September 2006

1 Aubergines & orange banana tomatoI'm having one of my bay trees removed to make more planting space in the veg garden.  After all, no-one needs two bay trees for bay leaves.  It's not all out yet, but it's cut right back, the roots are severed and we're waiting for stump treatment to do its thing.
Harvested my first two aubergines & an orange banana tomato which ended up in a  roast vegetable quiche.  A surplus of tomatoes resulted in a spicy fresh tomato soup from a recipe I just invented.  Two soft bananas also encouraged a banana nut loaf, so that took care of all three courses for dinner.
I'm still clearing out dead and dying foliage from the greenhouse cordon tomatoes and soon I might have my first ripe monster brandywine tomato.  Just a bit more sun required!
The aubergines in the potting shed aren't producing.  Like the conservatory, the plants are too big and all foliage.  I remove one which was collapsing for lack of support and in danger of pulling other plants with it.
2 No tomato ripening sun today - it's dull, windy and quite chilly  :-(
We've been notified of an enormous increase in our electricity charges from 1 Sep.  :-((
To see my latest research and frustration, click here.
Been for a walk and when I said it was windy today, wow, it's positively wild!
Harvest: red cherry tomatoes, another orange banana tomato, a big green pepper and 3 courgettes.
3 More strong wind today, so thought I'd better check the orchard for windfall apples and pears.  Managed to salvage 4 pears for eating and 4 more for cooking.  The rest had been nibbled by the rabbits (should have thought to check yesterday).  No apples had dropped but I picked 4 desert apples.  Then I had to come back and pick 5 cooking apples as Crow had been out in the paddock harvesting the first blackberries.
Final cutback in the greenhouse (I hope) and harvesting of 2 courgettes (one very big), white, orange and red tomatoes.  Sadly, I have to admit to being disappointed with the orange banana tomatoes, which look quite exotic but a very lacking in flavour.  The white tomatoes are quite sweet and tasty though.
4 First brandywine tomatoTime to use up some of the harvest today, especially as I picked another pound plus of beans.  I started with 6 jars of blackberry, apple & pear jam.  Then I froze 5 portions of beans and used the rest, along with the blanching stock, for bean, courgette & tomato soup.  Courgettes went into a zucchini sausage bake, but there's still some left. 

Apart from beans there were orange banana tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, physalis and my first ripe brandywine monster -->

5 I'm clearing the veg plants out of the conservatory as they've made quite a mess and I want to clean it out this week.  So I moved the two tomato plants out into the veg garden.  That just leaves two bolivian chillis which will go in a sheltered position outdoors, but may be at the mercy of the rabbits.
In the meantime Crow was mowing in the orchard and weeding around three of the new fruit trees for me.  The new Jonagold is still sporting nine ripening apples.
No rain for a few days and quite hot for the last two, so had to do veg garden watering and lots of tomato harvesting.  My first three brandywine tomatoes got used tonight in a tomato & carrot salad with balsamic dressing.  They're tastier than the orange ones, thank goodness.
6 My best bolivian chilli plant is in the potting shed and as promised, some have ripened to a true fire engine red!  I've got a bit of a tomato glut at the moment - another pound harvested this evening - some chutney required I think?
7 At long last my Christmas potatoes arrived yesterday - about three weeks late!  Although two were bad and the others felt a little soft, I've planted them and crossed my fingers.
I also cleared out the remaining red egg aubergines from the potting shed, moved the two bolivian chillis from the conservatory to the stables and harvested gherkins, another load of tomatoes, 2 courgettes and my first runner beans.  Oh, and Ron caught a rabbit.
8 Actually, as I've got home grown onions, aubergines, courgette, peppers, tomatoes, thyme and basil, I decided to make a very large pot of ratatouille.  Some for dinner with bread and fresh rabbit, the rest for the freezer.
Main job was then cleaning out the conservatory as my veggie plants, which got bug ridden, made an awful mess.  Crow helped me, thank goodness, but still got the interior glass to do on Sunday.
More produce saving this evening with three jars of pickled gherkins (I found another monster gherkin this morning) and frozen runner beans.
9 Shopping in Chelmsford, followed by a visit to my best friend Sue and god-daughter Grace.  A good gossip then off to an indian restaurant and a Christine Collister concert.  Excellent day!
Before I went, I had time to harvest another half a pound of tomatoes and the first courgette from pot C7.
10 Weeded the one & a half paddock veg beds currently in use, then Crow kindly lugged many cans of rain water back and forth to water them as we've had very warm weather with no rain for some time.  Courgettes. carrots & beetroot seem to be coming along nicely but only a handful of turnips and one kohl rabi!
11 No gardening today, except for watering and harvesting: lettuce, polycress, tomatoes, gherkins, chives, runner beans and my first celeriac to go with courgette in a salad.  We spent the day with Crow's youngest who's just back from 10 weeks in LA.
12 Started the day with 7 jars of tomato jam.  Then a little bit of veg garden tidying and harvesting more tomatoes (brandywine, orange banana, white and red), physalis, gherkins, beans (runner, dwarf and haricot), 3 courgettes and a sweetcorn cob (suitable for human consumption!).  Now I've got more tomatoes than I started with this morning!
13 A little houseplant care - two new pelargonium pots created to replace two old leggy ones, plus re-potting of a leafy climber with a support and potting up of my new fig.
The tomato glut continues along with another 2 pound of blackberries, so more preserving resulted in 3 jars of hot blackberry chutney and 4 jars of red tomato chutney, using up the ripe brandywines and 3 bolivian chillis.
14 More tomato and runner bean harvesting and my first Autumn King carrot!
Plus four pounds of wild blackberries from down the road - one pound frozen and the rest in five more jars of blackberry chutney (a non-hot variety).  Runner beans blanched & frozen too.
15 Oh deer!  We removed our hazel deer which, already suffering from broken antlers, has very sadly now got a broken back.  (You may have spotted it in the flower garden bamboo pic, looking slightly better back on 31 January.)   I've treated the large earthquake-like bare patch it has left behind with a bit of compost and grass seed.
Harvested the first ripe red pepper, plus another courgette, physalis, gherkins, and brandywine, orange, white & red tomatoes.
Used 1lb of orange, 1.5 lb of brandywine (one single mutant tomato!) and 0.5 lb red cherry tomatoes in 6 jars of sweet tomato chutney.
16 Potted up my new passion fruit and free olive plant, plus some more "indoor" lemon balm for the winter.  Dug up the two courgettes outside of the bedroom window and Crow did an excellent digging & weeding job in that area.
One of the potatoes has already germinated in pot P5!
A little veg garden weeding and I'm still trying to weaken the bay tree stump, so it got a watering with Root Out - a stump treatment which destroys all living tissue but then degrades to fertiliser so the ground can be replanted in 8 weeks or so.
Harvest: saladisi, polycress, carrot, celeriac, runner beans, red tomatoes, (yummy salad tonight with Crow omelette), physalis, lemon balm.
This time I've tried freezing sprigs of lemon balm in a pot, ready to lift out and use.
17 A large surprise courgette from the paddock plus lots of physalis, over another pound of orange banana and red cherry tomatoes (plus some spoilt for chickies) and I pulled half of carrot trough 1 to add to tonight's roast vegetables.
18 No gardening time today as we've been out to see Crow's mum.  Then back for a late walk and I needed to make a birthday card.  I'm also busy with the third round of the table-top rally competition, so that will keep me indoors for a few days!
19 A potting shed plant tidy-up, especially of the potted tomatoes.
20 Lots of pottering around and odd-jobbing including reseeding the lawn where the deer sat and protecting the seed from the chickens, watering the leaf bin and the paddock veg beds, Crow turned the compost bins, more greenhouse tidying and general veg garden weeding.
Potato pot 7 is starting to germinate.
Harvest: our first four pounds of cherry plums, 3 courgettes and loads of runner beans, plus white & red cherry tomatoes and a couple of orange banana ones, gherkins, physalis and a giant red pepper.
Fresh tomato soup made from the ripe brandywines and orange banana tomatoes, stuffed roast pepper with runner beans for main course and plums frozen in syrup for future puddings.
21

