October - a heat wave, an Indian Summer. It is warm and the dawns have been spectacular with eerie mists hanging in the valley like cobwebs as the sun rises. I can't resist being out in the Patch watching it all come to life and feasting my eyes on the abundance of it all. My camera at the ready!
My new greenhouse! We were given this and brought it home from a bungalow where we had to lift it clear over a garage to get it onto the trailer. Every pane of glass was removed, washed and left to dry against the fence. It took me nearly a week to fit it all together having built a sturdy base with railway sleepers and cement. New panes replaced broken ones and eventually it was ready. Now I can grow so many more varieties....can't wait for the aubergines, peppers and sweeter tomatoes.
Everything is still growing like crazy..we can hardly keep up. I have planted sets of the overwintering onions Radar, the shallot Jermor and Cristo garlic for the spring and White Lisbon salad onion. All of these are happy to go through the winter and will give us an early crop of onions and garlic next year.
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Look at the mangetout! We managed to foil the mice and had hundreds of these crunchy green pods - I sowed them in July and was so pleased to have them in October when the beans and peas were over. We ate them for at least three weeks.
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| How beautiful is this Red Bor Kale? With the autumn early morning sun shining through its leaves it is a work of art. Not only does it look wonderful but it tastes delicious. I grew three types of Kale - Red Russian, Red Bor and Cavallo Nero, sewing them in late August and they have been standing and resprouting all winter. I pick the leaves from the outside and tear off the flesh from the thick spines. Sweated in garlic and sometimes in chilli and ginger they are an interesting winter brassica with a superb irony flavour. Well worth growing and so easy! |
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Dew in the early morning on the leaf of the statuesque Cavallo Nero. Below you can see the three types of kale - three plants of each has given us a wonderful harvest. |
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One October morning harvest - kale, mangetout, courgettes, small cabbage hearts, leek and french beans.....ummmm....a stir fry I think! |
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Add noodles, ginger, chillie and soy and some fresh coriander from the greenhouse..and then a dollop of sweet chilli sauce.
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| Oh and I popped in a baby head of pak choi as well! |
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In the greenhouse preparations for spring are underway. Sweet peas are sown in terracotta pots to be potted on into their own pots and kept under glass until March when they will cover the portakabin from large urns on the deck. I saved last years seed and added Old Spice and Singing the Blues.
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| I put these photos in just to share with you the atmosphere of morning sun streaming into the Patch, filtering through leaves that I have grown from seed. I want to eat this fabulous salad! Crouching down with my camera I was able to get wonderful perspectives of red leaves through green, purpling brussels swelling on their stems, a heart of Cavallo Nero and the blueberry bush still red and glowing in the sun. I hope you enjoy them. I have loved October in the Patch, pulling in the harvest with one hand and sowing for the next one with the other. |
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| Next year's perpetual spinach, sown in July and ready to stand through winter to be picked in the spring. |
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| Beetroot Leaves under the Summer Purple sprouting broccoli |
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| The wondrously beautiful Cavallo Nero |
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| The Blueberry Bush still in flower in October |
October - a heat wave, an Indian Summer. It is warm and the dawns have been spectacular with eerie mists hanging in the valley like cobwebs as the sun rises. I can't resist being out in the Patch watching it all come to life and feasting my eyes on the abundance of it all. My camera at the ready!
