2018 roundup

It’s been a while – my garden is looking very empty now. All I have left in the earth are 2 savoy cabbages (one of which is destined for Sunday lunch this week!), and about 8 leeks. I have made a couple of batches of leek and potato soup recently, which has been lovely, but I have only used the few leeks which were planted as ‘spares’. The rest are a bit of a mixed bag – some of them are pretty fat already, but some of them are still a bit skinny and weedy looking. They look healthy, and I’m sure they fatten up a bit more over the winter months – fingers crossed!

I have decided to dig up and dispose of my tomato plants now, as they had pretty much stopped producing, and were looking less than healthy. I also dug up my 2 chilli pepper plants – I have frozen 3 fruits, and have 3 more drying out on my utility room (Which is lovely and sunny – you will see my seedlings raised there in the spring!).

The garlic and the remainder of the tomatoes are still on the windowsill finishing off, to be used shortly!

Speaking of garlic – my husband had bought a pack of garlic not so long ago, before I’d harvested these, and there was one that started to sprout in the fridge. So that one has been separated and popped into little pots to see if they are healthy enough to grow on. I managed 7, and I plan to use at least 1 of my harvested bulbs to grow some for next year. So should have plenty of lovely home-grown garlic next summer!

As I said in my last post, there were quite a few successes this year, a few disappointing crops, but a lot of valuable lessons learned once again! And with that in mind, I have made a plan for next year, which involves making much more use of the little space I have been blessed with. The whole garden needs to work much harder next year, and I’m hoping to have less empty space, and make more use of space as it becomes available after harvesting crops.

Over the past couple of weeks, as well as dealing with those unexpected shop-bought garlic cloves, I have bought and planted 8 sets of Shakespeare Onions, 4 direct into a raised bed, and 4 into the terracotta pot where my carrots grew in the summer. It feels great to have at least put something new in! And as I said, I will be putting some of last years’ garlic cloves in over the next few weeks, when I get a spare minute!

Something else I need to do is write these posts a bit more frequently. I don’t think many people read them (hi, if you do!), but it serves as a useful record for me each year, so I need to keep on top of that.