[Eblana]

Dug up the last of the main crop potatoes.  Setanta and Sipiro Mira - huge potatoes will be growing more of these next year.  A bit of slug damage on them but on the whole they were great.  Harvested two large bags of tomatoes will have to clear another shelf in the freezer!  Got three lovely heads of cabbage and loads of purple Mangtouts (I had sown these late with the view that if needs be they could be green manure but I am getting a great crop off them).

[ptarmigan]

Cleared and mushroom composted 2 beds.  Had help as well - so got 2 compost bins cleared out.  Need to prune fruit bushes and final strim before winter. Another couple of beds to put to sleep as well...

[Thrutchington]

Back off jollies so weeding, bit of watering, tended leeks and a small bonfire this evening.

[booklady]

Pulled up all the butternut squash tendrils, plus the pumpkins and courgettes etc,
Strimmed the long grass now exposed from the squashes, nice and dry after a bit of sun
Pulled up the last few tomato plants, piled up the supports, water bottles etc
Pruned half the raspberry bed, tied in this year's shoots
Trimmed blackcurrant and took some hardwood cuttings
Picked the first sprouts, cooked and ate them!

[Beekissed]

Finally cleaned out neglected corners of the garden yesterday.... and am starting to finally see the benefits of this Back to Eden gardening method after adding wood chips to my garden this spring.  I didn't get the best of gardens from doing it this spring but now I'm seeing the potential and what my garden can be next year. 

My soil used to be like this.  This is earlier this spring, after tilling the garden space 5 times, then had a rainfall...this is typical of our soil, hard pan clay that compacts at the first rainfall after tilling.  I had to put my full weight on the fork to get even this deep into the hard clay. 



After a spring and summer under the wood chips, my soil now looks like this....



The weeds I allowed to grow in the areas where the wood chips were too thinly spread still came out of the soil like a knife out of butter, easy to pull and had this loamy, rich compost attached to the shallow roots...



I had one corner and a few other spots where the grasses had taken over pretty badly but they pulled up so easy that I was grinning like a possum all day long....funnest time I've ever had pulling weeds! 




I took 3 wheelbarrows like this out of the garden...



...put them in the coop....



...and took two wheelbarrows of composted chicken litter out of the coop and returned that to the garden.



Put deeper wood chips on that~now cleaned out~corner...



...left the flowers and some plants still producing....




...and left the garden, thanking God for leading me to this Back to Eden method and making plans for winter greens, and anticipating next spring's garden! 

[Thrutchington]

Nipped down in lunch break, for a look round, red admirals on the marigolds, lovely sunshine, nipped down after work to give the late veg a little water before dusk.

[chillimummy]

Dug up last of my desiree pots and have had a great crop, lots of lovely big clean pots. Minimal scab and not much slug damage.
Picked a couple of squash. Will dig up foliage next visit as all done now.
Pulled up some small beetroot and my first swede.
Have a large area of plot all dug over and weed free for next year.
Sweetcorn tassles starting to turn brown so need more sun!
Last year at this time, only really has sprouts growing.
This year, still lots of things growing, broccoli, lots of varieties of cabbage beetroot, swede, chard, spinach and khol rabi.

     

[Flowertot]

Over the last couple of days I have dug over and weeded 3 patches of ground including taking down the last French bean wigwam.  I planted some Spring Duchy cabbages in one patch, sowed some green manure in another and left the third bare because it is so weed infested that it needs at least another forking over before spring to get rid of some more mares tail, bindweed and couch  . Very happy with my Autumn clearing process so far - the dry weather has certainly helped.

[Elm street]

I dug up the last row of spuds whilst toh harvested courgettes, toms, cucs, apples and the last of the squash!

[Mattgregory27]

I mowed both plots, mulched the flower beds, dug up all of the squash, courgette and tomato plants and composted them all, planted a row of garlic and fixed the shed. The plot looks nice and tidy now 

[Thrutchington]

Good bonfire before the forecasted rain soaks the wood.

[booklady]

Extended one raised bed, laid the cardboard, straw, compost etc and repaired/re-set the supports on another bed. 
Pulled up all the frosted bits of crops left, chucked them onto the compost.
Picked the last few (small and manky) figs but gave them to my neighbour as I've enough fig jam to open a fig jam shop.
Wrung hands in despair as not allowed to have a bonfire anymore. ever. in our neck of French woods
Picked some dried sticks off the bonfire to put in the kindling store.
Picked off some more sticks for supports and put them into the shed
Surveyed what was left of the bonfire and will do more kindling sticks when wood is dry
Picked some sprouts for tea - yummy.
 

[snowdrops]

Extended one raised bed, laid the cardboard, straw, compost etc and repaired/re-set the supports on another bed. 
Pulled up all the frosted bits of crops left, chucked them onto the compost.
Picked the last few (small and manky) figs but gave them to my neighbour as I've enough fig jam to open a fig jam shop.
Wrung hands in despair as not allowed to have a bonfire anymore. ever. in our neck of French woods
Picked some dried sticks off the bonfire to put in the kindling store.
Picked off some more sticks for supports and put them into the shed
Surveyed what was left of the bonfire and will do more kindling sticks when wood is dry
Picked some sprouts for tea - yummy.
 

Is the bonfire rule because of the bush fires? Could you build an outside contained fire pit type thing,sure they're must be loads of tinternet, our son made a chimnea thing out of an old calor gas bottle,with a chimney, could you have a bigger one for your burn able rubbish?

[chillimummy]

Pulled up all foliage from squash and pumpkins and dug over area.
Put fresh weed membrane on path covered in weeds!
Next visit will put bark chippings down.
Picked a cabbage, some broccoli and couple of courgettes. Think courgette are almost done now.
Need to prune back blackcurrants and decide what to do with them as blackberries,raspberries and jostaberry all growing in them too. Might dig them up and move two of them.Have 4 bushes and only half plot so 2 is enough.
Plot looking tidy and almost ready for winter. 
 
 

[18Forts1999]

Hi all,
Busy at the plot today - one of my beds was covered in horse manure with a layer of grass cuttings over it and then three bags of cheap compost (3 for £10 from B&M) so today have covered all this with a layer of home made compost and then a nice grass-green tarpaulin (looks quite tidy) and compliments the White mustard in the adjacent bed. That's another put to sleep for the winter!