This week in your Kitchen Garden.

[Cm7]

Nice mini pumpkins and tomatoes there.

I didn't eat those gigantic mushrooms (as I'm still here, alive).
Learnt that if the colour underneath it is white means it's highly poisonous. It can seriouly damage your liver. I took a look the other day. They were all dead and somehow got turned over confused and it's black underneath.

 

[sheothebudworths]

I've got mushrooms in my lawn too - apparently they're very good for the ground though (so long as pets/kids don't eat em!) so I'm leaving mine to flourish!

Today I'm going to pick all the rest of the tomatoes and aubergines, although I have no room in my compost bin to stick the rest of the plants atm - going to have to buy another one! I need to bring the house plants back in, too.

I've also got some flowers/leafy things to plant in the front in my ongoing effort to make the space less appealing for the cats to use as a toilet.

Bought a climbing rose for the back too, but going to wait till my bezzer comes on Tuesday to put that in and also to extend the flower beds into the lawn area a bit, pull up the sunflowers and generally try and clean up the rest of the mess out there (it's a bit of a shocker at the mo! ).

However, although it's not raining right now (after two days of massive downpours), it is very windy, so I'm stalling getting started.....

 

[sheothebudworths]

Front is too complicated I need ericaceous compost and bonemeal and normal compost, all of which I have, but they're in the downstairs garden room and I cannot be fucked with lugging them up and through the house on such a wet and windy day, so I've had a change of plan and am leaving THAT till my bezzer's here!

It's really fucking grim out there, but have gone and got the rest of the aubergines and stuffed the plants into the compost (have ordered the new bin too...but 28 days for delivery ), picked the rest of the tomatoes that were ripe - still more, although lots have been taken over by woodlice - pulled out ONE of the sunflowers and weeded that bit of the bed then tipped the remnanats of a couple of old pots of compost in and stuck the rose in (trouble is it's not very deep there, plus there was evidence of tons of bindweed growing there, so might have been a mistake...ERK!).

Also brought all the houseplants back in which was a massive job cos the two money plants are massive and HEAVY now - brought shedloads of woodlice in with them too, so spent some time collecting them all in a cup and tipping them back outside ).

Now, on top of the wind, it's started raining again... ....so have gone back to stalling.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Harvested the quinces. The big ones that look like yellow pears on steroids. Last year I had more than I knew what to do with. This year I've only had seven. I think this was because of a cold snap just after the flowers appeared.

 

[fogbat]

Finally cleared the fruit off two of my chilli plants, which have been sitting outside in a sunny, sheltered spot since late May:

 

[sheothebudworths]

Me and my bezzer worked our fucking arses off today and have got the garden looking as good as it could again.

Widened and weeded the flower beds and cut a curve into one corner of the lawn then mowed it.
Composted all the failed romanesco's sunflowers, old pots of tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, MELONS and squashes (with all the savalgable compost going onto the flower beds and the strawberries).
Cut back the lavender.
Emptied the old compost bin (tricky business involving sticking the top half into the new bin, then lifting the old one off and moving the good stuff into trenches dug into the old cauli and pea beds using a huge plastic sheet). Weeded the strawberry bed and moved the thyme and the rosemary from the other raised bed (now empty and also topped up with lots of the spent veg compost - going to put flowers into it this time around) into the front with the other herbs.
Also moved the bench up onto the balcony, put all the empty pots etc neatly into the greenhouse and gave the whole place a thorough sweeping.

It was baking today too, so also got what will doubtless be the last sun tan of the year.

Next jobs are to put up some more wire for the jasmine and clematis, plant a lot more flowers/shrubby/bushy things in the beds and do some pots for the balcony with more 'climbing things'....

Absolutely KNACKERED but well pleased with our work, too....we sat and had tea and fags when we'd finished and spent half an hour massively congratulating ourselves on our sterling effort, lol.


Niiiiice chillis, foggers - they shit all over mine, tbf!

 

[davesgcr]

4 tomatoes only , harvested spuds which were smallish , but tasty.

Massive apple crop of our 1934 tree though (again) , leeks coming on nicely though.

 

[The39thStep]

still picking peas, mange tout and beans. Courgettes still rumbling on but getting smaller and smaller. Plenty of beetroot, turnip and carrots. Lots of spinach chard. Last of the lettuces and cherry tomatoes.

Dug up some artichokes, and have a good crop of parsnips.

I have around a dozen Uchiki Kuri squash which taste like sweet potato and chestnuts

 

[sheothebudworths]

still picking peas, mange tout and beans. Courgettes still rumbling on but getting smaller and smaller. Plenty of beetroot, turnip and carrots. Lots of spinach chard. Last of the lettuces and cherry tomatoes.

Dug up some artichokes, and have a good crop of parsnips.

I have around a dozen Uchiki Kuri squash which taste like sweet potato and chestnuts

WINNER!

Those squash sound delicious!

 

[invisibleplanet]

dug the beds and weeded thoroughly

emptied the compost bins which are full, sorted out the twigs and unrotted matter, plonked it onto the newly dug beds. will dig them over again if the worms don't do their job before Wednesday, when the frost is probably going to arrive (the geese have been flying over constantly now, and that usually gives around a week until the first frost).

was going to dig ALL the potatoes up but decided against it and left six plants in the ground.

planted up the garlic - around 50 cloves this today and will probably plant some more so there's enough to share with the neighbours.

