Last of the Summer veg

It’s not been a great September temparture-wise and the summer veg is now winding down.

The Courgette plants have finally succumbed to mildew with just a few fruits left. In the greenhouse the last few dozen Sungold tomatoes are ripening, there’s Joe’s Long chillies to pick and the Etuida peppers have ripened. All in all there’s not much summer veg left. So it’s over to the parnsips, leeks, beetroot and brussel sprouts to keep the harvest going along with the potatoes in store.

The seed catalogues are hitting the doormat and the planning for next year starts again!

NVS Hants DA Show

Unfortunately due to work commitments I couldn’t attend Tuesday evening’s NVS Hampshire DA Mini-Show. Darren kindly offered to stage my shallots and I picked up a second place in the well contested pickling class with 8 entries in total.

Please check out Darren’s new blog if you get a chance. He’s just moved in up the road from me and has an exciting new garden project on his hands over the next few months. You’ll definitely pick up some good tips too along the way.  Follow his progress as he builds a new veg growing empire!!

Sprouts Away!

It’s always nice at this time of year to have some winter veg to look forward to and one of our favourites are Brussel Sprouts. This variety is Wellington and was actually picked up from Homebase – one of those polystyrene trays which have a dozen or so small seedlings in for £2. Well they’ve grown into pretty big plants as you can see and I’ve squeezed them into an area about 6 foot wide by 5 foot deep. Ideally they could do with more room but space is a premium on the plot. Each one is staked to prevent them rocking about. To start with they were protected by an environmesh tunnel which they’ve now outgrown so I’m now checking the leaves every couple of days to wipe off any cabbage white eggs. They can withstand some pest damage now they’re large plants so I’m not too bothered about the odd caterpillar getting a free meal!

Some of the sprouts are almost ready so it won’t be long before we’ll be having them with our Sunday roast yum!