bottomofthegarden's Blog Just another Vegblogs weblog 

The weather has been amazing! Who would have known that the end of a month that started with such breezy days would end so spectacularly. A lot has happened in the Garden during September – We have pruned back all the plants around the raised beds to let in more light, as it was getting a little to shady for the poor veggies. – A Space has been cleared for the construction of  timber framed polycarbonate green house which we will build from scratch during the winter months, we shall do a post on that to let you all see how it is constructed  in a few months. –  The runner and french beans have all come to an end and have been removed as have the courgettes. The cucumbers which I mentioned in my last post have loved the hot weather we have been having and they have produced a few very tasty small fruits and there are more developing nicely. – For over the autumn we have some beautiful and strong looking brussel sprout and cabbage plants along with a couple of rows of potatoes, leeks and onions. The cabbages and onions will over winter and be ready in the spring but hopefully the brussels, potatoes and leeks will be on the table for Christmas dinner.

Not had a chance to upload any pics but will do it soon

Thanks for reading

Well September is here and it has brought the wind with it, leaves, acorns, hawthorn berries and apples have all shower onto the garden. This has given us plenty of jobs to do all around. In the Veg garden the tomato plants which have not done great this year and their remaining fruit seems to have been hit buy some kind of mold so they will be take  out.  The aubergine has finally decided to flower and produced a small fruit and the cucumbers have produced some very small fruits too we don’t hold out much hope for either as it seems very late in the season. The Spinach is doing great and producing great harvests, along with the broccoli which is growing nicely and should be ready next year. This month we will also dig the broad bean plants in to the soil as a green fertiliser. In the fruit area we have a good crop of autumn raspberries on the way, as long as the insects and birds don’t get them all. The last of the apples will be picked this week and stored, plus we even have a few some tasty looking grapes to pick. As well as this there is plenty to do in the rest of the garden lots of pruning to be done before weather gets cold and the Pond well be netted over to stop anything falling in with autumn on the way. Pics to follow

Mid August has arrived and the start of my chutney making frenzy!

The kitchen surfaces are spilling over with  bags of freshly picked apples and pears from the garden.

This year is the first time for many years there have been pears left on the trees by the wasps and birds

- maybe this is because I have been feeding the birds all summer. So I have made some jars of Gingered Pear Pickle.

With some of the apples I have made Spiced Apple Chutney which is very popular in our house as the birds eye chilies give it a bit of a kick.

I also had a second crop of rhubarb so searching through my preserve books I found a rather yummy sounding chutney – Gingered Rhubarb and Fig.

I was able to use some of the figs which had ripened nicely on our fig tree topped up with shop ones for this chutney.

All the jars have been now put away to mature for a few months .

I have also used some of the apples to make homemade mincemeat – I made this for the first time last year and loved it,

especially the smell of it slowly cooking in the oven for 3 hours.

The rest of the apples have been peeled and sliced and cooked with blackberries picked from the garden and hedgerows

to make pies and the fruit base of crumbles, and are now tucked at the bottom of the freezer for those cold wintery days.

Well the slugs seem to be winning!!

The copper strips do not appear to faze them and the beer traps just dont get enough of them. After the frustration of losing the cauliflowers and all the dwarf french beans to the slugs something has to be done about them. So while looking for a better way to combat the slugs that was safe for wildlife and children I found slug pellets which are exactly that, safe and certified for organic growing. So finger crossed they work, watch this space for an update!

Well we are in August already!

Over the last couple of weeks we have enjoyed an abundance of french and runner beans, both are packed with flavour and have been a great addition to a fair few meals. There have been some baby beetroots and carrots however it looks like the flies got to a few of the carrots. The peas which had a fair harvest earlier in the season are now finished and the plants are to be removed. Unfortunately the cauliflowers that were looking so good in late July have been decimated by slugs and I think the heavy rains we have had. Getting back to the good stuff our courgette plants although having mostly small fruits have been producing well for a while now, hopefully they will carry on. The outdoor hanging tomatoes seem to have done better than the ones in the green house but there is a lot of green fruit to ripen on them both which is promising. Last but not least the apple and pear trees have an abundance of fruit on them which should be ready this month, with both eaters and cookers we can look forward to these.

Feb/Mar 2011

The early bird catches the worm…..the Feb/March weather in southern England was glorious so with a clear bed, dug over and fertilised we decided to experiment. We placed a long plastic cloche -purchased years ago that had become accustomed to its place in the dark dusty corner of the shed- over part of the bed to warm the soil and we could tell you we stuck to the instruction book and waited a week for the soil to warm underneath- but we didn’t! So we planted radishes, lettuce, celery, peas and everlasting spinach. Success within a few weeks we had seedlings appearing and growing well.

Meanwhile we had also planted seed trays in the greenhouse of broad beans, more peas and sweet peas. Indoors we had climbing french beans, dwarf french beans, courgettes, cucumbers and marigolds lining the southeast facing windowsills. The cat decided that these caused great excitement if they were walked over and extra points were given if they could actually be knocked onto the floor however most survived and were transferred to the greenhouse in the warmer weather.