Leek, apple and autumn harvests

The first leek harvest. Nice.

No evidence of the leaf miner this year. I made a lovely vegetable casserole with it and the turnips.

Not a lot of apples this year. I think a lot fell off. But I can't eat them all anyway. Plus, I still have stewed apples from last year.

I'm still harvesting beetroot and turnips with plenty of leeks, parsnips and kale to look forward to.

Turnip harvest

I didn't make a note of when I sowed the turnips but it doesn't seem that long ago. Anyway, I picked some this weekend and very nice they are too.

As with the turnips, I can't recall when I planted kale but they are growing strongly despite me picking off caterpillars regularly.

I planted some more garlic as I think what I had planted may have been dug up.

That's about it. I'm mainly tidying the beds and mulching with the spent compost from the tomato buckets.

Netting brassicas against wood pigeon attack

Starting with the weather, as I seem to do most of the time in these blogs, it's been very dry and sunny. The turnips are growing well as a result, even though I sowed them late. The pak choi would be alright but something has eaten them.

I lapsed in using the netting and the pigeons have had them I think or maybe it's slugs.

The purple sprouting broccoli has grown large; should be a good crop.

The strawberries are looking great and are even flowering.

Garden work now is tidying up and managing the compost bins. I'm moving the contents regularly to end up with some material that I can use as a mulch over winter. So far it's working.

Other chores are picking the apples, blackberries, beetroot and courgettes. Then I want to prepare an area near the fence to plant a Kerria hedge. Busy busy.

Potato harvest

I'm not that impressed with my efforts this year. I got poor yields of the onions, outdoor tomatoes and dwarf beans. It maybe due to me trying the no dig method and this combined with the dry weather didn't allow for good root growth and therefore poor plant growth. The soil dried out and cracked open, I'm not surprised that the roots can't penetrate the baked hard clay. So it comes down to me moaning about my soil again. I will add the compost as a mulch this autumn as where I have done this, there has been less drying out of the soil.

On a positive note, I dug up the spuds and the yield is ok given I didn't dig trenches. So I'll do the same next year.

That's not all of them either.

The sweetcorn should be ok too.

Summer heat and greenhouse tomatoes

The garden is much in need of rain. My son is gainfully employed in watering the garden whilst on his school holidays and waiting for his GCSE results. Even then, there are large cracks showing as the heavy clay bakes into something resembling concrete. However, where I have mulched, then the soil has not dried out so much. So I need to keep applying the compost. It's a familiar story that I've told before.

In the greenhouse the plants are suffering too. Even with their feet in water the tomatoes have pale leaves and slow growth. It may be because I haven't fed them so much. I'll get some fruit though and have picked a nice cucumber.

I've also picked some nice lettuce.

And some climbing beans.

And tomatoes which were good with the lettuce and cucumber In a salad.

The outdoor tomatoes are rather pathetic truth be told, so it's good to get anything.