Big Greenhouse de-glazed

Today we had a work party to dismantle the glass from the Big Greenhouse. This has been on the to-do list for over 6 months and we wanted to do it before the winter winds make it impossible. About a dozen people offered to help and I prayed that the weather would calm down, but things were not looking good. Then, luckily, a break in the southward-advancing cold winds gave us a perfect day with only 6pmh winds and a few gusts.
11 of us showed up and we stripped all the remaining glass in less than 4 hours!
So, many thanks to Becky, Helen, Nick, Ruth, Jono, Richard, Will, Ann and Peter. And many thanks to Lynne for a wonderful lunch and copious coffee!
Job Done!!!

Glasshouse tryptych

I worked with Joel's dad Alan fixing up the lower greenhouse glass. Kinda went ok.

Altoculumus Lenticularis

Here is Sunday night's sunset after a beautiful weekend of blue sky, sun and clouds shaped like UFOs.

Last tomato crop

Today I did the last major tomato crop, almost 7 kilos. There are a few healthy ones hanging in there but most are now withering and going funky.
I will be making a special green chutney with the unripe ones, together with green sweet peppers and green chilli - Green Chilli Chutney!
Sungold seem to be the most resilient of the eight varieties that we have, although Moneymaker have done very well too.
I don't think it's blight affecting the Purple Beefsteak - it's simply age. They are definitely more susceptible to adverse conditions but they've also produced very well.
All of the inside tomatoes have done particularly well for us this year. I don't have an exact account of the total weight produced. We've sold about 25 kilos; I've made 6 batches of sauce & chutney with at least 3 kilos in each, so another 20 kilos; given away about 10 kilos and eaten about the same; then the 7 kgs here and another 3 or so left on the vines. So in all somewhere around about 70 kilos have come out of the marquee this year. Bonanza!

I still have a few left for seed-saving this week.

Here are the funky ones:

All steamed up

I gave everything in the marquee a big old soaking last night and this is the result! With the outside temperature in the early teens and the sun pushing the inside temp toward 30, my camera's plastic lens doesn't stand a chance...

It's a cover-up

A visitor

Go! Catch rats!!

A week goes by...

I've been meaning to take photos of our gradually thinning crops and then realising that it doesn't look particularly interesting! The indoor tomatoes are looking very skinny with their single stems and a few fruit hanging on.
I began taking out the withered remains of the outside crops - the tomatoes were all blighted, the sweetcorn dried up and wind-blown, the karashina forlorn without bees and the salad looking sad in the autumn light.
It's now very cold and even the toughest plants are going to sleep.

Indoors today reached 20 degs, so still some summer feeling, but night time is getting cold and new leaves are becoming more rare.

Tomorrow I will be doing a major clearout, which I'm kindof looking forward to. I haven't decided what to plant indoors after the tomatoes. I will heap the beds up and pull out the bottom half of the compost heaps and mulch the marquee, add stinky and then keep hoeing down for a week or two until it settles. By then I'll have decided which winter crops to put in.

Final salad crop

Today I did a 30 bag crop for Liz & Joel's box scheme. There has been a lot of wind damage on the outside salad, and it's all getting very old anyway. So i cropped very harshly. It was difficult to find enough leaves to make up the amount and some of the leaves were of a condition that I wouldn't normally allow into the bags, but still good enough for me to eat.
I spent over 6 hours doing this crop (with a nasty hangover!) and then took them over to Joel's for delivery.
We have now run out of bags - the last 26 bags out of the 1000 bag batch, which means that we've made and delivered 1000 salad bags since February when we began selling!
I made a final new label 'Rocket Rainbow'.

In many ways I am quite relieved that I've finished doing salad bags because they really are a chore, especially when the weather is bad and when the slugs have been busy.
Now I must concentrate on clearing beds and wrapping everything up for winter.

