Jottings on a windy day

The weather here has changed markedly since the end of last month and we are very rapidly descending into autumn, to be followed by the long winter months.

There's a bit of a breeze in the air today and I've taken the opportunity to hang out the washing and do some gardening. A good day for both. I wonder how many more there will be like it this year?

The crops are nearing their end, but I scarcely think that the produce I've gathered today counts as a good harvest. In short, a few beans, a courgette that just about does, a kohlrabi and some dwarf beetroot (they weren't meant to be small, but that's how they have turned out).

My two remaining courgette plants have come to the end of their life, I decided, so out they came. I shall definitely plant more next year.

The scene is set for winter and I have planted out some onion sets given to me by Kate and four spinach beet plants I have been growing in the conservatory. They join another six already in the ground, sharing the same part of the garden as the onion sets.

We had one of the kohlrabi the other day in a stew, a first for us, and thought it neither good nor bad - not having much of a taste at all. The one I dug up today is in the fridge now and I must look up some recipes. Another four plants remain in the garden, but seem very slow at coming to anything. Likewise with the broccoli, which I have left in the hope they will sprout.

Fewer and fewer beans have been available to pick over the last few days and I guess the two wigwams will be dismantled very soon. The runner beans have been very successful, the french beans less so. They climbed up the poles very well, but haven't really produced that much for eating.

My thoughts are turning to green manure. Must get some.

Taking stock after a week's absence

Our daughter did well in looking after the vegetables while we were on holiday, even to the extent of tying up one of the courgettes when it started leaning dangerously in its pot on the doorstep.

A few more tomatoes have appeared on the plants in the conservatory, but they are still some way off ripening. I wonder if they will.

Jobs done this morning before the rain came on were to dig up lettuce which had bolted and lift a few dodgy looking potato plants. This is the first time I have tried Desiree spuds and I was upset to see some of the plants seeming to be ailing, with leaves going very yellow and spottled.

Three of the plants seemed to be in such a bad way that I had to dig them up to see what was happening. I was very surprised to get a healthy haul of this red-skinned maincrop potato, having thought that it would not be ready for harvesting until September/October. Scouting around to see other people's experiences with this variety, I was reassured to read this comment posted by one satisfied customer on the website for Marshalls seeds:

Very good cropper even in dry conditions, with no need for extra watering. Suffers some scab, slug damage and also the dreaded blight, but well worth growing for delicious, heavy mash. Desirees are often ready for harvest by the end of July in my garden and they store very well right through winter.

Hurrah for that.

And also hurrah for the beans, which have come on during my absence and which I began picking today. A bit of a tangle in the wigwam, but I believe I got all those which were lurking in there.

Thank you for small mercies

Dashed out just now to retrieve the washing from the line before it rained. Had a quick inspection of my Cherokee Trail of Tears beans and was absolutely delighted to see some are finally appearing - probably about a fortnight later than last year.

It's good news. But I'm not going back out to take a photo - it's now chucking it down with rain and rumbling with thunder.

The time has come

The special Festival of Britain issue of the Illustrated London News for February 11, 1951 has come into our house and the above advertisement naturally caught my eye because the gloves are named after me (prefer not to think I am named after gloves). I fail to grasp the reference to gloves and baldness, however, but it is probable that I was very bald at the time the magazine was published, having been born just over a week previously. Indeed, the publication has a picture of the King opening the festival at noon on Thursday, May 3, 1951, when little Andrew Baldwin would have been just one hour old. Ah!

The lack of blogging for the past month reflects my lack of activity in the garden. The time has come to put a bit of effort in and over the next few days I shall buy potatoes to chit and persuade Susan to drive somewhere where I can get two or three bags of stuff to dig in to the soil.

I have roughly mapped in my mind what's going where, although the back patch where I had the potatoes last year remains a problem. The soil is poor, very stony and the sun doesn't get there much. My mate Steve suggests beans. Runner, broad or French: or all three. They're tough, and their nitrogen-fixing root nodules will help to enrich the soil, he says. That'll do me.

Now then, do they still make Andy gloves? The hunt is on.