Germination is occurring in potato pot 9.
Harvest: 7 pounds of cherry plums, 2 pounds of blackberries, gherkins, physalis, red tomatoes, white tomatoes.

22 Poring with rain so a good time to cook produce: 3 litres of curry zucchini soup, 3 portions of frozen runner beans, 7 jars of plum & blackberry jam and 6 jars of plum & blackberry chutney.
Harvest: 1 pear, 2 dessert apples, 5 cooking apples, 2 paddock courgettes, 2 brandywine tomatoes, 4 orange banana tomatoes and physalis.
23

Harvest: runner beans, the remaining carrots in trough C1, a beautiful red pepper, white, red & orange banana tomatoes, physalis and a courgette.
Made a delicious vegetable & egg pie containing only home grown veg topped with eggs then home grown potatoes & cheese.  (I guess if I want to be self sufficient, I need a cow, as we can't live without cheese.)

24 Had a visit from my best friend Sue and my god-daughter Grace as I'm another year older tomorrow.  They brought me two lovely presents - a pair of flowery welly clogs for messing around in the garden (perfect!) and a beautiful hanging candle holder, which I've put in the conservatory.
Did a bit of greenhouse clearing, removed two pepper plants which didn't produce because they were swamped by brandywine tomato plants and removed the aubergine plants.
Harvest: last 2 aubergines and the usual tomatoes & physalis, plus 4 pounds of cherry plums.
Freezer: 2 cartons of cooked blackberry & apple.
25 Branywines 260906Cor blimey - another two monster brandywines from my outdoor plants, one weighing a pound, the other 1.5 pounds!

BIG birthday treat this evening - a trip into London to our favourite fish restaurant where we met Bex & Caroline and had the most gorgeous meal.  And, of course, I received beautiful gifts from the girls.
26 Out & about today so nothing to report in the garden.
Harvested a sweetcorn for the chicks but, to my surprise, found it's good enough for us to eat!
27 Harvest 270906A big harvest!  See for yourself -->
28 Took delivery of three currant bushes (one black, one white & one red) & a floating hippo head for the pond.
29 In the garden: Picked my first leeks to make a savoury bread pudding, along with celeriac, 2 courgettes, gherkins, and loadsa physalis.
I was given a small pot recently, crammed with sprouting bulbs (no idea what they are). I've split them up into four pots of varying sizes, but all bigger than the original and we'll see what develops.  A little flower garden weeding completed today's efforts.
In the kitchen: A jar pf pickled gherkins.  For the freezer: 3 portions of runner beans, 2 cartons of cooked brandywine tomatoes, two cartons of whole cherry tomatoes, one white and one red.
30 The table top rallying competition is still keeping me out of the garden, but it's nearly finished, thank goodness.  I did however find time to produce 2.5 litres of courgette soup.
Harvest:  brandywine, orange & white tomatoes.