Changing seasons

I don’t think I have previously appreciated the switch from summer to autumn like I am right now. This year it’s been all too apparent given all the time I now spend out side and the efforts I am putting into growing my own.

When you are an office worker it can sometimes go practically unnoticed until the day its gets a bit chilly and you put on a jacket for the first time, the heating may go on occasionally, the garden becomes something you can see from your back window but you rarely venture out there. You keep your head down only noticing he days like Halloween or Guy Fawkes Night, then onto Christmas.

This year I'm noticing the slow down in growth of plants, the shedding of leaves and the falling of fruit from trees. The birds are silent and the air becomes earthier as the flowers retreat. The mornings are darker and the evenings shorter. Too bloody short to pop over to the plot after dinner and the kids are tucked up for a couple of hours....grrrr...

Since the weekend I have been to the plot for a grand total of twenty minutes on Tuesday to check on the onions and garlic, which I'm happy to say, has, in the main part, begun to emerge quite nicely.

The place seemed different now though.

It was quiet and I was on my own which was unheard of a fortnight ago. Save the foxes which seemed over the moon to have finally reclaimed their playgrounds as they weaved in and amongst the paths, through the plots and into their dens of over grown brambles. Only stopping to stare at the intruder walking up to his plot.

At 18:20 PM, the sky was a heavy grey which was rapidly darkening as the night claimed the day.

Gone were the tomatoes ripening on the vines, what's left are those who left them to their blighted doom.

The runner beans are long, no doubt stringy and fat with their crimson beans. I bagged several fat pods for seed saving.

My Defender F1 courgettes which have served me so well are now down to two plants, I cropped another four before laying the ones in my raised beds to rest in the composter. Nobody is getting these courgettes mwwwwar, they are all mine, mine I tell you.

A quick check on the winters;

The Brussels sprouts are doing very well indeed. A couple more weeks I think then we can begin eating these.

The Caulis have enjoyed the extra rainfall and have doubled their leaf growth. A couple I planted in the summer are heading and will be taken home at the weekend.

The Parsnip growth isn't looking too bad at all. I've had a few already which where ok, but now want to let some frost get at them as it is supposed to improve their flavours.

Somehow I planted way too many Swedes. Neighbours and Friends beware, what else am I going to do with forty Swedes.

Two more cabbages are ready. These beauties are delish. I refuse to blanch and freeze them because I don’t like eating mush so we have eaten a lot of cabbage.

My last Pumpkin is no world beater. I would say the size of a basketball which is plenty enough especially as we have another sitting in our garage.

I had one decent sized squash; the skin has turned a creamy magnolia colour which must have meant it was time. So I bagged it up. There are three smaller fruits on the plant although I don't hold out much hope for them.

The Calabrese is hardly in Food Factory mode providing but it provides a side vegetable for a family of five once a week.

So that'll be Sunday sorted then. Meat and ten vegetables Allotment style.