Friday 23 September 2016

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016.

This month my strawberries have put out loads of runners and I've been trying to tame them!  There are a couple of strawb plants in each end of my front garden raised bed and they've put out a crazy amount of runners.  I've been training them downwards, into the gravel on the drive and round the base of the raised bed - I hope they'll grow happily there and I'll get a bumper crop of strawberries next year!

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing.  secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

Down the side of the house my herbs and fruit are growing well.  I'm about to chop that apple tree to a knee height stub, as recommended in the book 'Grow a Tiny Fruit Tree'.  It's a bit nerve wracking so I keep putting it off!  But if I'm brave and cut it soon (I've missed the time for summer pruning, but apparently I can do it in winter too) the tree should never get higher than head height, so I won't need a ladder to pick the fruit.
Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing.  secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

My Autumn Bliss raspberries are doing really good, they're in their second year now.  I re-watched Alys Fowler's Edible Garden series on YouTube and she said to leave them to flop over, rather than staking them upright.  When they're flopped over the leaves hide the ripe berries from the birds, which means more for you!   It's working so far!

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing.  secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

I planted this kale last year and it's taken it ages to get going, but I think I might actually get to eat some kale from it soon!

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing.  secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

I've been doing a bit of winter sowing and planting.  I've sown some greens, perpetual spinach, chard, red beet leaves, dinosaur kale and red kale, I think I may be woefully late but all my spring and summer sowings failed and I'm desperate for some homegrown leafy greens!  If the worst comes to the worst I'll resow in spring, but I'm hoping for a bit more sun to get these seeds started!

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing. secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

I also bought some pretty bulbs and some reduced seeds (50p per packet!).  I'll plant the bulbs now and the seeds in the spring.

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing. secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

I've not had a great year for tomatoes, courgettes, pumpkins or pattypans - I've had hardly any!  All my tomato plants have been grown from seed and they've all been weedy and horrible looking and only given me one or two toms per plant.  I usually grow tomatoes in this lovely butlers sink, but they're just not happy there!  Every flower on the plant on the right has shrivelled up and gone brown, and the plant on the left has given me one fairly small tomato!

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing. secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

This is my most best and biggest tomato plant, a san marzano also grown from seed, it seems super happy here by the conservatory wall and has grown so big it blocks the path.  There are quite a few tomatoes on it, but they're all green so far. 

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing. secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

And here's the whole garden.  I have a lot of weeding to do!  But I'm happy with the evening primrose that's popped up!

Diary of a suburban food garden, September 2016. My front garden raised bed, tiny fruit trees, and winter sowing. secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardening #suburbangarden #polyculture #ediblegarden

How's your garden this month?





12 comments:

  1. Your garden looks lovely. I've been inspired by blogs like yours to try and grow something myself next year, so I've been cutting back ready for winter and clearing our one raised bed in preparation. I think we'll try some carrots (Lily loves them) but I'm not sure what else yet. X

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    1. Oh yey, happy gardening! I'd recommend growing whatever your favourite things to eat are, especially things that are usually expensive or hard to get hold of - my faves are strawberries and rainbow chard and garlic chives/normal chives.

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  2. Beautiful garden Susie. I didn't grow any veg this year - first year at uni so i didn't think I would have the time, I may try a few bits in spring. Scary stuff pruning your apple tree so hard!! I have a plum tree that needs pruning but some research needs doing first as I don't want to knobble it.

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    1. Thanks Lorna :) Hope uni is going well, the garden will always be there when you've finished your studies! :)

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  3. We've just bought our first house and I'm so excited to start making our garden as productive as yours is!

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  4. Love the pics of your garden and you've inspired me to do some work in my own little space. I've had such a disappointing year for slugs munching all my crops and it's so disheartening :( I did get lots of lovely strawberries this year though so can't complain too much! xx

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    1. I was only talking about growing strawberries today - inspired by your gorgeous pics Rebecca!

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  5. I'm no great gardner, but husband has a bumper crop of tomatoes every year. His winning strategy is that he moves them every year - the 'rotating patch' (apparently) is the best thing you can do. Maybe grow some brand beans in the old sink to put the nitrogen back in the soil. Try them in a different spot next summer and see if that helps. But, like I said, I'm no expert - my husband is grower in our house!

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    1. That's an excellent idea, thank you I think I'll give it a try!

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  6. Looking so good!!!!
    I have had tons of tomatoes this year which I am so pleased about but last year was a disaster! My courgettes are a bloomin pain, so cross with them!

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    1. I'm also cross with my courgettes, there's one coming now but I bet the slugs will get to it before me!

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