Still Harvesting

Well Autumn is here now ’tis the season of mellow fruitfulness’ and all that. With overnight temperatures below 10degC a couple of nights recently (in August!) it certainly feels it.

Harvesting is still in full progress though but some crops coming to an end.

Today for instance I pulled up the remains of the mangetout pea plants. Although a couple of the newest plants were still green the rest were all completely dead, so now they are on the compost heap. Also, while collecting for our evening meal I see that the climbing beans are just about finished, though some of the French/dwarf  bean plants growing around them are still producing.

A mass harvest from August with climbing beans, tomatoes and courgette.

Still producing madly are the courgette plants f course and we’ve had yellow, green and globular courgettes enough. Not as bad as some years though, maybe as the weather hasn’t been all that sunny and warm recently.

Recent courgette harvest

In the greenhouse I’ve been picking the ‘San Marzano’ and ‘Adam F1’ tomatoes over the last couple of weeks plus some of the ‘De Cayenne’ peppers with plenty more to come of all those plants. The grapevine is fully laden and I think the grapes are just about ripe now, so I may be making grape juice over the weekend.

San Marzano tomatoes

Grapes – just about ready

The outside tomato plants are doing well with those in a container just outside the kitchen (yellow & red ‘cherry’ varieties) have had ripe tomatoes for around 3 weeks now – nice with salad.

Tomato plants outside greenhouse – the nearest are ‘Adam F1’ variety

I am also harvesting brambles (blackberries) from our hedges, always a good provider of free fruit. Jam has already been made from the first big picking and there will be enough for another batch provided the weather remains good.

Bramble harvest – this was the first harvest. Now made into jam.

Our ‘wild’ damson trees at the end of the garden had a fruiting year this year and I harvested enough for a batch of damson jelly which is really nice.

Wildlife

One of the trail cameras in the ‘wild’ section revealed not just one (male) fox regularly crossing but two (I’m guessing the second was a female as they were together). Pleasingly, the hedgehogs are still crossing as well.

The other day I saw a sparrow jump in alarm when perched  on the edge of the water bowl on the lawn and I wondered why. When I went out and inspected the water I saw a smooth newt in the water – so I am guessing it must have moved and surprised the sparrow! I rescued the newt and relocated it to the flower border.

Smooth newt in water bowl

Almost Finished Harvesting

Now that Autumn is officially here things are winding down in the garden of course and harvesting of produce is running down – apart from the tomatoes that is!

Tomatoes outside the kitchen – notice how some have split and aren’t really much use now

Tomatoes outside the greenhouse – pomodoro

The pomodoro seem rather more prone than others to various ailments as you can see. Still they are good for making tomato sauce for pasta..

I must admit I haven’t been doing a lot in the garden over the last few weeks, partly because I’ve been busy with other things, but also apart from the harvesting it is the time of year when most of the work is tidying up and pulling stuff out of the ground or pruning rather than planting.

That said I do have a collection of ‘spring flowering’ plants in the greenhouse which I need to put in place before too long and I have some bulbs to plant so it’s not going to be all tidying…..

The climbing beans are past the point of being collected though there are plenty of pods still on the vines. I may save some of them for next year – but I’m not sure if they are F1 hybrids. Anyway, I think I have some left in the packet…. They were better than the variety from last year, though one of the vines that grew purple coloured pods produced very few pods. As the beans are a mixture it will just be pot luck next year unless the saved beans germinate….. The dwarf beans are also past their best and I don’t think there are any worth picking now.

Climbing Beans – past their best

The mangetout peas lasted until the other day and I didn’t get round to planting any more during the last few weeks.

Mangetout ready for picking – since eaten!

The courgette plants as usual were far too fecund from two plants. Even though the variety produced yellow courgettes and were easier to spot some still managed to hide until they were massive – so I’m sorry to say some went straight to compost. Well there were plenty of other small ones to eat and there is only so much that can be done with courgette….

One of the smaller courgettes….

