The Beauty of Nature

The first picture below is sadly not of my plot, but of the guy’s near mine. He is retired and has all day to do it. You can see how having the extra time helps when you look at my previous post.

On another note I have been digging over my plot and integrating the horse manure and hops and some of my own compost to enrich the soil and to get it to break down.

The manure as rather fresh so the over wintering will allow it to break down and weather to avoid it burning the crops next year. I could have kept it to dig in in the spring, but I would have to keep it in bags as I’ve nowhere to overwinter it at home or the plot. Plus, the longer you leave it exposed at the plot, the more likely it is to reduce in pile size. By that I mean a lot of people have an eye on it for their own plot. Not that I would accuse any of my fellow plot holders on the site, but there have been a series of break ins on the site and tools and all things gardening/growing have gone missing. A pile of manure is just another draw for the thieves.

I will be going up again soon – not today as it hasn’t stopped raining – to get some sprouts now that we have a had a few good frosts. Instead, today we ate the aubergines I grew in pots. sorry on picture, but it was one of those days when cutting to plate was too fast for the camera.

Anyhow, here is my plot freshly dug over yesterday:

Strangely enough, the beans are not dead yet. Waiting a little longer for them to die away before removing everything.

This is how my leeks were last weekend. I know, it’s not that good to leave these weeds around something that’s growing. So I did have go and hoe those weeds away.

They now look much better.

I checked out the sprouts on Sunday. They are still growing, though I think they should be a little larger than they are:

I know we have been having cold weather and by rights not much will be growing this time of year, especially if it is outside, but my chillies are still doing the business and turning red

I am surprised that it is happening, but they are against a south facing wall. This means that I am still picking and drying them and then cooking with them.

It’s wonderful really, especially after all the ‘weather’ we have had this year.

It has been a topsy turvey year really for growing things.

This was my Delphinium this week

This is the third time it has flowered this year. I am worried they wont have enough energy for next year. I said that last year when they flowered twice, so I guess I shouldn’t worry that much.

Anyone else have strange stories to tell?

I have left the grass this year as it is too late to mow again. It has already grown more than I thought and I am now contemplating getting the mower out again.

Well, it’s the end of the season now and most things I had been growing have finally given up for the year.

These runner beans for instance were the last of their kind. I let them grow so I could collect the beans for next years plants.

As you can see there were not many left on the plant. Runner beans are good nitrogenators of the soil. So they will put back more than they use. Next year I will move them to another patch so they can add to the soil there.

I took these picture a little while ago as I let them grow on a bit.

The rest of my day at the plot was spent getting rid of weeds and clearing some of the ground by using weed killer on it. It shouldn’t do any harm to the crops next year.

I noticed that some of my fellow plot holders had bought in piles of manure. One had a huge pile that could have covered the whole plot an inch deep! I thought that was a bit over the top as you really only need to dig in some manure closer the the season. I will get mine from a friend and of course I have the spent hops from the brewery as well. These I will be variously holding on to or digging in as and when I plant. Some vegetables cant be planted with manure as it burns them, so that does need to be dug in ahead of time, but mostly they love a good bit of horse dung to start them off.

I didn’t see anyone at the plot yesterday, so I guess they have all been during the week – lucky them to have the time really. Some of us still have to work 9 to 5.

The winter sprouts are doing well, buds have formed and should be good at Christmas and beyond. Also the parsnips and swede are doing well.

I finally took down my tomatoes and put the last few on the windowsill to ripen. We have had a bumper crop this year and I have frozen quite a bit for later use. I have also been using them for my lunches in the week and in any cooking I do. You cant beat home grown tomatoes for flavour, especially when used with home grown chiilies. Although I didn’t get a bumper crop of those – for obvious reasons – there are still a good few and of course, last years dried crop have lasted as well.

I went to check on the plot today as it was on the way to work and I haven’t been since the weekend and wanted to check on my handiwork.

I noticed that the strawberries were doing rather well. They have put their runners out everywhere and although I have plotted some of them up, I have left some of the rest to just root where they fell.

This shouldn’t be much of a problem and will thicken out the bushes, while still allowing for easy access.

I did have to pull a few up that had found their way into the plot next door.

We had a large crop this year, but I’m expecting a bumper crop next year.

Well, it looks as though the summer has come and gone for this year.

I went up to the plot to weed a bit and harvest some more swede for supper.

I noticed the Limnanthes were still flowering, which is odd given that they are supposed to be there at the beginning of the season to hold back white fly and so on.

This is what it says on the Fothergills website:

“The Poached Egg Flower is one of our earliest, and showiest annuals. Its cheery saucer-shaped yellow flowers are edged with white, and borne above fresh, pale-green leaves. Attractive to bees, it is also a very useful winter flowering pot plant. Grows to a height of 6in. (15cm) and a spread of 15in. (38cm). Hardy annual.

Flowers: June – August”

Early? August! I think not!

I finally harvested the corn today:

It wasn’t fully to the tip, but it was time to crop it. It tasted very good actually.

I also took a look at the pumpkin which is still growing – no one is more amazed than I:

Other than that I tidied up the plot and checked on the compost as I needed some for the Bluebells I hope to plant soon.