It's the middle of September already, hard to believe except that there is a chill in the mornings now. I've started picking my sweetcorn; Incredible F1 always seems to provide an excellent crop with at least two good sized cobs on each plant. I've been eating a fair bit and there's still a few plants in the ground though they are virtually horizontal now rather then vertical due to high winds.
The first 'named' storm of the season, 'Aileen', hit overnight on the 12th/13th and not only flattened the sweetcorn but demolished the runner beans. So, a bit prematurely, I picked what was left from the vines and cleared the beans away for another season. Once the remaining few sweetcorn plants are taken up there will be nothing left in plot 11 at all. I've added two shelves to the outside of the shed, the top one to store the bamboo canes and the bottom shelf accommodating the strawberry plants in pots.
I've started work on plot 10 too, clearing bits of junk and moving border planks over to plot 11. I've taken up the Winter squash, except the pumpkin, as the leaves are basically gone. There has been a decent harvest of Crown Prince which is my main squash this year. I planted them for the first time last season and we found them to be tasty and easy to prepare. I think they will be may main Winter squash for a few years yet.
I also planted a couple of butternut, Hunter F1, they haven't been that good this season, remaining relatively small compared to previous harvests. Still, they are edible and we will enjoy them. Over the past few years I have found that the butternut don't tend to store as well as other Winter squash so I'm reducing the number I plant. In an effort to preserve all the squash for longer I washed them in a Milton solution to remove as much bacteria as possible from the skins in an attempt to slow down the natural degeneration.
The squash are stored somewhere relatively bright and warm for a couple of weeks, apparently this helps them ripen and helps the skins to harden and heal. The squashes will then be stored in a cooler place for use throughout the Winter months.
That's it for the mid-September round up. More clearing to do over the next few weeks. Bye for now.
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