lately on the lottie ... early autumn

 


Autumn is knocking at the door.
 Despite the fact that over the past few days, the temperatures by late morning /early afternoon are those of a respectable summer's day, come the evening, there is a nip in the air and in the early morning a heavy dew clothes the allotment and garden.

Autumn is harvest time and in our part of the world the farmers have already brought in their harvests of wheat and the ploughed fields now stretch as far as the eye can see; the dark soil like crumbled chocolate.


Our own harvest this year has been mixed and looking back it seems it is the fruit that has been most successful this time round.
 
The Autumn Bliss raspberries planted earlier this year produced a very good first harvest.

 
 
 The blackcurrants were plentiful, the strawberries wonderful and the plums abundant....
 
but the climbing French beans were attacked mercilessly by slugs and the leeks seem to have been munched by something which I suspect may be leek moth.
However, the Charlotte potatoes grown in big bins were delicious and we have some late beetroot and salad onions still to look forward to.
 
 
 I planted the garlic earlier in the year, so consequently the bulbs are quite small, but look ok now they have been trimmed and cleaned.
 ( much better I think to plant garlic in the autumn, so I am making a mental note to do so in the next few weeks) 
 
 
 
It seems that growing veggies always involves a bit of a battle with the elements and unwanted wildlife, but nothing compares with the satisfaction of 'growing your own'.
 
Happy gardening !
 
 
 
 
 


Comments

  1. Your harvest looks lovely to me. We did well with runner beans, raspberries and redcurrants and the potatoes seemed to taste better this year. Lots of apples too and very few wasps around.

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    Replies
    1. That's true, now I think of it, there haven't been many wasps this year.

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  2. I totally agree there is nothing like the taste of your own grown veg.

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    1. Must be down to the freshness - and the love put into growing them!

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  3. Yes there is nothing like growing our own no matter what trouble you may have. There is always some sort of success no matter what failed that growing season.

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  4. We still have an abundance of courgettes, sweet corn and tomatoes but no fruit apart from what I have foraged.

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    1. More courgettes? I still smile when I think about your fridge full!

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  5. That's an impressive harvest. We don't grow anything edible here. Actually, thinking about it, we don't grow anything!

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  6. I noticed this year that lots of our beans had slug/ snail damage but we can spare a few. back from holiday this week, I picked around 5lb of beans from my wigwam and the last of the sweetcorn. We lost our tomato plants to blight before we went away, but still have plenty of toms ripening around the kitchen. Thanks for the reminder about the garlic - ours upped and died this spring. Never had that happen before!

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  7. Your raspberries look perfect. We've done really well for fruit this year too. But I am sorry to hear you might have leek moth. We've managed to avoid it so far, but I fear it's only a matter of time before we get it too. Ours are just a bit rusty at the moment.

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  8. Every gardening year is different. I suppose that's part of the excitement. Thank you for sharing your allotment experiences with us. Your photos are always so very beautiful.

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  9. We have lorry loads of yellow courgettes!!!!
    My absence for June didn't help with planning what to grow, but harvesting from your own plot can't be beaten.

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