1 - 3 September
Just to try and extend the flowering period flor our buddleias for the benefit of ant later butterflies, I have cut off all the dead flower heads. Hopefully this will also limit the appearance of self sown plants appearing.
Other than some dead-heading the main garden related activity has been harvesting. We can both spend three hours on the plot just picking and gathering. The main vegetable harvest at the moment is the late developing beans.
The plum and greengage trees were also late first to flower and now to produce mature fruit. I’m not sure whether this is the reason that many of our plums - mainly the Victorias are affected by plum moth larvae.
Our plums and greengages tend to be biennial fruiters. They have a bountiful year followed by a rest year when few fruit are produced. This is the year of bounty.
We have gathered as many greengages as we can as the small green fruits that look unripe are absolutely delicious and surprisingly sweet. Unlike the plums these are maggot free. Read more here.
We have also started to pick the garden greenhouse grapes.
In the garden it’s really a case of dead heading the perennials to try and extend the season. This is really working well for the front garden. Read more here
4 - 9 September
Most of our time is still being spent on harvesting and processing the crops that have been harvested for storage.
We have started lifting our onions and shallots. The first lot have done very well so we just hope that they manage to store over winter. Our second onion and shallot bed hasn’t done well at all but I think this was down to the sets having hung around in modules for too long before planting out. The weather conspired against us so the young plants had become pot bound and I think they didn’t then respond well to being planted out.
We have pears on all three of the trees on the plot but the trees also seem to be suffering from a couple of problem. Some leaves have orange coloured patches which I think is plum rust. I’ve read that it spreads from juniper trees to pears. We haven’t any junipers nearby that I know of but apparently it can spread from a tree half a mile away! I’ve picked off as many affected leaves as I can find to dispose of away from the plot but need to research how I can try to prevent a recurrence next year.
On one of he pear trees - Delsanne - some of the leaves have turned black. I’ve cut out all the affected parts of the tree. I’m not sure whether this is pear fireblight - if it is that’s another thing to worry about for next year
10 - 17 September
The tomatoes are now ripening well so it will be a case of how long they can keep going before they just decide it’s too cold and give up.
We are now also gathering in lots of the apples and pears.
The bean and raspberry crop are winding down but we still have the sweetcorn to pick which is a bit late for us this year.
Now all the onions and shallots are in. We hope they will dry off in the greenhouse before I tidy them up for storing over winter. Now we have come full circle and bought the sets for the autumn onions which will be planted as soon as we can. Read more here.
The air is starting to lose it’s summery feel and is now tipping inexorably into autumn as confirmed by the red leaves of the blueberries.
18 - 22 September
We’ve planted our autumn onions and garlic which is nice and early for us. This is mainly because we bought the sets and bulbs from nearby garden centres rather than online. We didn’t have as much choice but at least we aren’t hanging around waiting relying on a delivery at a sensible time.
Details of varieties are here
The autumn raspberries are making up for the lack of summer ones but the fruits are now smaller and the All Gold all too readily spoils when the weather isn’t favourable.
We are also managing to harvest a few strawberries from our everbearing varieties. Finesse which is growing in troughs at the top of the garden is producing berries in much better condition than the Flamenco strawberries planted on the plot.
Gradually the beds on the plot are being emptied and tidied up and also some bushes that have grown to tall and creating unwanted shade are being severely pruned.
23- 30 September
Other than harvesting crops that are still producing (see list here), plot activity now is more or less confined to tidying and pruning.
On the plot the apple hedge and the kiwis have had a severe cut back .
Martyn had already cut down the laurel that was shading some beds and posted about it here.
The apples and pear growing in the garden have also been pruned but not before harvesting the fruit. One apple couldn’t wait to be picked and decided to crash through the greenhouse roof! Again martyn posted about this here.
Beds that have been cleared are being covered with weed control fabric and mulched with dry manure. Next year we will plant through the fabric. Not only should this keep the weeds down but it should also warm up the soil a little.
The tomatoes in the plot greenhouse are continuing to ripen, I have removed most of the non-fruit laden parts of the plants to allow as much light as possible to reach the green fruits. Read more here.
There are still peppers on the plants on the garden greenhouse but I have removed all the egg sized aubergines.
One surprise on the plot is that one of the autumn onions planted last week has already developed a shoot!
I’m also finding yjay my new camera can do some amazing things like taking panoramic shots. More example will be posted on my blog on Wednesday 2 October.
Some activities are described in more detail on our blogs - links below
