As we enter autumn I thought that it would be good to have a quick write up about my garden. For me gardening involves hacking away at Comfrey that has overgrown and taken over the garden. This year the Comfrey has had competition from Raspberries and Mint. Initially mint had only conquered the pond side of the garden, but now it has infiltrated the Comfrey side via the what was once a pretty Herb Spiral. The Herbs have outgrown the spiral so it no longer looks pretty, but the bees don’t care. The bees and lots of insects have been happily enjoying the nature friendly space that is my back garden. It is satisfying looking out into the garden to see nature buzzing about in it. A significant amount of time and effort has gone into creating the nature friendly space in the past five years. My garden is designed on Permaculture principles. One problem that my garden does have is that the pond has stagnated. The oxygenated pond weed lost the battle a long time ago. I will have to visit an aquatics centre to buy some plants that can help fight the stagnation.
Grown Food
In terms of food that I’ve grown I’ve had the usual suspects. The Strawberries and Potatoes reliably arrived. The never ending fight against the Slugs continued with the Strawberries, some were lost and some were saved. The potatoes did ok. The potatoes pictured were probably in the ground for a bit too long but they were still just about edible, as I’ve eaten them.
This year the Raspberries Plant had produced Raspberries for the first time. After a couple of years of inaction, the Raspberry displayed signs of life last year and have produced many Raspberries this year. There has also been Gooseberries that have developed. Last year and the year before they were green, but this year they ripened and turned red. Still have a strong sour taste.
New food
Every year I consult with Gardener Lisa about additional plants for my garden. I have old tyres that I got given to grow things in. One year I grew Marigolds in them. The Marigolds were very pretty and they delighted the Bees, but they required too much attention for my liking so I’ve not grown them since. This year Gardener Lisa gave me Tomato Plants and Courgettes. I gave a couple of Tomato Plants to Co-op Man, and planted the remainder in my old Tyres along with a Courgette Plant. As of today I’ve had plenty of Green Tomatoes that are yet to ripen red. I’ve only had a few Tomatoes ripen to red. The Courgette Plants have produced a couple so far. One one was eaten by myself, the other will soon be eaten.
Now that we are entering Autumn the gardening activity will taper off. I may try and fit in a trip to an Aquatic Centre to try and find a solution to the stagnant pond problem.
If you’ve been busy gardening this year then please feel free to let me know about what you’ve been up to in the comments.
3 Responses
Hey Shaz, great to see this! I too have lots of green tomatoes, they should all turn red in September I hope – so far only three have turned. Ate all courgettes (some had turned massive) and also got a decent crop of cucumbers being ready now. The strawberries finished around 1-2 months ago. All my plums ripened at the same time and we ate them three weeks ago. Also all the berries finished around a month ago. The apples are just about ready. I had a huge slug problem as well, they killed all the plants that were not in troughs and ate half my strawberries. Is there an organic defence?
Stale beer is often used in the war against slugs. If you pour a bit of stale beer into a jar lid. They may attract the slugs away from your delicious strawberries.
What kind of apple tree do you have? I have failed with apple trees several times. After five years the soil may be clay free enough for an apple tree to survive. I’ll try again this year.
I have a Braeburn tree from Aldi, 1 1/2 years old. We dug it a huge hole within the lawn. I had another one that died after a few months. But the healthy one has around 20 apples ? My other fruit trees are from Aldi as well and they are good. I think they come up around February in Aldi, worth keeping an eye on.