With Sunday bright & sunny, I cycled to the Hill ‘just for half an hour to pick off the green tomatoes’ – yeah, sure. I was surprised to have the place virtually to myself – Richard (3 plots down) arrived soon after me, but that was it, until novice neighbour Jody rolled up just as I was leaving.
I started by picked off the TOMATOES, then I thought I might as well pull the plants up – & as I planned to use the space to grow this year’s garlic, I pulled up the SQUASH (buttercup) too, taking the two big ripe squash growing to dry further in the mini greenhouse at home.
On a bit of a roll, I also cut back the SQUASH (red kuri) to expose the 7 or 8 big deep orange fruits to finish ripening, & took another half a dozen of the SQUASH (pomme d’or) & cut that back too – there are still loads on what’s left of the plant, it’ll have grown about 40 of these cuties in all. And true to their word, when I’ve left them to cure for a week or two, they have turned from british racing green to a fetching yellow, exactly as billed.
With that space released, I forked it over & planted 30 cloves of GARLIC off two of the biggest bulbs saved from this year’s crop. I’ve planted the biggest off each bulb, & kept the little ones in the middle to cook with – I remember being told last year (after I’d planted the garlic!) by David (Evington Hilltop Adventures on the list on the right) that the bigger the clove planted, the bigger the bulb it produces, so I’ve done just that.
The second compost bin was now full to overflowing with all the squash foliage, so I put in a wheelbarrow’s worth of particularly heavy ‘hot’ horse muck from the skip on top & whacked it all down with the spade, & it’s in much better order now. The contents of the first compost bin have reduced by about half now – I think that I’ll have to investigate it soon to see if it stands any chance of being ready to use.
Lunch was a couple of SWEETCORN (tender and true) cobs straight of the plant, then I picked a handful of RUNNER BEANS (reg-next-plot) to take back for tea – these have been so good this year – absolutely melt in the mouth with not a string in sight. Fantastic!
With the squash, green tomatoes & runner beans packed in the bike basket, I discovered that there was just enough room to fit in a punnet of freshly picked raspberries…
I started by picked off the TOMATOES, then I thought I might as well pull the plants up – & as I planned to use the space to grow this year’s garlic, I pulled up the SQUASH (buttercup) too, taking the two big ripe squash growing to dry further in the mini greenhouse at home.
On a bit of a roll, I also cut back the SQUASH (red kuri) to expose the 7 or 8 big deep orange fruits to finish ripening, & took another half a dozen of the SQUASH (pomme d’or) & cut that back too – there are still loads on what’s left of the plant, it’ll have grown about 40 of these cuties in all. And true to their word, when I’ve left them to cure for a week or two, they have turned from british racing green to a fetching yellow, exactly as billed.With that space released, I forked it over & planted 30 cloves of GARLIC off two of the biggest bulbs saved from this year’s crop. I’ve planted the biggest off each bulb, & kept the little ones in the middle to cook with – I remember being told last year (after I’d planted the garlic!) by David (Evington Hilltop Adventures on the list on the right) that the bigger the clove planted, the bigger the bulb it produces, so I’ve done just that.
The second compost bin was now full to overflowing with all the squash foliage, so I put in a wheelbarrow’s worth of particularly heavy ‘hot’ horse muck from the skip on top & whacked it all down with the spade, & it’s in much better order now. The contents of the first compost bin have reduced by about half now – I think that I’ll have to investigate it soon to see if it stands any chance of being ready to use.
Lunch was a couple of SWEETCORN (tender and true) cobs straight of the plant, then I picked a handful of RUNNER BEANS (reg-next-plot) to take back for tea – these have been so good this year – absolutely melt in the mouth with not a string in sight. Fantastic!With the squash, green tomatoes & runner beans packed in the bike basket, I discovered that there was just enough room to fit in a punnet of freshly picked raspberries…
No worries about getting vampires on your plot with all that garlic planted
ReplyDeleteHey - can you have too much garlic?
ReplyDeleteSee Hazel's Christmas Prezzie List:
ReplyDeleteBigger Bicycle Basket?!
...and paniers, and possibly a little pull-along trailer...!
ReplyDelete