were definitely at the end of thier useful lives. I also tied-in my broccoli and Brussels Sprouts, which have got very tall now and need plenty of support in preparation for the inevitable Autumn gales. While doing this (which entailed temporarily removing the anti-fox netting), I took the opportunity to remove any yellow leaves that had dropped off those plants. This will help to prevent fungal growths, and will give slugs fewer places to hide. I had an interested audience... a grey squirrel sat on the fence and watched me, no doubt hoping that one of my tasks would be to refill the bird-feeder!


I planted some bulbs too, mostly in pots. I know that if I plant them in the borders they will immediately be grubbed-up by the damned foxes, and I sometimes have to go to great lengths to protect my pots. I have made a barricade using the wire shelves from my mini-greenhouses, weighted down with bricks and stones. It looks unsightly at present, but this is down the side of the house, which no-one but me sees. Later on I will move the pots to more visible locations.


I thought about pulling up the solitary volunteer tomato plant which is lurking in amongst the Runner Beans, because its foliage is looking very tatty, but the fruits were looking good, so I left it a bit longer. There are about 4 or 5 trusses like this:-


The best of the "Golden Acre" cabbages was harvested. It's a fine example, though not very big. It's a fact that if you grow brassicas at very close spacings like I do, they will remain quite a lot smaller than if they had unlimited space. This suits us well, because a cabbage like this feeds two people comfortably and doesn't hang around in the fridge, part-used, for ages.


My Runner Beans are still going strong, so thet're not coming up yet. I picked 933 grams of beans at the weekend, and there are plenty more to follow.


Some of the bean leaves are yellowing now, but for me even these have a sort of "shabby chic" attractiveness as photography subjects!


These beans are amazing - without a doubt this has been my best year for Runners ever. I grew two varieties - "Red Rum" and "Scarlet Empire". The former has been OK, but the latter has been amazingly productive. They just don't want to give up, and the plants are still continuing to produce new flowers.


I think this proves a point. Here in the UK we gardeners have been dismayed by the unsual and unpredictable weather conditions this year, and many vegetables have performed poorly (such that we hear dire warnings of food shortages and/or high prices for the coming months), but Runner Beans love lots of moisture and they had thrived when other plants have failed. The best advice I could give to novice veg-growers is to sow/plant as many different types of plant as you can find space for. Some of them are practically certain to do well, even if some fail!

Here are some photos of my weekend harvest:



The Cabbage and Runner Beans mentioned above, plus a handful of "Cobra" climbing French Beans, the last few Aubergines, one solitary (tiny) Cucumber, and some green Chillies.


I'll be entering this post for Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions. If you haven't yet discovered this popular weekly link-up, why not have a look right now?

13 comments:

  1. It's good to grow different varieties too - if you have space - as some varieties prefer different conditions.

    I wouldn't be at all surprised if that squirrel wasn't interested in your bulb planting activities. They too have been known to dig up bulbs to eat!

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  2. You've done so well with your aubergines, it almost makes me want to give them another go. I've harvested more runner beans this weekend, I wish I'd started some off at the start of the season now rather than get some going at the last minute just because the French beans were failing.

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  3. Love the cabbage. I guess because I just planted mine and I hope to get something from them even if they are small ones.

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  4. Beautiful beans. I didn't plant runner beans this year, though I have the last two. And I'm glad. With out hot weather they wouldn't have set until the fall. I grew them the last two years and that is what happened. Luckily with runner beans I consider them more of an ornamental, and they still bloomed well.

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  5. I am always amazed that for a fairly small garden ,you produce alot of fruit n vege

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  6. Another beautiful harvest, Mark. You are perfectly correct about the cabbage....if too large, storage and freshness is a problem, so I prefer smaller ones that can be used right away. (Although my Mother used to make kraut!)

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  7. I do agree about trying lots of different types of vegetables; especially in the UK where the weather can vary so much from year to year. I'm very envious of your runner beans, I tries them last year but there weren't the right pollinators around (here in Italy) so the crop was dismal. This year I tried climbing French beans but the very hot dry conditions were too much for them, dwarf beans do much better here. Your garden looks beautifully ordered and tidy. Christina

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  8. The runner beans have been very happy this year indeed. I agree about growing smaller numbers of a wide variety of things, the failures aren't so devastating when offset against little successes elsewhere. Sounds like we had very similar weekends in terms of planting bulbs for spring and tidying up the garden. I pulled out our cucumber plants too, the last couple of fruits were not looking happy.

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  9. Oh I'm so envious Mark. It all looks wonderful. Even your protected pots look good I think! I've never even thought about fox protection, don't even know if we have any nearby! It's a shame your squirrel doesn't eat slugs!

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  10. Your runners are going great guns - still! Mine have bitten the dust now - I have left them standing for now so I can dry out some of the pods that are left.

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  11. Really beautiful cabbage! We dropped to 28F last night so except for the cabbage and sprouts, we're done! Well, except for the tidying up bit.

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  12. wonderful beans. And such a nice cabbage too. I hope I get some. Time will tell. I have so much less of a problem with bugs in fall, but I never can seem to get the timing right.

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  13. Those beans are absolutely amazing, but your cabbage looks like it's solid. Good haul!

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