October Diary 2019

 

1st

So excited, those hardy annuals which I have sown at the allotment have started to germinate. It looks like there will be a lot of eschschlozia!

 

Also courgettes still going and baby leeks, bought as plants, planted out.

 

Oct 7th

Lots of rain so far this month and a good crop of parasol mushrooms on the lawn.

Oct 8th

 

 

Customers veg garden mostly clear now and liriope flowering in the borders.

Oct 10th

In this garden, I have been planting daffodil  bulbs. Much easier than when I started 2 weeks ago because of the rain. You may be spotting a weather related theme here! Anyway, I took this photo as I was planting at the top of the slope and I wanted to check that they could be seen from the patio at the bottom as that is where the house is. It helped me bring them a bit further down.

 

 

Flowering in the front garden, toad lilies and aconitum. And hey look the sun is shining!

 

 

Laybirds in the last of the helianthus and lovely skeletal poppies.

Oct 12th

 

 

Planted winter lettuce in the polytunnel at home and sowed some salad crops, pak choi, chicory, fennel (er, not sure why so much now) and kale. You can also see pelagonium cuttings and sweet William seedlings brought under cover. There are still tomato plants  but I don’t think that they will ripen out here now.

15th Oct

Spindle berries, very exotic looking despite being a native, Euomymus europeaus

 

 

Going back through the borders now for  more thorough cut back and tidy up. Also thinking what can be moved around  while the soil is relatively warm.

I am going to reduce these michaelmas daisies, because they can take over, but they do look good en masse and the bees were very happy to find some late flowers.

 

 

At the allotment, one side nearly done and the other with lots of work still to do.

 

 

Oct 16th

Nerines where they like it at the base of a sunny wall.

Oct 18th

More of the same, sunshine and showers.

Oct 22nd

They took their time but the cosmos are still flowering.

Oct 28

 

 

After rain every day in October finally a few dry ones. Today started with frost but then the sun came out. Time to get rid of all the courgettes and squashes on the allotment.

Oct 31st

 

 

Last day of October and still a bit of colour. Dahlias in one garden and fuchsia in another.

October has been a damp month, not much autumn colour yet. It finishes as always with the woodland group Halloween event, pumpkins and sausages round the fire pit.

 

 

 

 

New challenge – overwintering vegetables.

Autumn leaves at The Queen

As the autumn slowdown continues, I have been thinking about extending the season in the vegetable garden, especially at The Queen at Brandeston where I manage the veg plot at the back of the pub. I’m feeling  the need to challenge myself a bit to prove to that I am a real gardener! This will be my first proper attempt at overwintering anything except peas.

To this end, I started sowing seeds again in the greenhouse in September, firstly some mixed salad leaves and beetroot, for the colourful leaves. These I planted out with trepidation but they have survived.  A bit slower but also up,  pak choi, parsley, spring onion, kale, chicory, rocket, sorrel and a very few winter lettuce. I sowed several rows directly in the still warm soil but not a single one came up. I only get to visit the site once a week so it may be that they got eaten straight away but who knows.

 

 

Pak choi pricked out in the polytunnel at home

Chicory

Pak choi and chicory pricked out in the polytunnel at home.

Kale, spring onions, rocket, sorrel and winter lettuce in the greenhouse.

At the pub this warm October afternoon I planted out some of the pak choi and chicory, keeping some in reserve just in case! The kale is for the front in the edible planters. The rest of the seedlings need to be a bit bigger before I risk it although the plan is to cover the lot with fleece if it gets really cold,

Salad leaves under cover

I also managed to get in a few rows of broad beans for an early crop next spring. They will probably use the shoots and flowers in the kitchen but the first beans are sweet and tender too. I have plenty of saved seeds from this year’s crop.

Also in the garden over winter will be the salsify, sown in the spring, which will be ready once the leaves die back and sweeter after a couple of frosts.

There is an assortment of brassicas grown from seed in the spring as well. Kale ready now and flowering sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower still to come. Considering that they were completely stripped of leaves by caterpillars in the summer, they have recovered well.

Summer  (yes they were netted!)

October

With a good crop of pumpkins and squashes harvested for storing, if they survive halloween, they should be able to offer some really fresh and locally sourced vegetables on the menu.

 

October in the garden.

Here we are in mid October and I’m really quite enjoying the gardening at the moment. There are so many flowers still out, a few vegetables left to harvest and all next year’s planning to look forward to.

I’d like to say that I created these combinations deliberately but really it is down to a bit of luck with the weather and mother nature, although I did plant the dahlia and Anthemis so I had some hand in it. In fact, the Anthemis got chomped by rabbits early on and these are the first flowers.

The roses are still putting on a good show and the dahlias are hanging on in there too.  On a misty autumnal morning they are at their finest encrusted with sparkling dewdrops. With the asters still blooming, there is plenty of colour in the borders.

In the vegetable garden a final harvest of cucumbers and aubergines and the pumpkins and squashes are ripened up to keep over winter, if they survive halloween. I managed to get 6 large pumpkins from one plant so my customer should have enough for carving, soup, pie, cake and anything else really. The kale is beginning to recover from the caterpillar attack of the summer and should continue throug the winter months.

In the orchard, lots of apples and pears but also the first proper harvest of quince from a tree I planted 5 years ago.

Also in the vegetable garden, flowers! But aren’t the artichokes and Chinese alliums looking beautiful.

And just when I thought that maybe it wasn’t going to be a good year for autumn colour, the trees join in in! All in all a great combination in the garden in October. Let the shuffling begin!

Jam

Not strictly about gardening but trying to make the most of autumn bounty before the branches are bare again. Wild damsons have been made into jam with pictures along the way.

After enlisting the family to help pick the fruit, it got left in the tub and ignored as usual. Luckily it remained in good condition and I eventually got round to cooking and removing the stones, lots of them!

Then the sugar was added and the mixture brought up to setting point. I know that lots of people are a bit sniffy about using a sugar thermometer but I do find that when it reaches the right temp, 220°f on mine, it does set. However I do drop dollops on a plate and push for the wrinkle test as well.

So when it’s ready put into sterilised jars, heated in a low oven, using a jam funnel and hey presto homemade jam.  Must remember to label it.

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