Anyone know any good recipes using cucumbers?! Yes - we have been thoroughly enjoying a glut of the lovely green beauties, and as there are only limited ways of enjoying them, it has been proving a bit challenging! So far we have only lost a couple to the compost, and are making all efforts to come up with ever more inventive uses for the rest! Tomatoes have also been coming thick and fast - as well as eating those fresh we’ve continued cooking with them too - there are currently several tubs of oven-roast tomatoes with copious amounts of garlic and basil sitting in the freezer waiting for use.
We got into a habit over the summer of wandering out into the garden most evenings after work where the weather allows it, just five or ten minutes pottering about, picking whatever is ready, winding down from the day and our commutes - a really nice way to move into the evening. The enjoyment that comes from being able to spend just a few minutes, and come in with a punnet of assorted veggies which will then help feed us is huge. We’ll definitely miss that as the evening light fades away ahead of the clocks changing.
A big highlight of this month was digging up the first of our potatoes. We chose to grow Pink Fir Apple - a maincrop variety we used to grow on the allotment years ago - it’s a really useful potato because it tastes fantastic whether boiled, roasted or eaten cold in salads, so it’s really versatile. The knobbly shape means they are extremely tricky to peel - not a problem for us as I very rarely peel tatties anyway, but might not suit everyone.
That was the first lot - we’ve since dug all of the first row up as the soil over the top was beginning to thin and the potatoes were greening. We’ve already eaten some and they really are delicious! As well as the first row from the main bed, we had a limited amount from a sack which MrEH sowed with the leftover seed potatoes - seemed silly to see them go to waste, and we’ve harvested enough for a few meals at least from it - the compost hasn’t gone to waste either as it has been tipped out into this years main potato patch to enrich that.
Now things are starting to wind down towards the colder months, we’re starting to think about tidying things up. As the cucumber plants in the grow-bag have stopped producing we’ve taken those out, and the same with most of the tomatoes although a handful of plants are still going where there still have small fruit which may yet swell a bit, but are currently too small to bother picking. We’ve stripped the plants that have been removed with the green toms set out on a windowsill to be ripened indoors - although some may be converted straight into green tomato chutney or used as an ingredient in piccalilli. We’ve been sorting things out in the shed too - finding homes for our camping equipment in the house, and making sure things like plant pots and saucers have storage space for the winter.
This month marked a year of us being in the house - and the garden - of course, and it’s still just such a joy to have the space, to be able to grow things, and also to see it evolving too. In some ways the biggest change is actually at the front which we have taken from entirely slate & slab, to a mix of that and space for plenty of things growing, as well. Some edibles have even crept in out there as well - a couple of varieties of thyme and a Greek basil which I am hoping I may be able to continue to get leaves off through the winter. I was looking back at the picture of the front of the house from the agents listing the other day and the difference our efforts have made to the front of the house is huge!
The one disappointment this year has been herbs which have not been particularly successful - I will revisit how I do things next year and also get a cage sorted out to protect the soft herbs from the squirrels and pigeons - both of those are major pests!
Robyn
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