We also had just enough cucumbers – there were two plants, one bought as a seedling and one from seed. The bought plant, grown under the ‘door’, produced several cumbers and the died a few weeks ago for no apparent reason. Meanwhile the plant grown from seed, which I planted  in a container, barely survived attacks from slugs and pigeons and had to be protected under plastic for a few weeks. Eventually though it thrived and produced a couple of cucumbers, and is still alive though may not produce any more but we’ll see.

Sweet peppers in the greenhouse –

The peppers in the greenhouse are doing ok. The sweet peppers have fairly chunky peppers and the chilli variety plants have quite a few peppers, but not yet ripening apart from a plant in the kitchen.

The raspberries I planted produced until a couple of weeks ago – enough to keep me with some for breakfasts and for some to be frozen. The ones growing in the hedge near the greenhouse are producing just now – I had about a dozen with my breakfast this morning.

There is still the odd strawberry ripening – if I can get to them before the slugs or birds they are a handy addition to my breakfast.

A couple of the strawberries

Meanwhile the grapes in the greenhouse are just about ready. The plan is to produce grape juice this year, I just need to get the bits and pieces together ready.

Bunches of ripe grapes – I’ve picked them just this evening to make grape juice

There is a big chunk of work coming up dealing with the hedges though – especially when the brambles have finally stopped producing (I’m still hoping to harvest some more) but most haven’t been properly cut since late spring and some have really grown.

Some of the remaining brambles – there are better ones elsewhere though

I must get round to digging up the potatoes as well – the tops have died back almost completely.

Wildlife

The trail cam deployed recently on the lawn showed two hedgehogs together and a young hedgehog has been wandering around in daylight as well – and it is small enough to get through the protection cage around the ground feeding station so the camera caught it inside a couple of times.

There have been ‘visitations’ of greenfinches to the feeder with sunflower seeds a few times recently and they can empty it in a couple of days. It also rather annoys the great tits who can’t get near the seeds for the greenfinches and they regard the feeder as theirs normally.

I have seen a squirrel around the garden a couple of times but not round the bird feeders as yet so it is safe – for now….

 

More Tomatoes, More Courgettes etc.

The fact I have many tomato plants this year is now really coming home to roost – with ripening tomatoes waiting to be picked both inside the greenhouse and out. Also, two courgette plants has proved to be one too many I think – even if the courgettes are fairly tasty Although we haven’t had to resort to quite as many courgette recipes as previous years – I’ve taken to harvesting them pretty early as well and haven’t missed one that has sneakily grown into a monster as with previous years.

Having said that, the cucumbers have been producing as well. There are three plants and they have been sneakily producing cucumbers as they have been hidden by the courgette leaves – which seem to be even bigger than usual this year. So the other day I found a foot long  cucumber totally out of site – further investigation hs revealed more as well – now what can I do with cucumbers?….

Most of the tomatoes will be converted to tomato sauce and stored in the fridge though as even eating roasted veg dishes (with peppers & fish) can’t keep up with the supply and we can only have so many salads.

The other major harvest activity is picking the blackcurrants, I think I’ve picked over 2lbs already and there is still at least 1lb to go I would guess. They are so ripe that quite a few just drop off the branches as I start to harvest which is a bit of  a pain. I did manage to give away a load I harvested yesterday to my next door neighbour though.

Here we are with some pics of the harvests:

22nd August Harvest

24th August Harvest

27th August Harvest – including beans

One fruit I haven’t had time to harvest yet is the bramble (blackberry), the hedges are laden with already ripe fruit but with all the other things I’ve had to do (away from the garden) I’ve not had chance to even look at them – also I suspect I’ll just be sticking them in the freezer if I do get round to harvesting them.

Apart from the harvesting I really haven’t had time to do anything else in the garden, just a bit of watering, trimming back the grapevine in the greenhouse (and there’s another harvest nearly ready – the grapes) and cutting the grass.

Wildlife

Since the last post I’ve evicted two squirrels, one of which was the real nuisance and that had wrecked one of the bird feeders I think. There have been plenty of greenfinches still plus visitations by long-tailed tits, mob handed as usual.

One surprising thing was to spot a newt in the bird bath tray (see below) the other morning – I think it had managed to get in but couldn’t get out! I relocated it in one of the borders with plenty of foliage.

Smooth Newt in the bird bath