Growing all year round? Let's have a go...a new weekly task.

It's been on my mind that I've planned and planned for all of the bounties we are harvesting now and what is still to come through the summer, but I've not done quite as much for Autumn and Winter. 

So I've decided to put these thoughts into action and for the last couple of weeks I've been sowing more things.  I plan on sowing something new weekly for the next few weeks, which I'll share with you along with their progress.

Lettuce, winter leeks, winter cabbage, basil (red and green), chamomile as I'm curious to see if you can grow them in winter (for gifts), pak choi, autumn cauliflower (not had 1 yet this year!!!), beetroots and spring onion.

 The reason I am starting everything indoors is the blinking slugs or mice, whatever it is.  Pretty much everything I'm sowing direct is not getting chance to take as strongly as I'd like so I'm going to suck it up and transplant anything that can handle it.  The peas have done well on this round interestingly.

Now for a confession, my greenhouse is a tip! 

I must get in this weekend and give it a tidy out.  I don't have a photo of the back section, which is just as well as all the pots have fallen over and water's dripped through from watering, there's boxes with boxes and who knows what else!

So this weekend I promise I will tidy out my greenhouse!  I'm in there ALL the time and I work happily in there, people actually come to visit me in there like Grace is below.  So I need to give it the attention it deserves, after all, this is where it all starts!

Bringing home the harvests....and a rosette

I am so very proud to say I managed to snag 3rd prize for my pumpkin in the local show at the weekend.  It was a fantastic event and there are some very serious competitors out there.  We entered a jam, chutney, apples and a painting, none of which registered, making my pumpkin rosette even more worth it!  It's now proudly hanging off one of the beams in my kitchen.  The pumpkin is now waiting for October when it will be proudly carved ready for the Halloween party we're putting on for the kids and neighbours.  The other pumpkins are still on the plant in the veg plot.

I've been working away thinking about what I can plant now to harvest before the winter and also on my 2017 veg plot plan.  I have a first draft here though it may well be changed.  The crops are where they are due to what's been planted this year and rotating.  The Plot 1/2/3/4 refer to what can be grown with each other.  I took the info from the gardenfocused website which I'm finding really useful.

This weekend I managed to sow spinach, corn salad, pak choi and my daughter kindly sowed radish.  I'm recording what I'm sowing in my spreadsheet and book and will not what harvest we get etc for using the information next year.

Autumn seeds

The elderberries are starting to ripen so it won’t be long before we’re picking those.  I’ll Google some recipes and have them ready and waiting for a Saturday afternoon when they’re perfect to pick.

From my growing veg experience so far, I’m going to plan out next year in my book and try to stick to it religiously so that we have something available every week (day?) that’s seasonal.  Of course most people don’t think of having food growing in the colder months and indeed many people have no inclination to be growing food in the colder months.  They would prefer to be inside in the warmth with the food bought from their local supermarket.  I have nothing against this, but I would love to be able to rely on ourselves to supply our own food.  Therefore I’ve started making a list of all the items we eat weekly, such as salads for packed lunch at work, potatoes in one shape or another, onions are the basis to most meals etc and I’m going to make a note against each one as to how long we can expect to have them for, during the year.  Obviously I am taking tips from fellow bloggers on the preserving, pickling and bottling that you have been doing this year on your blogs, to allow me to extend the season as long as possible next year.  I am doing as much as I can this year, but I am running out of my own veg now. 

If I get organised over the coming months, then it will make next year so much easier having a plan to follow.  Then I can adapt it and make notes as we go.  I’m so excited already!  To start as I mean to go on I have ordered the following from T&M:  perpetual spinach (spinach beet), autumn planting onion sets 75 included (Shakespeare & Electric (Red)), pak choi purple F1 hybrid, Corn salad cavallo, garlic garcua 2 bulbs.  I’ve written the names out for my reference and so I can get the labels pre written.  I also have a £5 off voucher to use by 01^st October if anyone can use it, for T&M?  It is PVT79NA2A1J6I3Z. 

The spinach, salad and pak choi will go in the bed where the beans were during the summer.  The garlic and onions are going where the potatoes have all been harvested from.  Once they’re finished with in the late autumn/winter then I will dig over the beds are maybe add rotted manure.  I’m not sure what’s going in this bed next year yet, but I will be sure to that they like rotted manure before sowing as I know carrots for example don’t like manure.  Then again, carrots and I have never really got on!