We owe Joel some money for salad that we've used from his beds, which when including what we owe for water and then converted to time means that I will work 10 hours for Joel mending the windows in the Bothy greenhouse and doing some planting.
The economics of all this doesn't really work out very favorable for me - I've been working for almost nothing in the end. I'll just have to put it down to experience. Which is fine, but it's another reason why I'll be glad when I'm free from having to bust my butt in the wind and rain for a few quid.

Again, it feels very sad to be coming to the end of this experience. Being on my own at the gardens without Junka is hard work. There is still so much to do and it's not so much fun without Junka. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount that needs doing.

But hey! Chin up! A few more days of hard work and things will get much easier and I'll be able to see and think more clearly about what to do in the last remaining months.

Goodbyeee Tomatoes

Today I continued stripping out the finished tomatoes in the marquee. It's beginning to look more empty now. It feels really sad!
I was very methodical, moving through the beds taking out the bare plants and stripping off all but the remaining tomatoes on healthy plants. There is still some more of this to do but I'm pleased with my progress so far.

Autumn take down

Today I began stripping out tomatoes from the marquee. I picked 7 kilos and took out several bare plants. The Courgettes at the front of the marquee are still doing their best to produce, so I cleaned them up, re-trained them and cleared the invading Nasturtium.
I need to get on with collecting tomato seeds!
The outside tomatoes are now finished. I will begin clearing outside beds soon. Today and tomorrow I will will cropping the last of the outside salad for Joel & Liz's box scheme. The bolted Karasina will be coming out as the bees are now disappearing and no longer frequent the flowers. I want to get the outside covered by plastic so that I can concentrate my efforts on the marquee without worrying about the outside becoming weed-infested.
It's always a little sad to see crops go, but I'm trying to reduce the amount of time I spend at the gardens so that I can concentrate on other work.
I will be planting some winter crops and maybe supply some new salad bags over winter.

I'm looking forward to clearing everything up and making it all more easily managable as it's a lot to deal with on my own.

Peas on 2nd season

A month or more ago I rescued some pea sprouts that self-set from our summer pea crop, and today I ate the first of this second generation crop. Very sweet and juicy.
The indoor pumpkins have also have a second summer with three new babies on the way.
On Monday we had a celebration for Lynne's birthday and for the soup starters we supplied the pumpkins from this patch. I gave Derek all but one of our crop this year (besides a few we've eaten) which weighed over 10kg. The idea was that he choose which ones he wants and let me have the rest back. He used them all.
Mind you, the 3 biggy cinderellas outside are growing proper huge!

Today was another beautiful clear day. I went to the gardens to check on our plants and to clean and polish our VW. I've been meaning to do it for ages. Don't like polishing cars, but it has to be done because Gerty is a rusty old gal and with the salty Borth wind she needs all the protection she can get. And since she's our salad delivery van, it's only fair to include her here!
Anyways, she's happy and shiny and waterproof now.

Aubergine update

Beautiful Day

Today was the clearest day I've seen in a long time - totally clear sky, deep dark winter blue and sparkling sun.

I cleared up the front of the marquee; cut out all the dead tomato from outside; took out all edges of karashina and shungiko; stinkied the peppers; tidied up and tied down all outside groundsheet

In the evening I made ketchup with St.Pierre & Sungold.

October 5th .... Courgettes still goin strong

Uber Auber

Aubergine 1 is GO!
Aubergine 2 is GO!
Peppers are lookin good.

Goodbye Gardens

Today I handed in our notice at Ynyslas Gardens. It was hard to do and made us sad. Decisions.. We've put so much work into it, seems a shame to let it go.
We are planning to be involved in Borth Community Gardens, or what it be named.

And so here is the marquee with its late summer crops.

I wish Junka were here.

Autumn closing in

The autumn chills are setting in. Summer plants are beginning to go to sleep. Mad rush to get the rest of the ripe tomatoes picked and given away or made into sauce for storage. Ketchup is my latest favourite to make.

Some tomato plants are now finishing. I need to start more Kabu, Japanese leaf and winter garlic using some cloves from last winter's crop.

Much to do and finding hard on my own...