November Harvest

Lovely afternoon, so had a bit of a go in the garden. Harvested the last of the Borlotti beans and the runner beans - not as bad a yield as last year, but not great either. The French beans at the front which went in in July were a fiasco, though - maybe one pod per plant.

Have taken out all of the corn - it's really not a great use of space - will leave it out next year. Kevin Harmon has beautiful corn for sale in the latter part of the summer - that will satisfy my yen for fresh corn.

Harvested the last of the ildi and millifleur cherry tomatoes - the upside down hanging tomatoes seem less susceptible to the frost.

Preparing beds for garlic - it seems like I need another bed :-)

Finally, cooked some of the beans and slowly braised some kale & beet leaves in garlic and olive oil - blended all with salt, pepper , a little creme fraiche for a yummy dip.

Upside down Tomatoes - companion planting

 

The upside down tomatoes are doing well- though not many are ripe yet. Fingers crossed for a bit of sunshine.

The only thing I would do differently next year is to plant modest plants at the top of the bucket - ones which don't get huge and suck up all the tomato's water. In the greedy category are calendula (see above) and nasturtium. Even though it's not hot, I'm having to water the tomatoes daily, and I think there's just too much greenery to support top and bottom.

The good companions are French marigold, Night scented stock (the scent in the evening! Sweet and peppery at the same time - is there a perfume like this?) and Basil. They thrive above the tomato, but don't get so big that they compete.

Upside down tomatoes

 

Last year the upside down tomatoes were the only ones to grow, so this year I decided to put in a few more (8!) I have used most of the 4 sides of the uprights on our lean-to shed to hold them. (You can see the laundry behind.) You can also see two little red tomatoes in the tub to the left. We have already had two or three from it - it's a tumbler, bought from Kevin Harmon. And possibly put out a bit early - the later ones are thriving better.

 

In this one, between the plants on top growing down, and the tomatoes growing up, the plastic bucket is almost hidden.

 

While I was planting them, I decided to put some companion plants in the tops, so I planted nasturtium, calendula, basil, french marigold, night-scented stock, chamomile. And for the same reason that the tomatoes do well, they did well too. There's a volunteer tomato in one of the tops too!

Slugs just can't make it up that far. If it wasn't so damp, I'd worry that there wouldn't be enough compost to hold water for all these plants, but this hasn't been a problem yet. And if it is, I'll thin out the top plants. I put a lot of compost, manure, worm castings, and fish bones & guts into the tubs, and I have been watering with Comfrey tea, and worm tea, so they are all thriving.