 

[The39thStep]

some pictures from the weekend:

broccolli ( still to form buds)

spinach chard ( seeds from Aldi)

carrots in a barrell ( stops carrot fly)

carrotts in my carrot frame ( stops carrot fly)

 

[rich!]

ripped out the last of the tomato infestation. Last time I'll grow them without brutal pruning, methinks. Moratorium on new tomato seeds, since our soil is now contaminated with tomatoes.

Got some cabbage and broccoli growing nicely for the winter. Not as much as I'd like, but still.

During the week I'm going to bring the smaller aubergines in from the (plastic) greenhouses. They can spend winter indoors on the windowsills, and we'll see what happens next year.


One of the courgettes is still flowering. It hasn't produced a single courgette all year, though.

 

[toggle]

i've had 3 courgettes in total this year. so much for the glut i was expecing.

I'm still picking handfulls of runner beans every couple of days. last of the apple trees is ripening off nicely and picked the last of the blackberries and a couple of pounds of cherry toms today.

 

[sheothebudworths]

I'm too embarrassed to post pics of my PSB*

Although my daughter (5 years old) says 'Bloody cabbage butterflies, mum! ' every time we talk about them, which makes up for it a bit, tbf.




*Or my sprouts. :-/

 

[rich!]

what did do surprisingly well were the black German Beer Radishes. Normally, a radish does nothing in our garden...

 

[invisibleplanet]

decided to leave one patch of nettles, next to the replaced compost bins (over the soil, as they should be) - ladybirds love them plus they can be chopped back to use in a green manure mix

neighbours given instructions not to place eggshells or onion skins in the compost bins (or pine cones)
bucket also put out next to compost bins for man-wee, which speeds up composting process

 

[rich!]

bucket also put out next to compost bins for man-wee, which speeds up composting process

we have a handy lid which can be used to shield the peeing process from the neighbours in the flats above.

I dread to think what it looks like from above...

 

[toggle]

decided to leave one patch of nettles, next to the replaced compost bins (over the soil, as they should be) - ladybirds love them plus they can be chopped back to use in a green manure mix

neighbours given instructions not to place eggshells or onion skins in the compost bins (or pine cones)
bucket also put out next to compost bins for man-wee, which speeds up composting process

you can eat nettles as well

 

[mr steev]

you can eat nettles as well

And make nettle beer

 

[Melinda]

The39thStep- lovely photos! Just wow!
Foggy- I so envious of your chillies success!

Sheo- Im in awe of the extent of your autumn tidy up!

Ive not been home really, and tbh between the weather, losing the catshit battle and everything looking rather tatty, Ive not been motivated to do much.

Still picking beans, carrots, pulled my first parsnips.
Still havent forked over the lawn.
Still waiting for the local tree surgeon to get find space in his schedule to fit in our sycamores.

Oh and my Virginia Creeper is on the turn Its a deep ruby red.

 

[Melinda]

Rather annoyingly, every container I filled with Poundstretcher growbag compost has developed mushrooms. Im SOOO pissed off.

Should I chuck out all the spent compost? I would usually mulch around the garden with it. However, Im assuming doing anything in the garden with it, would spread the spores?

 

[toggle]

Rather annoyingly, every container I filled with Poundstretcher growbag compost has developed mushrooms. Im SOOO pissed off.

Should I chuck out all the spent compost? I would usually mulch around the garden with it. However, Im assuming doing anything in the garden with it, would spread the spores?

find out what sort of mushrooms

 

[Melinda]

The fruiting body is small, thin and very much like a matchstick.
They have small brown pointed caps. Id google it or go to a specialist site, but fungi freak me out.

 

[invisibleplanet]

And make nettle beer

I'm good at many things, but making beer is not one of them

 

[mr steev]

I'm good at many things, but making beer is not one of them

I've not actually made any myself, but a mate made some a few months ago and he was a complete novice. Admitedly he did have one small explosion, but what did survive was very palatable

 

[fogbat]

My four Numex Twilight chillies - brought in from the garden about a week back

 

[sheothebudworths]

Pretty!

 

[BoatieBird]

Gorgeous plants fogbat. I didn't really have much luck with chillies this year, but looking at those makes me think I should try again next year.

 

[fogbat]

Gorgeous plants fogbat. I didn't really have much luck with chillies this year, but looking at those makes me think I should try again next year.

They're well worth it. Some strains have done a hell of a lot better than others for me, though:

Scotch Bonnets and the Numex Twilights, pictured above, thrived on my sunny but sheltered roof terrace. Healthy plants, with a really good harvest.

I had some Chocolate Habaneros that grew into big, strong plants, but didn't get around to producing any fruit. I've cut them back to the bare stalk now, and if they get through the winter on a sunny windowsill, I'm hoping they'll start flowering and fruiting much earlier next year.

White Habaneros and Bulgarian Carrots were rubbish for me. The White Habs produced thin, weedy plants, with miniscule fruit. Bulgarian Carrots shot up early, and started flowering early, but they all started fading fast after a certain point, going yellow and drying out, regardless of how they were watered and fed. I won't bother with them again.

 

[Melinda]

You certainly have a facility with chillies Foggy.