07 Oct - Tomatoes, Sweet Corn & Carrots

We've had a few days of heavy rain showers though the temperatures have been pretty good over the first week of October. Wow, October already?! Time's flying this season, Autumn is well and truly here.

What great harvest of sweetcorn this year. Last year was pretty poor, I had some but it wasn't great with too many stunted plants. In my last few posts I have mentioned picking corn cobs and this week I've picked the last of them, I've had loads of lovely corn. While I eat a few cobs fresh, I mainly tend to boil them up then freeze the corn, it lasts longer and we use it in all sorts of things.

The Sweet Candle F1 carrots looked pretty good when I pulled a couple last month so, I thought it best to pull the lot this week. I only barred in three rows, around 21 carrots in all. Believe me, that's plenty! The carrots are massive and taste delicious. I had a few attacked by slugs and a couple that had forked but, even these were edible with a bit of judicious trimming as they are so large. Again, I keep some fresh but the majority are peeled and blanched in boiling water and then are frozen for use throughout the coming months.

It's quite hard to see just how big these carrots are in the picture but you can get some idea by looking at the width of the sink to the left and a large cake tin and toaster to the top of the photo. Anyway, these were all prepared and bagged up in the freezer, plenty for the Autumn and Winter months. Job done for another season

Into the greenhouse now and it's time to clear out the tomatoes. It's been a bit of a mixed year for toms'; I tried Shirley F1 first of all, they were expensive and there were only a dozen or so seeds in the packet. Worst of all, only four plants germinated where I normally get good results in a heated propagator. I actually sowed a second pot of my usual Alicante to make up for the losses and, to be honest, there wasn't that much difference when the plants finally started producing. There's no way I'm shelling out for Shirley again, I just can't see that they are worth it. (Pic - tomato plants 'gone over' in the greenhouse, time to clear them).

That's it for this post. See you soon.

21 Sep - Bean Poles & Carrots

Yesterday dawned misty and Autumnal; a bit of a surprise as we've had good weather for most of September so far. It didn't last long, the sun soon burned off the early morning haze, just as well, I had a few things to do.

The first thing on the agenda was the state of my bean poles. A number of the bamboo canes snapped and the I've been propping up the rows with bits of timber. Time for them to be removed. It's always a bit sad taking the runner bean rows down as it kind of marks the end of the main growing season. Still, they have produced well though only low down on the vines; there were stacks of beans 2 to 3 foot off the ground but virtually nothing above that, not too sure why though a few people have mentioned problems with beans this year.

Anyway, I picked another few hand-fulls of beans and uprooted the vines and canes. The bamboo has lasted a good few years but I'm going to need a few replacements for next year as a fair few have finally weakened and snapped. (Another thing on next season's shopping list). Most of the roots were left in the ground as they develop nitrogen nodules and can be dug in.

I'm still digging over the area where the Winter squash were - I do a bit then get side tracked. It's only a matter of pulling any weeds up and roughly turning over the ground. I plan to cover as much as I can in plastic - I'll get around to finishing it at some point.

I've had a look at my Sarpo Mira maincrop potatoes; the first few plants were pretty unproductive but the next few produced some nice sized spuds. I'm hoping for a few pound over the next few weeks despite the plants looking pretty ropey.

My Sweet Candle F1 carrots look good again this year. I've pulled a couple to see what they are like and I'm pretty happy. I've used the bar method for the second time this season and it certainly seems to work. A couple of nice 'uns!

That's it for this update. I'll see you in October.