Harvest

Most of the fruit and veg we grew in the garden has gone over now, so I thought I'd make a little list of my successes and not so successful attemps:

Successful (on varing levels) - carrots (although most are still in the ground, they seem to be ok so far), courgettes (they got powdery mildew on the leaves, but it didn't affect production), potatoes (but not as good as the previous year), onions, mangetout (loads and loads), plums (lots), blackcurrants (lots), greengages, peppers (ok, pleased for first attempt), tomatoes (although I keep forgetting to water them), french beans (after second attempt, so a fairly small crop in the end), pears and apples.

Not so great - garlic (still edible, but small, possibly due to over-enthusiastic watering by surrogate waterer whilst we were away (not complaining, am grateful that someone would do it)), lettuce (second year of trying, bolted again, inedible), basil and parsley (okish, but kept forgetting to water, so could have been better).

Bloody disaster - melons (all leaf and no fruit - gave some of my seedlings to some friends and they had loads of fruit, concluded that ours were not in a sunny enough spot), strawbs (two fruits, enjoyed by birds, old plants and again, not enough sun), raspberries (had a fantastic crop last year, hardly anything this year, I'm been freezing them as we pick them and still barely have a handful, which is a shame as they taste really nice).

The new bed is built for next year and is a quarter full of soil, no doubt it will be full by spring with all the mole hills that we get. Am starting to plan in my head what to plant next year and reading all the gardening books we have. In fact, for my birthday I had two gardening books, one for fruit and one for veg. I also received a proper jam/preserves making pan and a jelly bag holder (for making jellies as in 'smooth jam', not robinsons raspberry square stuff that you put in rabbit moulds for your kids), so I think the country life is affecting me a bit of late. Have been making jam and jellies all summer and today I got the new batch of blackcurrant liqueur underway (ready next year if anyone wants to visit....).