Autumn update

It's been a long time since I last posted. Not sure why - I guess I just harvested everything and now I'm letting the garden do it's own thing. I think I had a successful harvest on the whole. I got a bit fed up with the potato plants taking over the garden so I cut them down last month. This meant I had to sacrifice having large maincrop potatoes, but I was sick of the site of the things in my garden. Potatoes are most definitely not on my list of things to grow next year. They are too cheap in the shops to be worth the hassle quite frankly and I want the space for some more unusual veggies.

I've been making a list of things to grow next year so will post it up here once I've finalised things a bit. I want to try some more unusual root vegetables like scorzonera and salsify. There's something called hamburg parsley too that I may have a go at. Anyway, I've already started things off for next year by planting some garlic bulbs. They are showing through already as are some iris bulbs I planted at the same time (a few weeks back). I'm wondering if I planted my spring bulbs a bit too early as it's still pretty mild here. If they start showing through now I'm a bit worried that the early frosts, whenever they come, will kill things off and they won't come back in the spring. Anyway, I've planted a shed load of bulbs and only one or two are starting to show through so I'm not worrying yet. Again I'll post a list of my spring bulbs soon.

So I've done pretty much all my harvesting. My biggest failure was probably my squash, which is unfortunate as I love the stuff. Nevermind, they take over the garden anyway so I'll be pulling up the remains of the plants this weekend and tidying up a bit. I've had a couple of squashes from my plants but that's it really and none of my butternut squash survived. All the small squashes went rotten on me.

Had a better luck with my sweet peppers which were a dream. I still have a few left and I've certainly got plenty of parsnips, the first of which I picked last weekend for the Sunday roast. Unfortunately, I was on the phone for ages on Sunday night and overcooked them a bit so they were pretty chewy. Oh well, better luck next Sunday!

So it's time to start prepping for next year now. I need to tidy up the beds and pull out any remaining plants and roots then it's time for a good dig, if it stops raining for long enough. On the flower front, I've still got lots of plants in bloom. My geraniums are still going mad and I've got chrysanths and passiflora going strong. My virginia creeper is starting to turn a gorgeous shade of red, which I know will look stunning in a couple of week's time. The passiflora is taking over though and spreading into next door so it'll be out with the secateurs on Saturday.

So, expect to see some plans for next year over the coming weeks. I'm off to read my Gardener's World to find some inspiration. Happy digging...

Christine's column

Something that Christine wrote for the site back in July:

By Christine:

Now that the veggies have started harvesting I have fervently embarked on the quality control part of the project. Melanie has gone to a lot of trouble preparing wonderful dishes from the fruits (and veggies) of her labours. Here are some of her tasty offerings - some of them I make too!

The plump yellow courgettes work best slightly grilled, then marinated in orange zest, oil and pepper. This was delicious, surprisingly, as courgette can be quite bland, a little hit and miss. And we did get rather a lot of the things with our veggie order this year. But these fabulous yellow courgettes are sweeter than the green ones and make any dish look quite dramatic. Perfect with pine nuts, citrus juices, even served with other roast vegetables and pasta especially tagliatelle and chicken. Yum!

I have been raving about the sugar snaps for a while now and taking them in my lunchbox, sometimes on their own, or with nuts, cheese or even slices of ham. They are really sweet and moist, absolutely perfect as a healthy snack. I much prefer them raw to cooked, but if we cook them we just lightly steam them. They will go with anything really, but perfect in salads. Maybe serve with some pancetta and new potatoes too.

The tatties have real flavour but Mel did complain that some of them were a bit on the bitter side. I didnt agree, they are perfect with a little butter and parsley, or tossed in some grainy mustard with black pepper. We have eaten them with meat, fish or in salads. Or bacon. Or one of my faves - on their own with butter and black pepper!!

The lettuce is really tasty and delicate, not too chewy, stringy or peppery - nothing worse than overpowering lettuce! They have worked perfectly with different salads of cheese, bacon, even Mel's speciality of poached egg and trout on a bed of lettuce is delicious with this garden lettuce.

Im keen to try the gooseberries next especially in a crumble. I must admit at first I didnt think they tasted of very much but now they are picked, a box of them are soaking up the sunshine to "bring them on". Hope that wont take too long, and we can put some recipes up here soon!