October

October has been much slower paced when it comes to the garden and the plot. Theres lots of tidying to do, the garden needs things cutting back and the plot needs lots of beds clearing but I’m in no rush. I’ve got till spring to deal with all that and actually leaving plants over winter, as long as they’re not diseased, is great for insects such as ladybirds to hide in and most plants will break down over the winter returning goodness to the soil, feeding those beneficial micro organisms.

I’m harvesting tomatoes, beetroot, courgettes, cabbage, carrots and my lovely pears. Very small this year and not many of them but each one is utterly delicious!
I’ve still got parsnips, beetroot, brassicas and more carrots in the ground yet to lift. I’m going to pick my beetroot at the end of the month and store them in damp compost. If you leave them in the ground you do run the risk of hungry rodents nibbling as the weather turns cold.

I also harvested my first ever sweet potatoes! Or sweet potato fries should I say as they are super skinny buy considering the cold wet summer we have had I’m actually amazed anything has grown!

Garlic was planted towards the end of the month. I’ve got quite a few varieties this year.

• Rhapsody
• Carcassonne Wight
• Picardy
• Solent
• Caulk Wight
• Sprint
• Rose de Lautrec

I’ve planted them 6inches apart and approx 1ft between rows which means we have space to plant salads in between next spring. Garlic is great at keeping slugs off your salad leaves.

I planted my biggest cloves in the best spot keeping my smallest cloves to one side. Big cloves give big bulbs. The smaller cloves are planted in rows in my carrot bed, much closer together, which will hopefully help protect my carrots against carrot root fly next year.

Pumpkins turned out much better than I expected although still not as many as I’d hoped for but it seems most people have been the same this year. I’ve brought all my pumpkins indoors and they’re on a sunny window sill upstairs. I’ll move them into the office soon where they will stay until needed.

My tomatoes have been surprisingly good this year! Let’s face it we had a super tricky start with the cold dull spring, they really struggled to get going. Junes heatwave was too extreme and then it’s rained almost every day from July onwards! But the tomatoes have pulled through and I’ve had some amazing harvests!

This month has also been super exciting as Dean finally came home from his deployment in Cyprus. It’s been a long 16 weeks but it’s great having him home. We went a lovely wee trip to the Isle of Harris which was simply stunning! If you ever get the opportunity to visit the Scottish Outer Hebrides then you really must!

Dean has taken up photography as a hobby which means we’ve been getting out loads of walks and discovering so many new and beautiful places.
Let the adventures continue! Hope you are all getting ready for the colder months. Remember to enjoy the slower paced months as it won’t be long till we’re starting sowing again!