Autumn Catch Up

What an inconsistent blogger I have become!  I've missed telling you about the summer crops, the annual show, and showing you this year's scarecrow - shocking!

I'll maybe save those for another day, though, as if I try to catch up, I'll be in danger of chasing my tail for ever.  So we'll 'draw a line' as they say in Knobsville, and set off from now.

The weather has been mild to date, with some storms blowing in, just to keep us on our toes.  I went to the Hill today - the clocks went back last night, so the first weekend of Autumn - to see what's been going on whilst I've been away on holiday, and everything is looking like it wants a good tidy up.

I pruned the currant bushes before I went away - for better or worse, and today I wanted to do the same with the raspberry canes which have got rather unruly.  My secateurs are not really up to the job of dealing with the forest of intermingled summer and autumn plants, so in frustration I put my head down and gaining sore hands and blister, blundered on and chopped down the whole lot.

The autumn ones will be fine next year, growing and fruiting on new shoots which will come up in the Spring - I may have sacrificed a crop from the summer ones, though, as they fruit on the older canes, which are no more. On the plus side, with the canes out the way, I can replace the rotten wooden posts at the one end of the bed which hold the support wires, and can put down a thick mulch of either manure or wood chippings.

I turfed out the courgette plants, taking the last giants home where they will be grated and frozen in batches - I can use them for chocolate courgette cake (delicious) and to bulk out stews and mince.

I started to pick some of the bean pods - hunter - which are dry and rattle, and they can have a final dry out on newspaper in the attic room before I pod them.

The weeds have continued to grow, particularly under the netting tunnel.  I was pleased when I cleared them to find that about half of the cabbage and cauliflower seedlings have survived - they were too little when I planted them out, I think, and was worried that the slugs/snails would have had the lot.

The final job before coming home was to pick a few carrots (which look ok, but I haven't washed them yet); and the first of the tuscan kale. Then the challenge was to get home with my booty without being accompanied by a blizzard of whitefly from the kale - failed on that one!

And as I was packing away, satisfied that I'd at least made a start on the end of season tidy-up, Richard-three-plots-down arrived.  Until then I'd had no company at all - it was surprising not to see a few plotters on what really was a fine Autumn morning.