Harvest

We are eating well out of the garden at the moment, most of our meals are chock full of veggies we are picking ourselves. I’ve started writing my notes about this years bounty and what I have done ok and what I want to change for next season. Unsurprisingly the list of things I will do differently is huge, but I guess everything is a learning curve. I quite enjoy this process, the note taking, plan drawing, working out my rookie mistakes. Reading up on how to get the best, keep the plants producing for as long as possible.

Carrots – great, be more organised planting. Beets – as carrots, and plant more. Onions – great, same again. Beans – murdered by wind, need more mulch and more shelter. Brassicas – all slow to come through, perhaps too crowded start seedlings under cover. Peppers – doing well, more water needed, Mulch. Tomatoes – more staking, less chaos. Strawberries – good, take more room then the produce they give. Peas – been and gone, did ok. courgettes  – love.

This year my biggest ‘success’ per say is that we eat everything we grow, its all spot on veggie basics and its really helping both our physical beings and our wallets to be able to have fresh veggies on hand out if the garden. And it helps my ego a little. Because I’d be totally lying if I said I didn’t get a slightly smug feeling from picking home grown veg for supper. I think so far courgettes are by far my favourite plant, so much veg, so many uses! Our newest delight is courgette choc muffins, delicious.

The sunflowers are going to be left and the seeds will feed the birds in winter. The tiger in my garden, more cute than scary. Don’t tell her though.

For our autumn/winter beds I’m planning on what beds I’ll use and which I’ll stuff with manure and leave to rest. Winter will be kale, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots (left in the ground) kohlrabi and spinach. The carrots are already seeded and starting to come up. Once the beets are out I’ll thin the carrots into orderly lines and tidy the bed. The strawberries are coming out and that will probably be the winter brassica bed, that and the ones by the back door as they are sheltered and easy to care for.