The last bit of summer

We're still eating our apple a day here, with no signs of slowing just yet.  Actually it's the figs I'm trying to keep up with, as they really don't store at all:  almost all are going in the dehydrator.  I kept a bowlful overnight when the dehydrator was full of shredded zucchini, and there was a little cloud of fruit flies around it the next morning--I won't let that happen again.

I definitely feel a touch of autumn in the air;  cooler temps, getting darker earlier, even a few leaves on the ground--I think because it's been so dry some trees are dropping leaves early (all of my small trees have green leaves but my mature horse chestnut has gone a bit brown).  We had a little rain recently, but not enough to green up the grass just yet;  at least it perked up my new plantings at the allotment (fennel, kohlrabi, cauliflower) and the cooler temps have meant less watering needed.

My tomatoes and zucs have slowed down a bit, and I may have had all the pickling cucumbers though the salad cucumbers are still going.  I picked my five measly sweetcorn ears--not well pollinated, but that's only to be expected I guess;  we ate them fresh and uncooked, the best way in my opinion.  We're still eating a salad a day with lettuce, tomato and cucumber;  and I'm pulling an early leek every other day to use as an onion substitute (although buying onions is allowed per the Vegetable Challenge rules, I'm trying to avoid it if I can)--many are a fairly good size by now, and I want to carry on with my succession planting and follow them on with some winter/spring brassica transplants as soon as possible.

Although I've been mainly harvesting (and watering), I'm still not quite finished with the seed sowing, despite it being the end of August!  I've got some new trays of lettuce, pak choi, spring cabbage (I ordered some new seed for this) and spring onions.  I'll probably have time for maybe one more sowing of pak choi and spring onions if needed, but that will be it for the year--finally.  My patio table has been full of seed trays since spring;  as soon as I've emptied one, I've filled it again with something else.  

Cherry tomato summer

Many, many cherry tomatoes, August 2025

I've been growing and saving seed from this cherry tomato variety for many years now;  I think it's Garden Pearl.  In addition, I was given another few seedlings of some different cherry varieties though these were not as prolific as the Pearl above.  It's the kind that doesn't get the side shoots pinched out--I can't remember if that's determinate or indeterminate;  the gift plants are the other kind which I really should have staked and pinched--but didn't.  All cherry tomatoes are in planters at my allotment

I'm also growing a plum tomato variety, name unknown;  it's like a beefsteak tomato which is hard to ripen outdoors in this climate, so I'm pretty happy with it, despite it not being as wildly productive as my cherry tomatoes.  I've only been saving seed from it for a few years now, replacing my old salad variety which I grew for many years outdoors.  Half of my plum tomatoes are in the ground at the allotment;  the rest are in containers both there and on my patio at home.  It's also the kind that doesn't get its side shoots pinched out, though I did try to stake it, not very successfully.

I actually have a really tasty green tomato salsa recipe and I am always disappointed if I don't get to make it:  this looks to be one of those years.  Tomatoes are coming in thick and fast though I said to the son on Sunday (as we picked 5# between us, following on from 4# the previous day) I think we have reached peak tomato.  Finally.  I have bags and bags in the freezer, I'm putting them in the dehydrator (though they take more than a day and it's a small one), and we're eating fresh tomatoes in sauce/salads/salsa/etc every day.

The fact is, most of these tomatoes are cherry tomatoes;  and thankfully they are slightly raised up off the ground in their containers, because they are tedious enough to pick as it is!  Next year I'm going to grow many more plum toms and many less cherries;  I had actually planned that for this year, but I didn't have enough plum seed so I made up for it with cherry.  This time I'm saving extra extra plum seed for next year

So much food! Can we eat it?

 

My allotment, early August 2025

It's kind of hard to distinguish what's growing in the photo above (except maybe that purple artichoke flower):  closest under the nets are Brussels sprouts and cauliflower, fennel and kohlrabi (just newly transplanted), and the one at the back right is newly sown turnip and radish seed though none have emerged yet (waiting for rain).  This does show a good 3/4 of my plot, but to the right (not shown) are my artichokes and plum tomatoes, newly sown beetroot bed--also not up yet--and small shed and compost bins.  Also at the very back behind the squash-filled chicken yard are most of my cherry tomatoes in planters, raspberry canes and a good amount of random pallet wood and other detritus.

The allotment has really done well for me this year so far.  I've kept on top of things for the most part, although the vegetables are still rolling in almost faster than I can keep up with them.  I've enlisted the son to pick tomatoes several times--reminding him of all the pizzas he can make!  He's also helped mulch and water;  it's school summer break so he, the daughter and I are all off until next month.  And this does mean I've got a little more time to deal with all the food.

