Well this has been an odd month. We were away for the first couple of weeks of course - but a fortuitous change in the weather combined with our irrigation system ensured that my lovely Mum didn’t have to do anywhere near as much watering as we (and she!) had feared. She did prove to be an excellent tomato harvester though!
Ahhh…tomatoes! One of the tubs in this picture was harvested by Mum, and there was still enough ripened on our return to fill the other two! An awful lot split and spoiled too - which unfortunately is what happens when the weather is as erratic as we have seen this year.
Another little glut was courgettes - they were only producing slowly before we left, we suspect partly due to the very hot dry conditions. As soon as though conditions changed it seems that the plants ramped it up a gear! As much as these are tasty, I think we will be inclined to go back for traditional shape ones once these seeds are finished as the flat fruits are far less easy to chop up into sensibly sized pieces.
Another effect of the change in the weather is that all of a sudden we are seeing fruit ripening without end rot on our remaining few Roma (San Marzano) tomato plants. We had taken the decision to thin these plants out hugely as we simply weren’t getting the fruit to ripen no matter how much we tried to keep the watering consistent - it just wasn’t possible in the drought we were experiencing, and we reached the conclusion that it wasn’t worth the time and water trying to keep them all going.
The runner beans too are suddenly producing - the beans just don’t seem to set in very hot, dry weather.
The Tromboncino squash we left at quite a small size was enormous by the time we got back- after leaving it on the plant to cure we finally harvested this one at the very end of the month - that will hopefully store for a few months to give us a boost of fresh homegrown produce in the early winter.
Just under a week after getting back from the Hebrides I headed off again to Lundy, leaving MrEH looking after the garden of course. He was also in charge of of rather a lot of vegetable roasting at that stage too - the courgette, squash and tomatoes have mostly been being prepped into sauces or just cut into pieces, roasted and then frozen - we should be well set up for some tasty meals from the freezer running into the winter. He also made a massive batch of ragu using home grown toms and courgettes as well- freezer 2 is now switched on and in good use, and we’re looking forward to a good supply of home grown food!
First thing I noticed when we got back was these lovely bright pink Asters - we must have sown them earlier in the year and forgotten about them! At a time of year where there is less colour and prettiness than the summer provided they're a lovely splash of joy!
We have the promise of more courgettes - not sure this is a good thing though as we already have 4 in the fridge, and they’re a size! The tomatoes are still producing like crazy too - another two big trays were roasted off the day after I got back from Lundy, plus another large tray of mixed mostly home grown veg. There are still two big boxes in the fridge as well! I think the next batch of these I want to process will be turned into sauce - or even passata if I can be bothered to sieve them.
Maybe the most exciting news at the end of the month was that our pointed peppers have started to change colour. We haven’t done well with peppers and chillies this year sadly - the plants started well but the majority then simply didn’t thrive, and I have a suspicion that as much as they are hot weather plants they didn't enjoy the hot and dry conditions this year. We will enjoy our small harvest, and try again next year!
It looks like there will be a garden post for October at least as there is still plenty going on - although no doubt it will also see us beginning to clear things back for the winter too.
Robyn
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