Post by anglais on Oct 8, 2023 7:28:46 GMT
Its been a very mixed year. The main problem has been the heat and we have watched plants wither in front of our eyes.
I always plant 6 rows of garlic in October. Last year they came through a treat and it was great to see the shoots poking through the snow last winter. But when we harvested them in June the result was very poor but we should have enough to see us through to around Christmas
Pete coming over set us right back and I never got round to putting in potato's or onions, and we eat a lot of onions. As a result only half of the garden got cultivated. I have a rotary cultivator but we are not up to getting it from the garage up to the back garden anymore. So it was hand dug.
I put a number of Aubergine plants in but for the first time ever have had very little fruit off them. Last year I put 2 Squash plants in and had 14 fruits off them. This year I put in 4 plants and have had only 1 fruit. Loads of male flowers but few female which I gather is down to heat stress.
Beetroot is always reliable but we have had 4 beets only from a double row.
The lettuces did well but bolted very early. The cabbages just shrivelled up and died.
But we have had some successes. Carrots have been a huge success which is unusual as we have very stony soil. We have had our best year ever for French Beans and Tomato's. We have been trying to give courgettes away. We are sick to death of them, but they are going into chutney. We have also had our best year ever for Rocket. Its still cropping and probably will for another month of so.
The Jerusalem artichokes are taking over the garden. But we love them and dig them up all winter as long as we can get a Threek in the ground.
The Threek was a Fork until I bent one of the prongs on a huge stone and it broke off when I tried to straighten it. Must buy a new one.
Chrissie forbade me to grow my Ghost Naga chillies this year. We have 3 drawers of them in the freezer. I missed growing them this year. and so will Jean-Patrick at the Boulangerie as I usually give him loads of them.
I put 6 Pepper plants in and 2 keeled over pretty quickly. The 4 remaining plants have yielded 3 or 4 peppers every week since June and we currently still have about 20 fruits on the plants.
Chrissie grows. herbs in pots on the terrace and they have really suffered in the heat despite shading and watering 3 or 4 times a day. She has managed to get some new Sage and Thyme plants to take but the Rosemary did nothing. But she still has several pots of everything to keep us going but they are getting a bit long in the tooth. She grew Horseradish for the first time and it seems to have taken well. It will need splitting and repotting in the spring.
We have all sorts of dubious stuff growing around the bird feeder.
Three years ago Chrissie bought a lemon tree. Each winter it comes indoors but it sheds all its leaves and we put it back outside as a bare twig in spring and somehow it recovers. We actually had 4 lemons off it last year. It has loved the heat this year and has shot up, but no flowers or fruit. Chrissie feeds it every week and sprays it Neem Oil so we hope it will get through the winter again.
Lastly our poor Box Trees. Everyone grows box tree hedges. Four years ago the whole of the south suffered a plague of caterpillars that killed just about every box tree down here, ours included. But I left them in and amazingly last year a few shoots started to appear so I have nurtured them, But alas the caterpillar has returned this year and decimated the Box again. I was at the dump yesterday and a chap there had dug all of his up and filled a huge trailer with them.
I know its been long and bored you all rigid. The next instalment will be about the plague of bed bugs we are having. I am itching to tell you about it.
I always plant 6 rows of garlic in October. Last year they came through a treat and it was great to see the shoots poking through the snow last winter. But when we harvested them in June the result was very poor but we should have enough to see us through to around Christmas
Pete coming over set us right back and I never got round to putting in potato's or onions, and we eat a lot of onions. As a result only half of the garden got cultivated. I have a rotary cultivator but we are not up to getting it from the garage up to the back garden anymore. So it was hand dug.
I put a number of Aubergine plants in but for the first time ever have had very little fruit off them. Last year I put 2 Squash plants in and had 14 fruits off them. This year I put in 4 plants and have had only 1 fruit. Loads of male flowers but few female which I gather is down to heat stress.
Beetroot is always reliable but we have had 4 beets only from a double row.
The lettuces did well but bolted very early. The cabbages just shrivelled up and died.
But we have had some successes. Carrots have been a huge success which is unusual as we have very stony soil. We have had our best year ever for French Beans and Tomato's. We have been trying to give courgettes away. We are sick to death of them, but they are going into chutney. We have also had our best year ever for Rocket. Its still cropping and probably will for another month of so.
The Jerusalem artichokes are taking over the garden. But we love them and dig them up all winter as long as we can get a Threek in the ground.
The Threek was a Fork until I bent one of the prongs on a huge stone and it broke off when I tried to straighten it. Must buy a new one.
Chrissie forbade me to grow my Ghost Naga chillies this year. We have 3 drawers of them in the freezer. I missed growing them this year. and so will Jean-Patrick at the Boulangerie as I usually give him loads of them.
I put 6 Pepper plants in and 2 keeled over pretty quickly. The 4 remaining plants have yielded 3 or 4 peppers every week since June and we currently still have about 20 fruits on the plants.
Chrissie grows. herbs in pots on the terrace and they have really suffered in the heat despite shading and watering 3 or 4 times a day. She has managed to get some new Sage and Thyme plants to take but the Rosemary did nothing. But she still has several pots of everything to keep us going but they are getting a bit long in the tooth. She grew Horseradish for the first time and it seems to have taken well. It will need splitting and repotting in the spring.
We have all sorts of dubious stuff growing around the bird feeder.
Three years ago Chrissie bought a lemon tree. Each winter it comes indoors but it sheds all its leaves and we put it back outside as a bare twig in spring and somehow it recovers. We actually had 4 lemons off it last year. It has loved the heat this year and has shot up, but no flowers or fruit. Chrissie feeds it every week and sprays it Neem Oil so we hope it will get through the winter again.
Lastly our poor Box Trees. Everyone grows box tree hedges. Four years ago the whole of the south suffered a plague of caterpillars that killed just about every box tree down here, ours included. But I left them in and amazingly last year a few shoots started to appear so I have nurtured them, But alas the caterpillar has returned this year and decimated the Box again. I was at the dump yesterday and a chap there had dug all of his up and filled a huge trailer with them.
I know its been long and bored you all rigid. The next instalment will be about the plague of bed bugs we are having. I am itching to tell you about it.
