End of season

It's the end of the line for a lot of the produce now. The courgettes finished at the end of October - there were still new flowers, but all the tiny courgettelets were rotting in the damp weather. This week I pulled the remaining carrots. The carrots had been at their best about six weeks ago, with no need for peeling, so next time I shall harvest earlier.

Last of the carrots and tomatoes

In the veg garden, it's pretty much down to the brassica family now, plus leeks and Swiss chard. I sowed Aquadulce broad beans today - let's see how they cope with the winter.

The Christmas Brussels

Spring cabbage

As much kale as any heart could desire

Enormous Swede Marians

Swiss chard and the garlic's already coming up

It's definitely time for a bit of a tidy-up, but we're already delighted that we can put the fork in almost anywhere without hitting stones or gigantic weed roots. Talking about weeding, I invested in a Cape Cod weeder - what a marvellous hand tool that is. Superfast weeding and great for removing docks.

Chopped down artichoke

I cut down the globe artichoke plants for the winter. Now I just need to gather a whole lot of bracken for their winter cover. Can't wait to have a full artichoke harvest!

The beds are starting to empty out

Still some autumn raspberries

The raspberries are the last of our fruit and are holding out surprisingly well. Soon the canes will all have to be cut down as well.

Two things that are just coming into season are fish boxes and sea weed. The stormy weather has deposited a lot of both on our beach. The sea weed will go into our compost, after a rinse, and be mulch for our blueberries. Maybe we'll also make some liquid fertiliser in one of the rain barrels. As for the fish boxes, there is no end of their use in the garden.

Sea weed for the garden

First bottle of carrot wine to be opened tonight!