Right now I'm pickling beetroot, pickling cucumbers, freezing and dehydrating tomatoes, freezing runner beans, dehydrating zucchini, dehydrating figs--and eating eating eating.  Apples, Asian pears, plums.  Lettuce, spring onions, tiny hot chilies, early leeks, self-sown chard.  And that's not counting everything in my fridge, freezer and cupboards already--and fermenting on the counters too.

Will we eat it all?  Can we?  The Vegetable Challenge is on, and I've got to make sure we have enough for the winter until the Challenge ends (and beyond, hopefully).  Keep pickling, freezing, drying, fermenting, storing and eating!

Sorting the wood store, making a duck yard, growing squash

Making kindling bundles, July 2025

The husband took this action shot of me, making kindling bundles from the last of the hedge trimmings we cut about a year and a half ago.  At the time we'd piled them up and just left them to dry;  the son and I spent a couple days sawing the larger branches into stove lengths and breaking up the small sticks into kindling.  I don't know how many bundles we made in total--maybe 50?  They're great for starting our wood stove in winter;  since that's our chosen source of heating, collecting as much free fuel as possible is a priority.  True, it's time consuming to make these bundles, but there are times when I just want to sit out in the sunshine and enjoy the garden.  As the son and I were doing this each day, we also supervised the chickens' free ranging:  multitasking!  

Where that pile now isn't, we are constructing a new duck yard.  Recall that the two ducks have a large yard in the Perennials section, which is about four times the size of the chicken yard (for 11 chickens!).  Well, the ducks will share a wall with the chickens;  the two yards will be a similar size, under the shade of our big horse chestnut tree (they need separate yards because Boy Duck is a bit of a jerk to chickens).  As the ducks already get regular unsupervised free range, I hope this move isn't too much of a shock to them.  The husband and son have set in the posts--and an old bathtub--and I've ordered some new wire to enclose it all.  I look forward to having use of the Perennials section again--it'll need a full renovation I think.  

I accidentally left the gate open and the squash escaped!  July 2025

Above is the chicken yard at the allotment, growing squash vines like crazy.  At least five squashes have been spotted, both in this and another bed (not pictured). 

Succession sowing and planting

I did it:  at the allotment I cleared the last of the new potatoes and the snap pea vines.  The potatoes are in paper sacks in my cupboard and the vines are spread in the sun at the allotment to finish drying any pods for next year's seed.  If you recall, I'd planted the potatoes in no-dig fashion.  The result:  kind of small yield but not too bad.  Some plants were more productive than others but on average each plant grew about two meals worth, I would say.  Most I could just pull up carefully and sift through the mulch for potatoes (though a few needed to be dug up).  I would probably grow them this way again, at least with new potatoes.

The potato bed had been heavily sheet mulched in winter and renewed again in spring;  however it was still crisscrossed with couch grass runners, despite only a few blades of grass growing in with the potatoes.  I did my best to pull out what I could find as I prepared and sowed the bed with beet seed, but I already know it'll be covered in grass by the time the beets are sprouting.  I raked most of the mulch onto the tomato bed next to it.

The pea bed wasn't as bad with runners as the potato bed though I did have to pull out quite a lot of weeds in the unmulched bits where the vines had grown.  I sowed this smaller bed half turnips and half winter radishes.  Both beds have insect mesh on them;  the beets won't need it once they have grown a few leaves, but the turnips and radishes will, being susceptible to cabbage white butterflies as well as pigeons.

My small bed of daikon radishes (at home) is sprouting up under its little net curtain.  I've pricked out one last tray of kohlrabi--though they're not looking as robust as the ones I sowed in spring--and two trays of fennel.  Also potted on the spring cauliflowers;  these will hopefully transplant out in the kitchen garden after the cucumbers and zucchini are finished.  What's more, I sowed a pinch of pak choi into a pot which are just starting to come up.  These will have to transplant into the kitchen garden because they are known slug candy (though the slug population at home is starting to grow since my ducks aren't allowed on the veg beds just yet);  the kohlrabi and fennel may go up to the allotment when big enough to transplant.

Rain, and therefore more work

Rain!  The wider back garden, seen from the son's window, July 2025

The evening after writing the previous post, I watched a youtube video (but I can't find the link) about the hosepipe ban from a vlogger with an allotment who lives in my region (with the same water company);  people in the comments suggested visiting the water company's website to confirm than hosepipes can in fact be used in this region for watering food crops.  On the website, the company goes on to ask that a watering can be used if possible but that people won't be fined for using a hose for this purpose.  

