Bringing home the squash, harvesting and clearing away for winter, the last apples

It was time to pick all the squashes at the allotment:  13 in total, though possibly I missed one or two;  I picked two from the chicken yard which in addition to the squash vines, is overflowing with nettles so I didn't investigate very closely.  That big green one is certainly a monster!  The yellowy/creamy one is the next biggest in size, but doesn't feel as heavy as the third biggest one (orange).  I offered to lend my biggest one to my coworker for her Guess the Weight contest but she was already given one by someone else.  My largest is larger than that one! but smaller than The Big One in my estimation.

Too much to carry!  The son wheeled this very heavy burden home (four blocks away), September 2026

It's a little earlier than I usually pick squashes, but the leaves had mostly died back and I was worried they'd go moldy on the vines if I left them.  It's happened to me before.  They easily snapped off the vines without cutting, so I know they were ripe enough.  There are still two self-sown squashes growing in the kitchen garden with green leaves and vines--I'll pick them later on.  In the meantime, the allotment ones are on a mat in my living room to cure;  they'll either remain there for winter storage, or possibly move to the windowsill for display purposes.  I expect to eat them over the next six months.

After pulling the squash vines, I then cleared away almost all the zucs aka courgettes and have been forking over that large bed for grass and bindweed roots.  It was newly sheet mulched in the spring and I plan on getting some new garlic into half of it and remulching the whole thing with more wood chips.  After I've at least done one full pass with the garden fork for unwanted roots, that is--it's pretty grassy.  Can you see my compost heap at the middle right of the photo below?  It's in front of that gray shed and behind a white box (it looks like a big pile of vines);  I should try turning it to get it to break down quicker.

Cleared away the courgettes and squash;  still working on the grass, September 2026

Still so many cucumbers!  I've missed a couple too, now going orange;  these will be saved for seed.  Actually this variety, Marketmore, is still good when a little overripe, though it needs peeling and deseeding by that point.  I'm still picking a few at home (the earlier sown vines), and a few pickling cucumbers too.

The last of the apples came off my two trees at home:  Laxton Fortune and Sparta.  Only a few Sparta apples this year, and unfortunately quite a lot of fruit dropped off both trees.  Still, we got several large baskets worth and what is left will keep for a few weeks more.  I've made a couple of apple crumbles, the son made himself a jug of juice, and we've all been trying to eat our apple a day. 

Duck discord, and Perennials renovation

The son has been practicing his photography, April 2026

Our three new Snowflake ducks have been free ranging with Girl Duck and Boy Duck;  they are still very nervous and Boy Duck has been terrorizing them regularly.  Drakes are real jerks!  The Snowflakes haven't gone around the garden much as Boy Duck keeps chasing them into a corner and not letting them out (while eating their food and splashing their water).  The daughter keeps asking if she can whack him (the duck whacking stick is a light, whippy bamboo cane--it gets his attention but doesn't really hurt him) but I've told her no:  they have to sort it out themselves.  Hopefully it doesn't last for much longer, though I'm thinking of locking Boy and Girl in their yard for a few days again, to let the Snowflakes have a break (although Girl Duck hasn't been aggressive to them, it would be unfair to separate them as they are a bonded pair).

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In other garden news, the son and I have been gradually reducing our bamboo stand out in the back corner of the Perennials section.  We're using a shovel, a hand saw and a lot of brute force.  It's a clumping bamboo but has outgrown its space;  I'm actually going to get the whole plant out, discard most of it, and replant one piece into a large plastic planter.  This can be sunk back into the ground where we dug it up, and hopefully will keep it contained;  the plant has been there maybe 15 years, and I don't think I'll be able do this job again in another 15 years.

For several years the Perennials section was also the large duck yard, and as such it has been a bit neglected.  I've just cut down a large feral rose back there, right on the fence line.  The growth was spectacular;  it was at least 3 m tall, maybe more.  Normally I keep all my green waste on site for composting, or for kindling/firewood, but these trimmings are outrageously thorny:  dangerously so!  Instead I'm putting them in the garden waste bin to be collected next week (the bamboo roots will go in too).  

