News at last

Hello! I'm back! I can only apologise for the prolonged absence. So without further ado here's what's been happening on Matt's Patch in September and October.

After all the rain we've had in August the last two months have been gorgeously warm and dry. This has helped keep the raspberries coming. This is how many we picked yesterday (with still plenty on the canes as we head into the shorter days of November):

Raspberries still going

Along with the raspberries our tomatoes in the greenhouse kept cropping too. Now though they have slowed down so I decided to harvest them all. The plan is to make a green tomato chutney - I'll have to dig out a recipe somewhere (unless someone can recommend one).

Last of the tomatoes

Back in June we planted carrots in two buckets in a corner of the greenhouse. We just let them get on with it. The thinking was that as they got bigger, I'd thin them out as and when we needed little carrots for the children. However they never really seemed to take off. Maybe they were too densely planted. Anyway, on the weekend Megan and I picked what was left in the buckets. Their sizes varied quite considerably, and considering that they were a small variety we did get some decent sized ones. After a clean-up this is what we were left with:

Bright orange carrots

On to my planter. Although the last couple of months have been very mild, the lettuce that was in the planter just stopped growing. Likewise the peppers never did much. I think they definitely need to be in the greenhouse, or at the very least under some cover to get extra heat. This is the best one, from of six plants! (unfortunately the photo is out of focus but by the time I noticed the pepper had been used in a chili con carne!)

One red pepper

So, after collecting the veg that was still in the greenhouse, the time came to give it a good clean and get it ready for more planting.

So I'm going to have a little think now, about what can be planted - either in the planter or in pots in the greenhouse - which is unheated.
I'm also going to write up my experiences in the first year of Matt's Patch and what lessons have been learned.

A nice clean greenhouse

Rain Rain Go Away

Most recent harvest - then it rained. And rained ...

This was our harvest from Matt's Patch last weekend. Lettuce, cucumber, courgettes, raspberries and some rocket that has come under attack from caterpillars. Not bad I think. Since then it has rained and rained and rained. I can't believe how much rain there is up there!

6 Pepper plants - all with peppers like these

In the raised planter I have 6 pepper plants which are doing quite well despite the efforts of the weather to stall their growth. They all have peppers of various sizes now but I know that if it warmed up a few degrees and stayed dry for a week they would come on tremendously.
I have toyed with the idea of putting perspex screens around the edges of the planter to give more shelter to the plants in there but it's just a pipe-dream at the moment.

Red Raspberry

I went out this early this evening to water a few things and this is what I found. A bright red raspberry, almost glowing in amongst the verdant green leaves of the canes. After calling the girls out (there will be a lot more competition for ripe raspberries as everyone likes them, as opposed to strawberries which Mrs Matt doesn't like - not even in Pimms!) and a lot of build up, the raspberry was not quite ripe so refused to budge! Patience is a virtue as they say.

This is our first raspberry to turn red

French bean harvest
After the local school fete Emily helped me go round the French bean plants and gather our first harvest. They're sneaky things and hide themselves very well in the stalks of the parent plant.

Emily (as a tiger) helped me harvest our first French Beans

Cucumber update
This is the latest picture of the most advanced cucumber - it's about 5 inches long. It seems to be quite wrinkly, as if it has all its skin and is slowly filling it up!

First cucumber is about 5 inches long now

Charlotte potatoes
After the somewhat disappointing showing of the Red Duke of Yorks I had a quick look at the Charlotte potatoes that are growing in the patch at the end of the garden. I thought the foliage was dying back a bit so decided to get the fork and have a snoop under the ground. What I found reassured me that all is well! I found a few good sized tubers and once I'd found some I could not resist digging both the plants up! We have cold roast chicken, fresh new potatoes and salad with our own lettuces. Excellent. We have more than twice the amount shown in the picture but Mrs Matt had started cooking them before I could get my camera out!

Some of the Charlottes from the potato patch

Beans are out

Over the last week our Broad Beans have been planted out by the raspberries with the fence as support. These were a special request from Mrs Matt as she likes them with gammon and parsley sauce. The rest of us prefer the squeaky French beans which have just been planted. Six broad beans germinated but Emily and I planted the strongest five. This gave us the opportunity to have a good look at the rejected plant and how a broad bean grows. As always it's very impressive to see how Mother Nature works (click on the picture for a detailed close-up).Emily's sweetcorn have also gone out in a little block. As they are wind pollinated it is best to plant them in a block rather than a line.
A few slug pellets sprinkled around them and the broad beans should give them a fighting chance while they get established in their new homes.

The raspberries are doing well with new canes growing strongly. They seem to get visibly bigger every day. and new shoots seem to come up all over the place. They may need controlling later but we'll let them do what they want for the time being.

The strawberries have reacted very well to their new home with all but one of them producing flowers. With a bit of luck (and fertiliser) they, along with the raspberries, might - just might - provide enough fruit for the two little girls who seem to devour them for fun these days.