Monday 28 September 2015

Golden autumn


The single surviving sunflower this year
The geese are back, the pumpkins are swelling: it's definitely autumn here. The geraniums and lemon verbena have moved back into the conservatory as have the aubergines, which are now having a feeble second attempt at flowering and actually producing a fruit (good luck to them).

Second time lucky?

Flowers in the conservatory? Winter is coming...
Some plants are not preparing to shut down for winter, though. Our hardy Scottish artichokes have put out new growth and even some new chokes!

New season artichoke
And the squashes are doing well, especially the Pink Fairy. Talk about prolific - I think half our squash crop is going to come from this one plant which has spread wide and far. I've been warned they can weigh up to 10kg per pumpkin and there are probably ten pumpkins on it. Join us for a pumpkin party soon...
Pink Fairy, a vigorous sort
While we've been painting, painting and painting (yes, it's still going on, but the end is in sight), the grass has been growing to tremendous heights. We should have an excellent mulch crop to cover the unused growing areas for the winter.
Swedes Marian and lush grass
Because of the mild summer, the growing season of some veg has been incredibly long. I only composted the last of the mangetout plants this morning. No lettuce has bolted so we still have plenty left, but I've ordered some winter lettuces for sowing next week (Density, Valdor, Lamb's lettuce and Claytonia) just in case. Broccoli, beans, courgettes (I've settled on five plants as the ideal number for two people) and carrots are still going strong and the first sweetcorn looks on the cusp of being ready.

Busy veg garden
Leek bed, with sunflower and nasturtiums
Pretty rainbow chard
The asparagus seedlings are still minuscule. I've covered them with a cloche to aid their survival, but I haven't got high hopes. Anybody know where to buy Scottish-grown crowns? My ideal birthday present... Here's how the asparagus seedlings look now:

Martha Washington asparagus seedling
I've also been collecting tea herbs to dry for the winter. Mint, catnip, rose, calendula and camomile so far. They're very easy to dry in the dehydrator, but soon they'll be even easier to dry when the Rayburn comes back into operation.

Good camomile crop
Next on the gardening agenda is the big potato harvest. We're out of early potatoes now and have started on our maincrop, Setanta. Since we had no blight this year (the potatoes were in a new bit of ground that had previously been paddock) they have grown much larger than last year. We've already had several jacket potatoes and, of course, chips.

Jim's specialty: homemade chips, double fried in beef dripping
Just a final coat on the window surrounds and the chimneys to paint beforehand...

Saturday 12 September 2015

Pick any colour

The dark side of the house (chimneys still to be done)
This is the first time we've lived anywhere where we could choose the house colour. For most of the cottage we've opted for a yellowish cream colour called Cornish Cream, but we've decided to experiment with the south side of the house. This gets a lot of sun, but is currently the coldest part of the cottage. So we've gone and painted it black to see if that'll make any difference.

Prep, prep, prep
Luckily, the weather has held and last week we've been able to put in eight hours a day repointing (Jim) and painting (me). The patching up of the plasterwork was seemingly unending - Jim had been hard at it for at least five weeks - but yesterday it was finally done. The house is about half painted, with a first coat on everything but the north face. Unfortunately, the third tin of Cornish Cream was a markedly different shade to the first two so now we'll need to paint another coat over everything.

Hence, not much time for gardening. Just some quick harvesting, which is very colourful these days.
Toms, cucumbers, chillies and one tomatillo
The first of the Emir melons was ripe and absolutely delicious. I'd been wondering if melons were worth all the space they take up, but we wouldn't be able to get melons like these here otherwise. So they're on the list again for next year.

Emir melon
The chicks are now the size of Bantam chickens and are enjoying their forest life. Only two months to go until they start laying!

Soruss will be our new cockerel and hopefully a bit friendlier than Russ
I'm trying my hand at some seed saving this year. So far I've dried some peas and broad beans and I let the kale and land cress flower and go to seed. I had way too many kale seed pods so I left the spare ones lying around next to the compost bins. Now I've got a kale lawn there! At least that proves the seeds are viable. And we're going to have enough kale this winter.


Thursday 3 September 2015

Cornucopia

Lush middle paddock
Veg garden in September

Today the last of the summer visitors left and our cottage hotel is shutting its doors for the season. Just as the harvest season is getting into full swing. It's that beautiful time of the year when lots and lots of different veg are ripe, the weeds seem to be slowing down and everything is lush, almost jungle-like. And the weather has been nice and sunny.

White hibiscus
Red bean flowers
The first ears of corn have formed and the squashes have fully surrounded the sweetcorn plants. Maybe we can have sweetcorn here, even in a cold, damp summer.

Nice little ear
Surrounded by a sea of squash
The carrots and courgettes have finally got going, the third batch of beetroot is going great guns, there are lots and lots of lettuces (none have bolted this year) and the Japanese radishes and purple kohlrabi are doing well. The broccoli is fantastic this year and we've eaten our way through all the Romanescos and fennels bar one plant each. Only a handful of French beans so far, but there are still mangetout to be had. I harvested six tomatillos today so they seem to get started as well.

Outdoor lemon cucumbers
Parsnip jungle
The winter crops are coming along
The top corner is filling in. The herbs and grass are growing slowly. This time, the coriander might actually work out.

The sheltered top corner
We had the first pot of the Eau de Cologne mint this evening. This is one of our new mint collection, which has just reached enough bulk for harvesting. What an amazing variety, the tea tastes like a natural Earl Grey. Highly recommended.

More wild flowers keep appearing
Now that all the guests have gone, I'll have a bit more time to commune with the plants. Though there is the small matter of the house painting to be done. Looks like we'll be able to cut back the buddleias beforehand at this rate...
Peacock butterfly enjoying the buddleia