I have a vision for that back corner of the Perennials section.  I imagine it a little hideaway:  shady, screened in on all sides by greenery, with a little patio just big enough for one or two chairs.  A secret place, good for kids and grown ups too.  The greenery is there--it just needs a little taming.  

A few jobs, nothing too strenuous

To my surprise, there was a dry sunny-ish day at the weekend;  all week I've been getting rained on whenever I left the house.  Not only did I finally put my laundry out (it mostly dried), I did a couple small jobs in the garden.  

First off, the daughter helped me roll my small potted peach tree into the garage--it's on a little plant "skateboard."  I grew this peach (or possibly nectarine) from the seed of a supermarket fruit many years ago.  Unfortunately it gets bad leaf curl every year, first dying back and then putting out spindly new growth;  in fact I thought it had completely died two years ago.  But it held on, just.  Last winter I put it under cover and for the first time it didn't get leaf curl;  the idea is that if the tree stays dry as the leaves emerge, the fungus can't attack it.  Maybe it can grow and actually fruit this year.  Maybe.

While we were in the garage we did a little tidying (the garage is more like a big shed) and crushed our winter's collection of eggshells, in preparation for scattering around transplants later on in spring.  We save all our eggshells and let them dry on trays in the garage.  I also give some back to the chickens for extra calcium.  When he was small, the son used to enjoy crunching them up, and now at age five the daughter likes it too.

Then I got out my hand secateurs and nipped off the new water shoots growing straight up from the Sparta apple tree.  I prune this tree once a year to keep it within my reach, no taller than the 2 m fence it grows next to.  I also cut out any shoots growing perpendicular to the fence, to keep it somewhat espalier.  The Laxton Fortune tree needs less pruning as it doesn't seem to be such a vigorous grower, but it has a couple to be taken off the top too.

Lastly, and before the daughter started crying of cold hands (she started making mud pies while I was pruning), I split some little green logs using our small hatchet (I use it as a wedge and whack it with a mallet).  We'd coppiced a smallish ornamental pear tree for firewood during the Christmas break, with the husband using the reciprocal saw while the son and I wielded loppers.  The sticks and twigs were collected in one pile and the short trunk pieces stacked in another;  I worked a bit on this second pile, keeping myself warm with the exercise and enjoying the sunshine.

Failure and success, May 2024

So it's still not all planted.  Yet.  I've got a lot of trays on my patio in various stages of emergence, though I think I'm going to have to give up on the last 35ish pots of peas, as they are dated from April and still haven't sprouted.  I've had this problem with everything so far this year:  seeds go into little pots and a large proportion of them just don't sprout.  This is for indoor sowing and outdoor sowing, so I'm really not sure what's going on.  I don't have a single butternut squash or romanesco zucchini (indoors), and I'm still waiting on my corn too (outdoors).  Maybe it's my potting compost.

In slightly better news, I do have about half a dozen self-sprouted squash seeds growing in the chicken yard at the allotment--we moved the chickens back home earlier this month.  I generally give my chickens most of my kitchen scraps, which obviously included some squash seed (we still have two left on the living room windowsill, looking good!--and just finished the third to last one).  Hopefully they grow well, as my tray-sown seeds are also very patchy:  only about six I think, from around 24.  These are the big round Kuri squashes from last year:  tasty and good keepers.

Also at the allotment, I've got in the first small leeks, sown back in March.  I have a second sowing just coming up now.  I also got in the next batch of beets, and resowed the tray after I'd emptied it.  The first beets I planted out have really grown, but the peas look kind of puny and sad still.  I wonder if the soil is too rich for them--it's mainly well-composted horse manure that all the other plants seem to like.  My tomatoes look really sturdy, and the broad beans--though a bit short--are covered in flowers.

