Harvest!

So the weather is starting to get a bit colder, the evenings are that little bit darker and it’s become almost impossible to deny that summer is over… BUT, we have started to harvest our veg and it’s great to see all the hard work paid off. We have something to show for the last 6 months, and it was well worth it.

• We collected a quite few tomatoes, onions, salad leaves, basil, parsley, shallots, peppers and even a few mini-beetroot (and the world’s smallest carrot!).
• There’s also another batch of tomatoes to harvest (at least twice as much again) which we hope will ripen before the frosts start to set in.
• We have set up a tub for composting dead organic matter with the old soil – a few worms short of a vermicomposter – which will make great compost for future veg.
• The majority of plants have been trimmed back and we’re picking out those to save for next year 🙂

It’s been great to see what was possible using the limited space and resources available. Now we have some experience and know what works (and what doesn’t!) we can start planning what to grow over the winter, and make even bigger plans for next year!

September Garden

Tomatoes

Green tomatoes

September Garden 2

Rainbow jalapeño!

Cherry tomatoes

Jalapeño!!

More cherry tomatoes

Pepper!

Harvest 1

Enough for homemade salsa…

Harvest 2

Onions

Harvest

Tomato harvest

September update

The weather has been beautiful and the sunshine is doing our tomatoes the world of good. With the water butt set up it’s much easier to give everything a drink, although reserves are running low due to no rain (but we’re not complaining! 🙂

We’re looking forward to harvesting the tomatoes and onions later this month – hard to believe they started of in a tray on a windowsill.

 

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Photo update – August

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Things are looking good for the roof garden

It’s been quite a while since the last update and a LOT has happened.

The Good

• We have a bumper crop of tomatoes on the way, the flowers are in full bloom and we have just harvested our carrots!
• We forgot to harvest a few things and they are now sporting flowers and attracting lots of pollinating insects – which is great for the bees.
• We FINALLY got the water butt installed on the roof – just in time for the dry stretch!
• We have moved to a telepathy based watering rota, which is so far working very well. We all appear at the window at the same time with jugs of water.

The Bad

• The weather in general! Although the recent blast of hot weather has helped things come along nicely.
• We had to relocate our greenery from one end of the roof to the other due to Air Conditioning units being installed on the roof – but it all looks much better in one place down the end now 🙂

The Ugly

• The basil plants were pretty much decimated by moths and caterpillars!
• The  lavender hasn’t ever really recovered from being blown about the roof in the earlier part of the year.
• We lost a few of the smaller tom plants to the hot weather

 

Barbecue

First barbecue was a success. We even managed to use the radishes and, not to be upstaged by [big supermarket chain], 2 of our own spring onions!

Week 10 – Taking shape

Week 10 – a noticeable change from the initial photo

Lots happening this week, with flowers potted out (smaller pots in the photo) and the tomato plants being hardened off and ready to put out onto the roof later in the week.

We are also planning a celebratory barbecue to mark the first bunch of radishes (although I’m sure we’d find another excuse to enjoy the weather outside!).

First success

Radishes picked at the end of May (4 to 5 weeks)

The first bunch of radishes came out really well! 🙂 We had to harvest some of them a little early as between them and the strawberries they were depriving the carrots of sunshine. Hopefully this will be the first of many successful crops to come this summer. Fingers crossed for our sickly looking tomatoes plants.

 

Week 9 – The Good, The Bad and The Burnt

Lots happened this week. Including…. our first radish!! 🙂 Tomato seedlings brought in and put outside just in time for the hottest day of the year so far. Strong winds and strong sunshine meant the first handful of test plants were battered by the wind and bleached (even scorched!) by the sun – see the before and after photos below. Fresh-picked mint tea helped soften the blow, but the rest of the plants will need to be ‘hardened off‘ so they don’t fall victim to the same fate.

Before

      

Rain, rain, rai…

Rain, rain, rain.

Not much was done for a few weeks whilst it rained (and rained…), so just let the plants get on with it.

Planting in the troughs!

The weather was unseasonably cold and wet, so we started things off indoors! Strawberries, carrots, radishes, beets, sweet peas, garden peas…. fingers crossed we will get a crop.