Our first Summer’s Over

The tomato plants have joined the green beans and we now have no veg plots as such in the garden anymore.
We bought a tarpaulin today and have covered our compost heap so that the vegetation can rot down and be recycled into the soil next year.
Hubby has seeded three of our circles, including the one now home to our Buddleia plant which has some new growth on it.

Photos: Buddleia in compost bin and resited into previous onion patch (Aug)

The tomato site is going to be our solitary veg plot for 2019, probably accommodating our new wigwam of beans. The canes have been tucked securely along the fence behind the upright posts to keep them straight and prevent them rotting on the ground.

Our previous experience with both tomatoes and green beans has been that they had shallow roots and were thus easy to pull. Here it is a totally different story as the roots for both plants went down a good foot in search of water due to the clay soil. We watered them all religiously but the ground is solid, so we shall have a different plan of attack next time.

One thing is we won’t be growing so much!

Photos: our tomato seedlings in April.

Our six Moneymaker tomato plants did very little indoors, so we purchased 6 already established ones, 2 of which were cherry tomatoes. The yield has been tremendous.
As the MM plants didn’t actually die, we put them outside in with the potatoes, and they rallied. We had some huge tomatoes, but not a single one turned red. This was such a contrast to the success we had in the cottage when they all did!

Our beans, or at least one in particular, were a subject for poetry and were going really well indoors.

However I’m afraid we murdered them all as when they started making out with the blinds we put them outside and the weather turned nasty. They weren’t yet strong enough to brave the bitter howling winds.
We planted some more which didn’t do anything at all, so we threw the rest of the packet directly into the soil and eventually they all came up.
  

Our onions are still going strong, having dried out fabulously in the Man Closet outside.

We have nowhere to hang them indoors (oh how we miss the larder in the cottage!) but draping them over the ladder has worked exceptionally well, though as to whether we’ll grow any next year is undecided.

We had a few apples off our little tree which was in blossom when we bought it.  Although rosy red on the outside, they were green and solid on the inside, but it is only the first year.

Over the coming months we’ll be getting the garden back to mainly grass.
Rumour has it we’re in for a cold lengthy winter. Last year we had snow in November, and the winds were the coldest we’ve ever known. We’re glad we kept our yellow condom suits from the boat as they not only keep us dry, but keep out the wind. With our woolly hats and gloves, we look like aliens waddling along the prom! Maggie has her little coat too so we are as prepared as we can be I guess.

First of October on Monday. The nights are closing in and at the end of the month we’ll be putting the clocks back.
The larger shops are full of festive ware, but I was pleased to see an aisle dedicated to Halloween today and the Christmas displays were at the back of the shop.

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