Toms and Leaf Mould !

Welcome back to Reads Retreat, after what seems like a very long time! Our absence has been partly due to the inclement weather, as well as a couple of other factors. Mum #2 has been a tad ill of late, and we have been visiting her on a regular basis. Thankfully she is going home today, and we'll be off to see her soon. I have also been a tad ill, and am just getting over a bout of Viral Pleurisy.
On the garden front, the raised beds are very nearly finished in terms of this years growing. There's still a few Beetroot growing, but that really is about it. The fronds on our Asparagus crowns are starting to yellow, and these will soon be cut back for the winter. Over the next couple of months we'll be adding some manure as a mulch dressing, and we'll probably use the spent compost from our tomato tubs on this bed too. The raised beds have really struggled with the dry summer, and the soil was really baked and starting to open up large cracks. The level of the soil has also sunk somewhat, and again this will be replenished over the winter.
Our previous post regailed the news of our last tomato harvest - hehehe - how wrong we were! The picture above is of our last harvest. There's a good mixture therein, including Yellow Pear, Gardeners Delight, and Moneymaker. Clearly the majority are not ripened, and will be used in green tomato chutney (anyone got a good recipe?), to add to our store cupboard!
The only other item to report today is that we have started collecting leaves to use as leaf mould. There's a lot of praise for this soil conditioner, and although it will take a good year to rot down into something useful, it is free. On that basis we'll give it a go. There's plenty of falling leaves in our driveway, and we'll collect these and see how we get on! We'll store them in a garden refuse sack in the corner of the plot, and keep our fingers crossed for next year!

That's all for now folks, but pop back soon for more updates from Reads Retreat.

TTFN.

Tidying up for Autumn

Welcome back to Reads Retreat! Oops ! - I started this post about 2 weeks ago, and forgot to finish & publish it! God, where does the time go? At the time of these pictures, we were having a good run of green toms, so many in fact that i decided to cut these from the dwindling plants, to bring them inside to hopefully ripen up on the windowsill. I'm pleased to tell you that this is going well!

Notwithstanding the plethora of green toms, we are also madly harvesting the rest of the ripe toms. The daily haul includes Moneymaker, Gardeners Delight, and Yellow Pear. We seem to be getting a good late crop, even as I belatedly type this post up (well into October) we are still harvesting them on a daily basis. Yum!





The plants themselves are now a tad bedraggled, and very soon we will pick the remainder of the crop before tidying up and throwing away the remains of the plants. We really have had a bumper crop, and have to lay the blame of late pickings on the weather.




We've had some similair late successes with our Chilli plants. This one of unknown origin (a present from Huw & Jane) has done remarkably well, producing an abundance of 3/4" long hot specimens. They've mostly all ripened on the plant, though some will inevitably be taken inside to finish their ripening.





As for this beauty - we've had loads of these fiery hot "Firetongue". This plant was purchased from Victoriana Nurseries, quite late in the season, and with a bit of TLC has put on tremendous growth. Jen used this variety in our home made tomato sauce!




These Jalapeno "Hercules" are somewhat dissapointing in that they have failed to redden up. We've been using them as they are and have no complaints!







We've been tidying up the raised beds, and this one has a fresh mulch of spent grow bag compost on top. It's uncanny just how much the level in the raised beds has fallen over the last couple of years, and this top dressing should go some way to rebuilding that level. We've had some excellent crops from this bed, including some great tasting Lollo Rosso - cut and come again lettuce. There's still half a dozen or so carrots left to pull, before the bed is finally covered for the winter.





Our Rhubarb crown has done bloomin great this year, providing substantial harvests up to the end of August. We'll let the leaves die back a tad more, before applying our winter dressing of manure / compost. We do this every year and it seems to do well from it. We have a second crown in the borders now (v. Victoria) which should mean an even bigger crop next year.





We still have this Butternut Squash (v.Hunter)in the raised bed. Won't be long now till harvest time, as the weather is deteriorating and the temperature starting to drop. Must get this one in before the first frost.







Our Asparagus bed is doing pretty well. 8 out of the original 10 plants have survived, and we're hopeful that we'll get to harvest some next April. If not, then we'll have the satisfaction of eating fresh Asparagus from the allotment - the plot we've just taken on has an established asparagus bed already!







This runner bean plant (v.Scarlet Emperor) has inadvertently turned into our sacrificial seed generator. To be honest we kind of forgot about the seeds that Ruby planted, and as we had such a great crop recently from the plot, we never needed to harvest these. There's a good bunch of nice sized dry pods, which will yield a good amount of seeds for next year!







And finally a pic of our ever eager helper. Ruby had a fantastic time "helping" us clear up the garden. Cant wait for next year when she'll be a bit more able to understand what we're doing.


That's all for now folks, but check back soon for more updates.






Enjoy your gardens - we love autumn!


TTFN

Pumpkin Growing Tips 01.08.08

Welcome back to Reads Retreat - your one stop shop for topical and timely info on growing your own veg.
This year I've been trying my hand at growing some pumpkins, and have to say have been finding it difficult to track down useful growing tips. I have found a pretty good site and added it to my sites of interest.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we planted some tomatoes in the spaces around the runner and french beans. I've just popped out with the camera to show you what i mean. It looks really nice to see the contrasting Deep Red flowers on the Runner beans with the bright yellow of the tomato plants. I'm sure we're going to see much more colour shows like this as the growth continues.
The runner and french beans both seem to have responded well to the feeding with liquid tomato fertilizer, with buds / flowers forming all over the place. Looking forward to pick enough to grace the dining table.


