Food ‘n Drink

I know this year I’ve been pretty quiet on the gardening front. I’ll admit, I’ve lost a little enthusiasm after our poor summer here. This coupled with now having to move home, which was first presented to us at the beginning of September. Of course suddenly discovering you have to move makes you wonder whether the hard work you’ve put into your garden has been worth it? I’ll admit, I have learnt a lot over the past two summers and despite this year being a bad summer and a wash out, it’s not put me off gardening, just made me realise that items such as a greenhouse and a sunny windowsill are needed!

So, to an update on the garden. It’s been pretty up and down this year. Plants that grew easily last year haven’t really done well this year.

Raspberries

These have been the best of the bunch. They’ve continually produced raspberries since July and have only just stopped. To be honest there are still fruit on the plants but most of it is past its best. I’ll be cutting these back down and digging them up to take with us once we move (hopefully next month).

Strawberries

These did really well in June/July time. A few got hit by slugs or woodlouse, and potentially the odd bird, but all in all most of them were fine and the fruit tasted great. I’ve had plenty of runners off the plants too so I’m hoping to get these all dug up and potted ready for moving.

Tomatoes

These haven’t done so well this year. I started with 6 plants and finished with 2. The first beef tomato plant had virtually died by July for no real reason. I realise now that it was blight brought on by the excessive amount of rain we’ve had this summer. All of the plants got blight, however my persistence with treating them has paid off with 2 plants and they’ve had a shedload of tomatoes on… but they’re all green The slugs then hit these tomatoes so I put down measures to prevent this again, however now most of the tomatoes are still green, the occasional one starts to change colour and then splits very badly, and none of the tomatoes are turning a really nice red colour, the colour at which you’d usually pick them. I think if most of them are still green when we come to move I’ll probably cut the vines off and just hang them up in the kitchen of the new place and see if the warmth and any sun that does come out can perhaps get them turning colour.

Salad

Salad has been a bit touch and go this year. In May/June time our lettuces and radish were growing well, however since then, without the sun, nothing’s really grown too well. Most lettuces have been eaten by the slugs before they could really develop. I’ve managed to get about a dozen of small spring onions but nothing as big as a normal size, plus it’s taken months to get what we have!

Gooseberries

The Gooseberry bush gave us some fruit this year. Not a major amount but for its first year of fruiting it was pretty good. I’ll be cutting this back and repotting it for moving so I doubt we’ll get anything off it next year.

Chilli Plants

Remember all those chilli plants I had grown? About 100 seedlings took originally. I potted virtually all of these up, allowed them to grow a little stronger and then put some in pots and some in the ground. From the original 90-100 plants, we had just 5 plants start to produce fruit. One of which has now died off. Last weekend I went out and dug up all of the plants, potted up a couple with good prospects and brought them into the kitchen. They’re both now producing fruit. Last year our luck with the chilli plant outside was just that, luck. Chilli plants need warmth and sun light, and after this summer I doubt I’ll ever plant a chilli plant outside again unless it’s in a greenhouse. They do pretty well in a medium sized pot indoors. At present we have 2 pots infront of the patio doors which get the most sunlight, plus a couple in the kitchen. Hopefully we’ll maybe get about as many chillis as we got last year from just one plant!

So as you can see. This summer hasn’t been that good for gardening. Perhaps I’m trying to grow the wrong food now, plants that rely on warmth and sunlight. I don’t know where we’re moving to yet so I don’t know how the new garden will be, whether we could fit a proper greenhouse in it or whether I’ll just have to rely on what I already have. But if nothing else, I’ll still continue to grow what I can in pots and trays, and stick with the plants that are surefire winners

I hope your gardening has gone a little better than mine this year!

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