Green shoots

The first green shoots of next years broad beans are coming through. Good to see something growing again. The Aqua Dulce beans are planted in autumn and always get a good head start despite the cold wet weather.

The cabbages look okay but are still far too small to be worth eating, I'm not sure if or when they'll bulk up. The broccoli looks as if it's about to start sprouting, despite their netting protection the birds have already been getting at the leaves.

Ending & beginning

It feels very autumnal now, with a cold snap and the clocks going back we've turned the corner toward winter. The plot is mostly clear right now but it's also time to start planting some things for the new year.

The cabbages are at last beginning to ball up, really not sure how well they'll do this year but they will take the worst the winter can throw at them, so I'll just wait and see. The broccoli is looking okay too, it hasn't yet formed any heads though.

New plantings include broad beans (aquadulce) and I've planted some of the cloves from last years garlic. I went to buy new garlic but no one had any, some of the last year cloves aren't that big but I can always plant some more later.

I've still left the final squash in the ground hoping that they will ripen a bit more. It may be in vain? they seem a bit green to me compared to the other ones. The plants themselves have mostly died back, i shall have to clear them soon as well. Ordered some potatoes as well, Desiree and Charlotte as usual. They won't go i the ground until next March.

Squash

The season is coming to an end and it was time to start picking the cobnut squash. After a week of rain the warm low light made it good to be outdoors. The squash vary in size and shape quite a bit, the smallest must weight almost a kilo with the largest over two.

There's about a half dozen more I left growing, 'm sure the larger green one will ripen but the smaller pair might not get any bigger if the weather turns colder. Most of my other time was spent cleaning up the allotment, I took out the courgettes and all the remaining tomatoes.

While tidying I found a couple more green peppers, they won't turn red now so I picked them as well. I uncovered the first cabbages from the cloche, weeded around them and netted them back up. They look rather ragged at the moment but I hope they ball up and grow soon.

Fuzzy friend

This splendid fellow was happily munching on the raspberry canes at the end of the plot. By the power of Google I think it might be a Knot Grass moth, I'll have to see if Paul knows.
Mostly I spent my time weeding and tidying up, there were a few beans to pick and a few courgettes but the cooler nights have stopped them and it feels very autumnal already.

Saturday was sunny if not so warm but much better than Sunday where it rained all day so I stayed at home. The autumn light was nice I've a few raspberries coming which I eat with my muesli in the morning.
The cobnut squash are doing well, I'll probably get about a dozen of them if I'm lucky. The parsnips seem quite happy but the cabbages and broccoli are rather small still.

What a whopper!

Not a courgette for once (more about them later) but a massive cucumber! In fact I picked a couple although the other was much smaller and somewhat curved in shape.

Here it is along side a reasonable crop of tomatoes. A few tomatoes had succumbed to blight but the warm weekend weather has helped ripen the others.

A close up of my toms. They're good but perhaps could have done with an over all much warmer summer to get a really good flavour.

They look nice ripening on the vine. The plot is very over grown at the moment but there isn't really any point in clearing it until we've had a few cool nights and plants have begun to fail otherwise the weeds will just take over again.

The cobnut squash have really stretched out, covering perhaps a quarter of the whole plot. There must be about eight squash I've seen ripening, I'll leave these on the plants until they begin to die back.

Still a few more french beans going, once they got into gear they've done quite well over the summer.

This is the kind of courgette harvest you get if you leave them a week! At least five of those are marrow sized and I'll probably neither eat them nor be able to give them away. Remember less plants next year!

More veg

This is the mid week crop of courgettes, I'd guess around 4kg. I'm having to give them away now, the novelty of yellow courgettes delights most people who don't grow them. Next year I'll have to plant out only a couple of plants because the quantities are getting silly, certainly another 2kg picked today.

Here are some purple beans. I'm picking them twice a week as well along with the green and yellow ones. The purple have done well although the green are the best for size shape and quantity. I don't think I'll bother with the yellow next year.

The green ones fruit in great big bunches, I probably picked another 2kg of tricoloured beans mid week and about the same today.

My first ever cucumber! not bad in length if a little thin. I wasn't sure how much more it'd grow so I decided to pick it, haven't tasted it yet. Really these are rather difficult to grow without a greenhouse.

The nasturtiums on the compost heap are looking marvellous this year. I planted one but the other have come through from last years seeds.

Just two tomatoes. I'll probably get some more but many of the plants have blight so I'm not sure if they'll ripen.

I'd left a couple of artichokes that were too small and they have now bloomed, The colour of the flowers is most vivid, I'm surprised you don't see them in more gardens.

My squash are swelling which is good. I counted about eight so far, this one is the biggest at about 30cm long already.

This pair are getting bigger too. The plants like to trail southwards so next year I must remember to plant them at the top of the plot by the rhubarb.

Then the heavens opened and we had thunder and lightning. Behind the hollyhock you can see the leeks are almost underwater.

The pathways are trodden a little lower than the plot and turned into streams. After a failed attempt to leave I took a second go when there was a break in the rain and got home without getting completely drenched.

The glut

The courgettes are coming thick and fast, this little lot picked on Wednesday weighed in at 3.5Kg and I picked almost the same amount again yesterday. At least 5Kg of courgettes a week!

Likewise the french beans have stepped it up a bit too, about 4Kg of beans a week at the moment. Most of this produce is going into the deep freeze. French beans are easy to freeze, the courgettes are cooked up with tomatoes and then frozen.

The sunflower is enjoying the hot weather and looking at it's best right now.

My neighbour had some left over leeks after he'd planted his. He gave them to me and I've now been able to fill in where my earlier ones didn't take. Let's see how these ones do.

These are my cucumbers. The larger one is perhaps 15cm long but not very thick, I don't know how long I leave them growing for? The skin is quite spiny.

I've spotted about half a dozen squash forming so far, hopefully there will be a few more undetected so far. There not very big yet but will grow for another couple of months at least.

Although these ones don't look too bad most of my tomatoes now show signs of blight and the fruits themselves are not yet ripe. I wonder if I'll be able to salvage any sort of crop?

Although it looks chilli like this is supposed to be a capsicum pepper. I'll let it go on growing and see what happens to it.