I'd already rolled up my hose at the allotment and have been watering by hand this past week--I'm able and willing to do it at this point.  However, we've had a change in the weather:  it's been raining--and typically, it happened the day our school summer break started!  The last rain we had, about two and a half weeks ago, did top up my barrels but didn't much penetrate into the soil.  I planted out some autumn/winter cauliflowers at the allotment last week--clearing away the turnips to make room--and the topmost cm (or less) was damp but under that was pretty darn dry.  Thankfully, after a prolonged heavy rain on Saturday, the soil is moist and soft, perfect for seed sowing:  which I already did at home, moving seven random strawberry plants (and clearing lots of weeds) from the herb bed, and resowing with daikon radish.

Now I can get on with my succession planting at the allotment, which I've put off because of the heat;  I've carried on succession planting at at home as I'm able to water by hand several times a day if needed.  I'm ready to clear away the last of the new potato bed (been digging and eating these gradually) and the snap pea bed (left to dry for seed).  Perhaps I'll also pull out the rest of the kohlrabi and resow/replant their bed too.  

At the allotment I'll sow at least one more bed of beet seed, and one of winter radish (the large cooking type, not the little salad ones).  I also have some asparagus grown from seed;  I need to decide on a long term location for these.  At first I dismissed the allotment because of the ongoing couch grass infestation--but then I reconsidered:  is that really such an issue with asparagus?  Can I make a raised bed for them, perhaps?  Or can I maybe just keep sheet mulching around them as needed to keep the grass at bay?

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In other gardening news, I'm so swamped with vegetables right now it's almost overwhelming.  I reminded the husband about the summer it all became too much, though this time thank goodness it's not for the same reason (I don't think I could handle doing that again!);  this time it's the sheer volume of work I've been doing.  

I watched another youtube video (below) about self sufficiency in the veg garden, and this man, Huw Richards, estimated it took about four hours of work per week.  I would say that's roughly what I've been doing in the active months--mid spring to say mid autumn--but I would have to add that's not all the work that's required.  It takes me a minimum of half an hour every day for preparing, cooking, preserving, etc, in addition to the actual work of growing the food in the first place.  Sometimes I'm at it for two hours in a day, if I've got a lot ready all at once, for instance when I did the big kimchi marathon two weeks ago--or when I picked, pitted and froze all the Morello cherries from my little tree.  I like growing, I like to cook;  but really, the sheer volume of it is getting away from me again.

 

Rain please!

Our area (and many others) started a hosepipe ban on Friday;  we are not allowed to water with a hose until it's lifted--probably not till autumn at the earliest.  On Thursday evening, the husband took up one of our 220 L water barrels--it usually lives under the garage gutter--and put it at the top of the allotment where the pots of cherry tomatoes are, and filled it up with the hose from the water supply at the bottom.  He also gave the whole plot a good soak, for about an hour.  

Now I'm watering up there with watering cans twice a day.  The daughter and I have a good system where she stays at the tap at the bottom of the allotment, filling up one can while I water with the other.  Much quicker than me doing it alone.  I use the barrel at the top for just the pots near it which should last me maybe two weeks;  possibly the son and I can refill it with the watering cans when it's empty. 

I also have planters at the bottom with more tomatoes and a few carrots;  in the ground I'm watering:  plum tomatoes twice a day;  leeks, pickling cucumbers, zucchini and squash once a day.  In-ground plants I'm not watering every day:  corn, beets, kohlrabi, purple sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts.  Not watering at all:  potatoes (digging some up every few days), snap peas (letting the remainder mature for seed), raspberries, artichokes, rhubarb, currants, gooseberries (all of these are finished for the year except a few artichokes).

At home watering isn't such an issue:  I'm there a lot more than I'm at the allotment!  I move the washing machine pipe to a different veg bed every day, I'm saving and reusing several liters of washing and cooking water every day, and I still have three water barrels fairly full of rain from a week and a half ago.  Twice a day I have to water my six pots of tomatoes, two pots of peppers and peach tree (in a large planter);  plus there are still some trays of seedlings on my patio table along with most of my houseplants on their summer holiday (my two remaining houseplants in my bathroom need shade--I collect their water in a bucket as my shower warms up).   Oh, and as my two ducks require fresh water daily, I reuse their two mucky tubs every morning too, when the son has replaces them with clean.

My allotment soil is full of organic matter to absorb water and well mulched to prevent it evaporating--my kitchen garden soil is too.  The plants I started early in the season such as beets, kohlrabi, etc, have been surviving fairly well on the sporadic rain because my soil isn't quite parched yet.  The cool-loving snap peas gave up flowering because of the heat but are still green and alive despite me not watering them at all;  actually I'm considering pulling them up to resow the bed with another batch of beets, but I would have to water these regularly until it rains again.  While I want lots more beets, I'm not sure I can keep them alive.  

Though I'm not yet desperate for it, I really really want some more rain--I can't believe I can actually write that:  this is usually a very soggy island!