The husband spent about an hour at this weekend and the previous one making us a new little tool shed at the allotment, using a large wooden shipping container given to us by a fellow allotmenter.  The son and I wrestled it into position onto some old sleepers first (and I dropped one on my foot in the process--limped around for two weeks).  The next weekend the husband bought some wood preservative and painted it inside and out;  and this weekend he fashioned a door for it using a panel (from a deconstructed shed) we'd scavenged from an abandoned allotment a while ago.  It's not quite as tall as me, but is a good size for our shovel and fork, and holds the watering can and still has quite a lot of room.  However it's not quite tall enough/wide enough for our rusty old wheelbarrow.  But that's ok, I can't imagine anyone wanting to steal it--or our tools either:  they're all a bit rubbish.

Trimming and planting trees

The whole family worked to trim back the very overgrown hawthorn hedge last weekend, collecting a very big pile of sticks and branches for next year's wood pile.  We treat this hedge more as a coppice, and it's on a 5-7 year cutting rotation.  We cut a few last winter too and this winter took down the rest.  South facing, it has let in a lot of light!  But I liked tall green wall it gave us as well, so I don't mind the overgrowth either.  I expect a lot of new growth this spring.

The husband was in charge of the electric saw, I commandeered the loppers, and the son was on transport duty.  The daughter helped by digging holes quietly in the far part of the garden, away from all the sharp stuff.  

I mentioned to the husband that the laurels need it too, but not until later in the year;  they are part of the same hedge, both planted by a previous owner.  Although laurels can be cut back hard too--even to the ground--I don't coppice them in the same way as the hawthorns;  unlike the hawthorns, they grow in the shade of the mature horse chestnut tree and block out the view of at least three neighbors.  A welcome privacy feature, I treat them as an actual hedge and try to just trim them back every other year or two.

And on the subject of trees, the husband also planted out a pot grown quince that I started from seed several years ago;  our local greengrocer used to sell quinces, and over a few winters I scattered seeds in several planters on my patio, with fingers crossed.  Well, two are still alive:  one that was planted out last year (and we'd thought died in a hot/dry spell, but happily has new growth) and this one, a year younger.  The first is planted against the fence and the second is near the chicken yard, free standing.

A whole week of gardening

Wow, our family had a week off school and work and I spent almost every day gardening!  As luck would have it, it was dry and warm-ish:  good weather for being outside.  

I still have battle wounds from cutting down the brambles at the very back, despite the leather gloves;  as we have no loppers I used my hand sickle.  I bought the sickle from ebay, never having used one before;  after experimenting it seems to be a left-handed one.  It's still useable for this righty, after altering my technique.

The son and I managed most of the winter/spring pruning, both of edibles and ornamentals.  After cutting back the apples, I tied down a few branches to keep them 2-D against the fence--they aren't properly espaliered, but I don't let them grow out from or above the fence.  We saved all the long, straight trimmings for use as garden stakes.

The daughter helped me collect yet another basketful of almonds from around the tree.  I can't believe how many there were--about a hundred.  I hope they're still good from having spent the winter on the ground;  I'm keeping them in a separate tray from the main harvest, but they look fine.  We also tidied up the little patio under the almond tree and put a couple of chairs back out there;  it's a mostly private spot with a nice view of the Perennials section.

I got through all of the small trimmings for the woodpile;  the narrowest diameter (pencil thickness) I made into kindling bundles, tied with a yucca leaf (our large yucca constantly sheds leaves: fibrous and strong).  A bit time consuming to make, but hopefully worthwhile for next winter--they're a lot more convenient to use than a pile of twigs in a box (my usual kindling storage).  The husband also sawed the last large trunk pieces into stove lengths and the son and I split some of these.

The son and I also dragged out the chicken tractor and persuaded the chickens to start work.  Four went in willingly after corn was involved;  the fifth was conscripted forcefully.  But they all seem a lot happier to be on some fresh ground with greenery and maybe a few bugs, despite the smaller living quarters.  We have been moving them every day, starting with the empty veg beds.  

What a busy week--and that's only a sampling!  I sowed a few more seed trays, worked at the allotment, started some new duck yard fencing, and more.

So big!

I've been harvesting the largest kohl rabi and gradually clearing out that bed;  in their place I may put down some of the Brussels sprouts which have been growing on in a small holding bed, a la John Seymour.  I was going to plant them at the allotment, but have decided against it.  The purple sprouting broccoli may still go up there (also growing on), but I've yet to decide. 

