Autumn arrives early

We had our first autumnal mist this morning with the arrival of rain last night and more on its way. The last of the sweetcorn was collected in last week . There are still french beans and pumpkins growing on this plot. The butternut squash has flowered and started to form some small fruits – I hope they’re not too late as it took a while to get them going.

There is another sewing of borlotto beans which have come up as good strong plants and our purple sprouting broccoli have put on masses of growth. I’ve also planted a bed of romensco caulis and some conventional cauliflowers for the first time – the later of which has a reputation for being difficult to grow from seed – so we will see just how successful they are.

Spent a lot of time dealing with gluts of tomatoes, courgettes, raspberries, lettuce leaves of various descriptions and french beans. We picked the first of our lovely aubergines – about three kilos worth with more to come. The peppers on our two surviving plants have started to form up so we may get a small crop. The chard plants which I put in a few weeks ago are producing loads but the spinach which was sown from seed is still too small to start picking – perhaps the rain will change that!

Well I’m off to pick the last of our little pea crop which now on its last legs. I might even be able to pick a melon which have been another slow crop for us this year. My neighbour has been eating their melons all August and are coming to the end of theirs – I hope with a little help from some later cover as the temperatures drop we’ll still be able to ripen ours off. Still I haven’t had to put up with the plaintive cry of “not more melon, mom” this year – now cucumbers, that’s another matter.