Continued thanks go to Jen, this glorious show of colour greets me every time I step out onto the patio. Who would have believed it , a veg grower like me loving flowers too. Is that whats known as natural progression. Not sure really , but they do look great. The Nasturtiums are also looking good, but the night scented stock is yet to flower - maybe its too early.






My Tomato (v. Tomazing) is now full of well formed trusses of lovely little fruits.
Up until yesterday, there was a further truss of bright orange toms that were very nearly ripe. Then Ruby discovered them, and now they've been picked and put on the kitchen windowsill for further ripening!
The other toms around the plot are either in flower or full of green toms. I'll be thinning out the non productive leaf shoots over the next few days, to let the sun get to the toms to ripen them off. I've got 2 further varieties arond the plot: Moneymaker & Gardeners Delight. I'll bring you more pictures of these as they start to ripen off.

Thats all for now - enjoy your gardens and come back soon.

TTFN.

Finally it's here - British Summer Time 30.03.08

Welcome back to my weekly update at Reads Retreat, my guide to growing your own veg in Raised Beds.
Awaking to sunshine with a bonus of a dawn chorus - what a great way to start the summer. After changing all the clocks, it was time to crack on in the garden - so much to do and so little time !

It's been a busy and productive week, and i've loads to tell you about! In no particular order:

Seedlings:

• I potted on my Gardeners Delight into 3" square pots. Having sowed the usual 40 or so, i was somewhat surprised when they all germinated ! I guess I can add these to the list of plug plants I will be giving away! Some colleagues at work have already put their orders in!
• The tray of brassica's are nearly all germinated and putting on good growth, the only no shows from the seeds planted last week are the Savoy Cabbage (v. January King) and I'm wondering now whether I have a bad batch of these? This is my second planting to no avail. I may have to opt for buying plugs of these but would rather be growing my own. Let's give them a bit longer, and see how we get on.
• My sowing of Flat Leaf Parsley has failed to germinate. I'm guessing this may be because they are in a cooler location than I would have preferred. I will move these today and see if we can get them going.
• My Pot Marigold's ( another ebay purchase from "Premier Seeds Direct" ) have all germinated and are putting on good early growth, and i'm looking forward to having these out on the plot this year. I will probably sow a few more batches of these, as time and space permits.

New sowings:

With the weather only just starting to warm up, i am still a bit restricted on indoor space! I did however manage to plant a few bits up for outside:

• After a recent visit to S & T's (you know who you are ! ) I decided to plant a hanging basket with some strawberry plants. This seems like an ideal way to grow them, as the fruit will be less prone to ground based pests such as slugs, and I'm hoping the fruit trusses will cascade over the basket for easy pickings. Let's hope the birds don't find them first! I don't eat these myself ( seems I'm allergic to them ? ) but it's a great way to get the kids interested in and into the garden. I chose 3 different varieties ( 1 of each ) to crop at different times throughout the summer. They are: Pegasus ( June ), Hapil ( July ), and Pandora ( Late July - August ). I'll keep you posted on how these go.
• My first batch of spuds were planted up (v. Aaron Pilot FE ) in buckets on the patio. I know that last year I had great success in the raised beds, but this year the space they were going to occupy has now been taken up with onion sets. If you read / hear the news, you will know there is an expected shortfall in supply for onions this year, due to the bad weather, so I've given one of my large raised beds purely to this crop. I've read up on planting spuds in containers, and it seems there's no reason why they wont grow successfully. Therefore, the First Earlies will all be going in buckets, and I'll plant them up with a few days gap between plantings to get a successional crop. Later in the month of April, I'll be planting my second earlies into large tubs formed from an old plastic barrel.
• My stepdaughter has recently indicated a bit of interest in my gardening exploits, and with that in mind we planted some seeds for her. With her pocket money she bought packs of Oregano, Chives, and Curly leaf Parsley. I added to her haul with some Sunflower & Morning Glory seeds. They have all been duly planted, and their germination is eagerly awaited!

Recent Purchases:
Wilkinson's has a lot to answer for ! Seriously though, they have some great products at great prices, which i just could not resist :

• Fruit bushes at just a pound each. I bought one each of Raspberry and Blackcurrant. I had a little chuckle to myself as I noticed the spelling on the packaging - Rasberry & Blackcurrent !!! The plain english lobby would have a field day!
• How about 5 x 6" Pots for £1.29 - How do they do it ?
• Lawnmower Blades for my Qualcast mower - 20 for a quid.
• 15Metres of heavy gauge plastic coated garden wire for 69p
• 100 Plastic coated wire rings ( for plant support ) 99p.

A trip to the local Garden Centre yielded the following :

• Aubergine Seeds ( v.Black Beauty )
• Nasturtium seeds (v. Jewel Mixed ) A purchased inspired after reading Matron's blog.
  
• A new trowel for £1.50 - cant remember last time i bought one !
• 8' Canes - 8@40p each. These were 30p each last year ?

Recent Harvests:
You may think I'm a bit early to be reporting harvests but i cant resist:

• We had a second cutting of Forced Rhubarb, made a lovely crumble! I've removed the plant cover now, as I dont want to weaken it too much.
• We have a nearly red chili (v. Winter warmer) to pick one day soon.

To do list :
This seems to be growing at a rapid pace, and its hard to know where to start:

• Plant out Seed potato's, French & Runner Beans, Build wigwam supports for beans, plant aubergine seeds......

I can see I'm going to have a busy week! I hope you are progressing with your gardens and wish you all every success. Pop back soon as I intend to add some pictures when I get any time.
Take care all,

TTFN