Maybe I planted a little too close? Aug 2022

Despite having a little more room amongst the kohl rabi (not pictured), the cabbages (above) seem to be way too crowded.  I knew they were supposed to be big, but I didn't realize they'd be that big!  Some look like they are trying to form heads though I think they're several weeks away from harvest still.

The tallest corn is as tall as me (I'm 165cm) and the toms are not far off, Aug 2022

The photo above was taken at the first of this month (August).  Compare with the photo taken at the first of July.  I can hardly believe they could grow so much!  I pinched out the growing tips of the tomatoes last month when they reached the tops of their supports but the corn is still going upwards.  Neither the corn or tomatoes are ready for harvest but this bed has produced a lot of lettuce and some fresh cilantro and dill.  The (few) swedes are also beginning to bulb up.

Why so big?   I attriubute it to soil building, mainly.  Chickens and ducks have been a big help in that, and I also think being no-dig is a factor, as clearly the soil life is happy underneath.  The weather has been favorable too with a good proportion of sun and rain;  I think it's just all come together this year for a Big party.

Gardening on the cheap: reusing waste materials

 

Eggshells, general compost, soaking vegetables, May 2022

I like to reuse materials I have or can get for free if I can, particularly in the garden and allotment.  Now we've paid our mortgage and have a bigger stash of disposible income, I'm willing to pay for one or two things we've held off on (like allotment fencing) but in the most part if I can get it for free, I will.

Black and blue trays from my old workplace, originally holding mushrooms, May 2022

I have various trays and tubs from my work (I work in catering) which I use for different purposes, including starting seeds, collecting compost, washing vegetables and more.  I also collect free boxes for my continuous sheet mulching at the allotment:  start at the top and work my way down--by the time I get to the bottom it's time to do the top again...

At the allotment I have a stack of pallets in various states of repair , intended for making a structure--probably a large compost bin to replace the smaller black plastic ones (also free).  Some of them already contributed to our little tool shed and chicken coop there.  And the chicken tractor (not currently in use).  Pretty much everything we have at the allotment I got for free--not completely but almost.

Actually I'm trying to think of garden materials I own that I did actually buy.  Some of the tools I guess, and some chicken wire.  I'm not above taking things people leave on the street, including large boxes left out on recycling day.  Like I said, if I can get it for free I will!

Splitting wood

From here, Apr 2019

It's been 15 months since we had our mature sycamore tree cut down.  The arborists cut it into manageable sized pieces--even the branches, sticks and twigs.  All of these have been stacked in piles since, drying out.  Over the winter, we burned most of the twigs and smallest sticks as kindling but left the rest;  even the small-medium sticks were too green to burn still.  The largest sticks, branches and logs have been stacked together on the driveway next to the garage wall the whole time, until this week when the husband and I began splitting and restacking them inside the garage.

We don't have an axe or hatchet;  we're splitting with a mallet and improvised wedge--and we're going slow!  I admit, the husband has done most of it;  the mallet is too heavy for my wrist, so I can't really do much at once (I tried a hammer, but it's even less efficient).  We have a bit more than a full cord of wood to get through, but luckily it's only April.

We still have a pile of sticks and twigs (the last of the sycamore plus some new additions from other garden prunings this spring).  The medium sized sticks which are too small to split easily will go in that pile;  they should be dry enough to burn by winter.  I hope the split wood will also be dry enough to burn then too.

To here (I made the kindling basket), Apr 2019

A quick repair

Fixed it, Apr 2019

My old plastic watering can has been leaking for a while.  It's had a few small cracks;  the largest of which was letting out a small steady drip.  I managed to mend it using a candle:  actually, I first attempted to melt it back together, but the flame only burned the hole a little bigger...but I gently smoothed on some melted candle wax over the hole, and it now holds water again. 

It's not exactly a permanent fix, however.  The husband and son have been warned to handle with care, as the wax can just be scraped off--or even just knocked off.  Still, I'm happy with it, and glad I don't need to buy a new one just yet.