The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

One of my more welcome garden residents

“Harvest over?” asks a man who clearly is not au fait with the small-scale growers' season. “Not quite!” I reply. There's a good few weeks left of harvest yet, although each week there is less. The garden still looks in full leaf but peer closer and you won't find the abundance of fruit that there has been during August and September.

The runner beans have done well, 80kg of the blighters picked so far (since 23 July) and more to come. Last year I only got 32kg in total although I had slightly fewer plants. They didn't even start producing fruit till 28th August last year, over a month later than this time - the weather was the culprit I suspect.

Jerusalem artichokes bask in the early morning sun

What else is a candidate for 2016's Best Producing Vegetable award? Rhubarb has got to be up there. I picked the first stalks on 11th April and the last ones on Sunday gone, that's just shy of six months of pretty much perfect rhubarb. Not bad for almost zero maintenance, just a bit of muck thrown on top and some weeding.

Lettuce on the other hand is a lot of work, sowing a series of batches throughout the season, planting out the seedlings, watering when dry, pulling out when they start to bolt and replacing, making futile efforts to protect from slugs. Not to mention the time it takes to harvest, finding the good leaves amongst the slug-damaged. But so far they've produced 419 salad bags, weighing in at 52kg, and the plants are all still looking pretty healthy. I can keep picking till well into November.

A moth decides to join me in my caravan

Kale was an early success story with both types, frilly and Tuscan, quickly producing large good quality leaves from ealy June. But in mid summer, disaster! The frilly ones all got some infection and all the new growth just rotted. Luckily the Tuscans were unaffected and the frilly ones have somewhat recovered, launching secondary shoots out their sides but producing smaller leaves. Caterpillars have been enemy number one this time, eating holes in both varieties with abandon before I can find them and dispatch them.

Let's not forget the mange tout, which even though all the plants gave up the ghost in mid August, did produce over 13kg which isn't bad considering how light a single mange tout is! It's equivalent to about 135 portions of 100g each.

And a daddy long legs

Herbs have been a surprise hit, with my perennial sage, thyme and marjoram really getting into their stride. The rosemary cuttings I took from Pilsdon early last year are finally starting to produce some growth. I tried sowing parsley for the first time and it did well both in the polytunnel and outside - the basil on the other hand only thrived in the polytunnel.

Then there's the middling bunch - the ones that did better than or the same as last year but that's not saying a great deal. Namely - french beans, broad beans, potatoes, beetroot, courgettes, radish, onions, chard, cucumbers. Must try harder, chaps.

We'll draw a discreet veil over the fiascos that were the bolting turnips, the slug-eaten kohl rabi, the poorly-germinating carrots, the extremely slow and pointless field beans and the blotchy and disease-ridden tomatoes.

My hair can be used as a useful blindfold now

I've enjoyed trying new things - the sweetcorn in the polytunnel grew very tall and tasted amazing! Quinoa has been an eye-opener. Purple cauliflower has produced about two semi-decent heads but looked pretty. The asparagus I planted two years ago finally began to produce a few (a very few) recognisable asparagus spears. Brussel sprouts have just begun to be picked. Patty pan squash that look like white UFOs have not been prolific but entertaining nevertheless. And the Jersualem artichoke have seven foot high stalks, I'll wait till next month to dig them up for the knobbly tubers.

Still to come, the king of vegetables - butternut squash!

This pheasant was shot by the gun-toting tourists across the river and landed here next to a jar of crab apple jelly