The inevitable

Text written late Sept-early Oct, though I kept adding harvest totals for a couple of weeks afterwards.

Colours of autumn - a harvest of purple kale and aubergines, orange and red tomatoes and chillies, yellow and green courgettes.

Autumn is happening, whether I like it or not. The slightly warmer, drier early September conditions didn't last, and since then it's turned cooler, with more rain. Everything is decaying, sometimes with the pleasant smell of fungus, sometimes not. It's so hard to get anything done, especially as I have no waterproof footwear at the moment. Still, a few nudges in the right direction have occurred.

I started laying new paths in part of the vegetable garden. Up towards the house I'll use cemented paving, the same as I used for the greenhouse foundations, both because I have slabs left over and because it'll keep a level and be nice and solid. But I don't want to do that for the whole site - too expensive and much too much work - so the far half I decided on bark. It's cheap, easy to obtain locally (or as an add-on to my compost orders), soft underfoot and easily maintained, though not as weed suppressant as slabs. The best part is how fast it is - in an hour of work I got most of the first section done. I need to get some more bags to finish the route to the old compost heaps, and that should be enough for the winter.

My first ever watermelon! Only tiny and not fully ripe, but it smelled and tasted right.

Another sack of compost was delivered, but I haven't yet moved it from the driveway - a small bone of contention - because the weather has been so rotten. I almost regret getting it, but I had used up all but the dregs of the last lot, and I have (as ever!) hundreds of plants waiting for somewhere to go. With this batch, I can finish off a couple of beds that should provide a home for cabbagey things and onions over winter. I expect I'll need one more bag in the next few months before I take stock as we get back into prime sowing season in February-ish.

I've got most of my overwintering alliums, though some haven't been delivered yet. I'm going all out with garlic, shallots, and onions, partly because you can never have too many (and I never have enough), and partly to save time and space next year - by overwintering I should have them harvested a month earlier than a spring planting, and that means more stuff can go in next midsummer.

A meaty tomato, deep red after ripening indoors.

The outdoor sweetcorn is looking promising now - some tassels starting to brown, and the cobs are swelling. I hope for a couple at least. Alas I have no confidence any of the baby winter squash will continue to grow - the largest is just fist-sized, and the weather is not helping them thrive. The polytunnel ones have just sat and sulked for weeks. On the other hand, the huauzontle ('Mexican/Aztec broccoli') is looking great both outside and under cover, the latter having caught up several weeks' growth. Runner beans are tall now, at least six feet, and starting to flower; borlotti are flowering and setting minute pods. The gigantes (large Greek-style shelling beans) I sowed direct outdoors are way behind, but it was chancy putting them in so late (I did an earlier sowing in pots but never planted them, what a surprise). Leeks, cabbages, beetroot are all growing very slowly. Some of the kales are covered in caterpillars again. Carrots are doing what they always seem to - after germinating well, they've hardly grown. What am I doing wrong? Courgettes look healthy but are cropping poorly, once again I'm at a loss. Tomatoes are abundant, some are huge, and the ripe ones taste good when roasted, so that's a moderate success. The most exciting find a few weeks ago in the greenhouse was a watermelon. I sowed these in April without telling anyone, and really didn't expect to get a crop. Indeed, they were planted too late, so finding a fruit was a surprise indeed! But the plant has since died, so I picked it. It shows there is potential, so I will try again next year. The other melons never set any fruit, but it's still a dream to grow one.

With temperatures hovering below 15ºC most days, and between 5-10ºC at night, I don't expect much more growth. A storm is forecast soon, no doubt the first of many. I am reminded why I hate autumn so much... But I'm consoling myself with spring bulb purchases.

Harvests

17/09 - 100g watermelon, 250g aubergines, 570g tomatoes

18/09 - 300g tomatoes, 40g chillies, (160g raspberries)

21/09 - 560g tomatoes

22/09 - 270g courgettes, 125g kale

03/10 - 180g sweetcorn*, 5.795kg tomatoes

04/10 - 150g courgettes**, 95g sweetcorn, 6.22kg tomatoes, 50g pepper***

06/10 - 1.22kg parsnips

14/10 - 50g pepper, 10g tomato

15/10 - 105g spinach beet

18/10 - 5g carrots*****, 400g huauzontle

YTD total: 34.5kg

*two cobs, neither had large kernels but they had formed so I guess the problem wasn’t with pollination, but the poor weather we had while they developed.

**the last courgettes, harvested as plants pulled out.

***my first ever homegrown sweet pepper from seed.

****450g for largest individual.

*****thinnings