Pause and save.

Ok, got to be realistic here: got to concentrate on the house or we'll never move back in!  Veg on hold until next year, more's the pity.  Still, should have enough spuds to last until then so ne bother.

August

 Onions drying.

 Garlic done.

 Watermelon coming and there are loads of cantaloupes as well!

 Toms are a bit disappointing this year...

 Red onions are the best we've done so far.  We have about 200 of them!

 Peas a go-go.  

 Squash, courgette, corn and cucumbers taking off.

 140 leeks in.  This year is Big Leek year - spaced well, fed well, watered well, earthed up.

 Spuds are ok, but got blight.  Still, should end up with about 3 barrow loads and the earlies are in storage - 2 sacks - so we won't exactly starve..

 AUTUMN cabbages for sauerkraut!  Got more coming!

Soft fruit all done.  Tons of it!

I blame Chef's Special Sauce.  Sorry, secret recipe.

Something interesting to watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=c_l5zLnx8Do

Watch and learn something and stop messing about on computers, pretending to be some sort of neo-eco-twat.  Oh, that's me.

Slug heaven.

Wet and cold.  The slugs are very happy that I have spent all that effort to make their breakfast, lunch and dinner for them.  Cnts.

Recommend polytunnel garlic - early, no rust, big cloves.  Hurray, a success.

Honestly, look at the size of that watermelon plant.  What was I thinking?!  Better off growing mushrooms this year...

Summer update

 Been busy sorting my head out, hence the 4 month delay in updates...

 Orchard looking ok, but still not growing very well...

House might look pretty from here, but look at the other blog!

New veg plot!  This is where the pigs were.  Has been rotovated three times, and then I went over it with a big heavy fork and dug it over, then planted 10 rows of spuds each 10m long, sowed 6 rows of corn 4m long and planted a load of squashes.  Also dug over, manured and planted a 15m long row of raspberries, half of which then died on me.  Crap stony soil, cold winds, too much rain...  Plastic at the back is covering  next year's asparagus, artichoke, and possibly strawberry beds.  Another polytunnel is going where the spuds are (next year, maybe), and I might give growing grain a go this autumn.

Goose Lee has calmed down after I evicted the females from the nests.  When they were sitting, he would regularly try to smash my kneecaps in, Muay-Thai style, while holding on to my trouser leg!  We had 30 eggs and not one hatched.  We think it was too cold and the embryos died, she was sitting on too many, or we didn't get them into an incubator in time...  Very disappointed.

Soft fruit is looking good this year though!  Lots of it coming along nicely.

Veg very slow due to the cold - it looked like this in April last year.

Still, got 3 beds of cabbages this time, so plenty of coleslaw and sauerkraut!

Pigs. Logs.

Bit of a delay since the last entry, but it's been raining so unbelievably hard that not a lot has been going on to be honest.  Apart from pigs.  And the renovation, of course...

We're sharing these two grubby swines with some of our neighbours, and they (the pigs) have been busy ploughing everyone's spud patches for the coming year.  They're with us for a few weeks then it's lights out piggies!  I can see why you'd get attached to them, they're a lot more interactive than a bloody chicken or our loud and to be frank, bloody annoying geese.  They were a bit annoyed at being woken up to get a photo taken, but soon recovered and went back to bed.

K has been hard at it cutting wood for next year - these are the big bits I keep promising to saw up and never get around to doing.  All from the roadside where the trees were cut to give clearance for the phone lines.  Everyone here has either moved over to pellets or "aerothermie" so we're the only ones with a use for it!

In the middle of sorting out the veg plan for 2013 - we're moving the spuds, corn and squash break into the field so we have 4 extra beds in the veg plot.  This means I can put more brassicas in and generally stop trying to squeeze two crops into one space.  Doesn't really work for me.  In theory we should have a lot more food!  Roll on Spring!

November pics

New trees planted (thanks Polly).  Orchard now full.

Busy mulching and covering beds for winter.  Brassicas crap - caterpillars and slugs and lack of vigilance to blame.  Roots good.  Leeks ok but splitting in this wet weather.

Geese noisy, dirty and (I imagine) happy with about quarter of an acre to waddle about in.