Signs that summer is over

Apart from the weather having turned much colder and rainy, my shady patch is also telling me that autumn is setting in. Very few tomatoes left, runner beans are on their last legs (though I did manage to pick a few this morning), broccoli is only shooting up very thin stems and despite having lots of new flowers on my pumpkin and marrow plants, there's no sign of the very little specimens left doing anything worthwhile.

Good news though is that my green cabbages are ready to be harvested. They are quite small (so just as well there's only two of us) and the outer leaves have been ravaged by caterpillars and snails, but the hearts are good and hard. No rush to harvest them as they should keep in the ground for ages.

Unfortunately, the red cabbages which I was really looking forward to, have not done well at all and I doubt I'll get any to eat but, being an eternal optimist, I'm leaving them in....just in case.

My Marrow

Unlike the summer pumpkins, my pot grown marrow plants haven't produced an abundance of veg. In fact the one in the largest pot has only produced 1 large marrow and the other pot grown one now has a smallish marrow which looks as though it's ripening up and won't get much bigger. Even the specimen I grew in open ground hasn't produced anything noteworthy as yet.

All in all, I think it was a mistake to grow this variety and next year I will go for a variety of courgette which can be harvested throughout the season and then just leave 1 or 2 to get very big to use as marrows. I do love a stuffed marrow!


I'm hoping to keep this large one (it's about 30cm/12" long) for a few more weeks before eating it - just waiting for it to ripen up a little more before cutting it to store. Which reminds me of something interesting I saw on Gardeners World the other day. The chap on the program said when you cut marrows for storing, you shouldn't cut the stem close to the marrow to prevent it getting water in the stem and rotting the marrow. When he cut his, he managed to get a sort of T-junction of stems. They should then be left to ripen/harden up outdoors before storing.

Looking at my plant, I can't see how I can do that without severing the main stem although as there aren't any other marrows on the plant, I suppose it wouldn't matter and in any event, I can't see me storing one marrow for more than 4 weeks by which time I will probably have finished harvesting other fresh summer veggies.

More tales from the shade

I planted two pots' worth of parsley right outside my kitchen door in the main garden bed. It's one of the shadiest parts of the garden and it only gets sun for an hour a day... possibly less. One of the pots I had bought earlier in the year from the supermarket: the type you're supposed to keep on an indoor windowsill. The other was a small pot in which I sowed some parsley seed back in early May.

By June Both were looking a bit tired so I just transplanted them to the only spare bit of open ground I had left. After 2-3 weeks they had both perked up and I have been harvesting lots of fresh parsley ever since. As you can see from the picture, both are still going strong and I anticipate harvesting for many weeks to come.

This is possibly the best parsley I've ever grown. And all just as an experiment. I also planted a similar supermarket basil plant in the same position which has survived and better still, sowed some coriander seeds (just out of view) a few weeks ago which have germinated and whch I should be able to start picking soon.

Another 10 out of 10 for my shady plot.

Bumper crops

At long last I have gluts of some veggies which is great considering how small my patch is. I've already given away some brocolli, baby pumpkin, chard and green beans to my sister-in-law (Vivienne) and still I have enough beans to start freezing them for winter use as well as eating them fresh. I'm going to have a go at freezing some chard too as there's so much of it.

Whatever happened to that Rhubarb plant?

I bought a rhubarb plant back in the autumn of 2009 which I wanted to grow in a large 30cm/12" pot. In one of the earlier posts this year (1st March), I wrote that it was beginning to show signs of life with a lovely fat bud just beginning to poke through the soil.

I'm not sure whether the house move in April had anything to do with it, but it didn't seem to be doing very well for quite some time. I had already decided that I wouldn't get to harvest anything this year however over the last 3 weeks it's gone berserk, so I've decided to cut, or rather I should say "pull" 3 luscious stems - you're not supposed to cut the stems but pull or twist them off. Also it's recommended to leave at least 2 stems on each plant when harvesting to ensure the crown can build up for next year's harvest.

I would also mention that the pot isn't in full sun as is recommended by many gardening literature. In fact, in my semi-shady garden, it probably only gets sun for a maximum 2-3 hours a day.

Believe it or not, just these 3 stems weigh 350g/12oz which is more than enough to make a rhubarb crumble to serve 2 people, so guess what we'll be having for dessert tonight.

WARNING -I know the leaves look fantastic, but they are poisonous and should NEVER be eaten.

A harvesting mistake?

In an earlier post I said I'd cut the first broccoli heads and that the plant would then shoot out more spears. I think I may have done that incorrectly.

I left one plant just as it was - no cutting at all (on the left in the picture)- just to see what happened and it would seem that there was no need for me to cut the others to bring on more spears as the one that's left is doing ok as it is and looks as though it's going to break into tenderstems by itself.

Oh well - at least I got to eat some early broccoli with the added bonus that I'll be getting more spears in the near future as can be seen from the picture on the right.

Exciting times

For me, this is one of the most exciting times in the veggie garden because I can see the fruits of my labour.

In an earlier post about brassicas, I was waxing lyrical and said by Autumn I hope to be tucking into some great produce. Well by the looks of things, I think I will be harvesting the first of my broccoli in a week or so.



I'm not that keen on normal big broccoli - to me its too much like eating a bunch of immature flowers which, of course, is exactly what they are! I grow the "tenderstem" type which has long edible tender stems (as the name implies) attached to a smaller floret-sized head which, as far as I'm concerned, cook up much better than the normal kind. It also has the advantage that once you've picked the main centre stem, it breaks out into lots of extra stems which go on producing for ages providing you pick them regularly.

First Bean

Yes - I do mean bean in the singular....but not in a bad way.

I didn't really look at the plants closely for a couple of days and in that time, many of the lovely red flowers on my runners are bringing forth beans. Most are still tiny but there is a rogue one which seems to have been on steroids or something as it is much bigger than all the rest (you can just see it in the bottom right hand part of the picture).

I know from past experience that if I wait until the others are large enough to harvest, this one will have become much too large so I'm afraid it had to be sacrificed for the good of the other beans and the plant on the whole. I reckon it won't be long now before my first good crop of tender young runner beans.

Better than spinach

Yesterday I harvested (and ate) the first of my Swiss Chard crop. It was so delicious. As far as I'm concerned, better than spinach and much easier to grow plus you get the edible stalks which, once they've grown large enough, can be served as a vegetable in their own right.

I had serious doubts as to whether it would grow in my shady garden - the chard bed which is about 2ft wide by 3 ft long only gets sun for a couple of hours a day - but they don't seem to mind at all. Better still, the plants are very close together so I have around 24 plants which, judging from the first harvest, will feed the two of us throughout the season and, possibly even have some to freeze.

This is a great crop as you only harvest a few outer leaves from each plant at a time, and the plant just keeps on putting on more leaves.

Although the leaves look very pale, they darken up when cooked and look just like spinach. The taste is similar too.

Of course, when growing so intensively, they need a feed every week but that's a small thing to ask in return for such a wonder vegetable.