My Tiny Plot

Jackson is going to his first ever Halloween party tomorrow - we’re both very excited. Apart from scooping out the traditional pumpkin lantern we made these little treats. We’re calling them Scary Mary cupcakes. They’re scary because they’re a new type of spider that may have only six, sometimes five legs! A true freak of nature.

It’s that time of year again. I just love to grow pumpkins. They’re so interesting. All the different shapes, colours and different knobbly bits to look at. They’re amazing. This year I grew Turks Turban pumpkins and I have just brought in the last of them. Some of them haven’t reached full size so I will probably use them for decoration if they don’t change colour in the next few weeks.

As per the suggestion on Gardener’s World last week (Toby is doing well in my opinion) I made sure to leave an inch or so of stem on either side of the stalk so that the smaller pumpkins could carry on maturing once they had been cut. We’ll see if that makes any difference. 

I’m not going to waste these on Halloween lanterns - no way! (I bought a cheap one from the supermarket for that). No, these will either be Pumpkin soup (with funky bowls to boot!) or else Pumpkin Pie for our small and first ever Thanksgiving celebration in a few weeks.

Occasionally, very occasionally, I actually do something else apart from gardening. Today, I’m making some ‘real’ red and blue bunting for my, usually clad in red and blue, boy. 

Everybody wants ‘real’ bunting these days (ie made out of fabric instead of plastic). The shops are full of it. It feels very forties, wholesome and makes you want to drink ‘lashings of ginger beer’ with everything (or is that just me). It’s so easy to make and can make a room look instantly vintage, or perk up your party. I’m all for it. 

The cowboy material was given to me by my sister-in-law, Kerri and the other material cost around £3. Apart from this all you need is a metre of iron-on interfacing and some bias-binding in a contrasting colour and you have your very own bunting for a fraction of the cost.

Of course Jackson is waaay too young to appreciate the time, effort and enjoyment I get from making him stuff. Infact, in this photo he’s more interested in catching our cat, Candy (God help her) as she makes a run for the door. But once I start making him Halloween costumes, Christmas stockings, birthday hats - he’ll start to appreciate me more. Won’t he?

The cold weather has started to set in. It’s misty in the mornings and usually cold and damp until the sun breaks through. October is a time for harvest and tidying up. Don’t be too neat though - why not leave the odd Sunflower head for the birds. They’ll appreciate it.

1. Bring in the last vegetables for storage before the frosts. These include: Onions, Apples, Potatoes and Carrots
2. Sow some more green manure in empty ground
3. Plant more Tulip bulbs for next Spring
4. Sow some winter Lettuce, such as Arctic King, in the greenhouse or coldframe
5. Leave some Runner Beans and French Beans on the plant to dry so that you can collect the seed
6. Plant Garlic and Spring Cabbage
7. Sow outdoor Broadbeans and Peas now for a crop in early Spring
8. Feed Brussels Sprouts and Winter Cabbage now to encourage them on in time for Christmas
9. Pot up some Parsley, Chives and Mint to use over the winter - dig up and discard annuals such as Coriander and Dill
10. Tidy up your Strawberry patch by removing any yellow leaves and the last runners

If you have any more suggestions for October jobs, add them to the list.

I’ve been away for the last week at a web conference and I haven’t had two minutes together to post anything here - how’s that for irony? But I’m back now and what a joy it was to come home to see that my little clutch of leeks are now ready for harvest. I can honestly say that I think they’re the biggest leeks I’ve ever grown. I sowed them back in April and planted them around June time. They must like the sandy, free-draining soil.

The only thing I would do differently next year is plant them a little further apart. They don’t need that much room to grown since all of their growing is of the vertical variety, however their root systems are pretty hefty and when it comes to digging them up it’s impossible to just dig up one leek if they are planted too close together. Mine are planted about 6 or 7 cm apart. Next time I’ll give them at least 10 or 12 cm to be on the safe side.

I found two lovely recipes with Leeks from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. The first is ‘Leek and Goat’s Cheese Tart’, the second is ‘Haddock with Creamed Leek’. Both of them have been tried, eaten and loved already. Does anyone else have some tried and tested Leek recipes? I really do have a shocking amount of Leek this year!

I’ve started to do a bit of basic seed-saving, Carole Klein style. If we’re being completely honest we’re a bit spoiled these days aren’t we?. Garden centres are everywhere and usually open 7 days a week and even the supermarket has at least one carousel of cheap seeds. All very convenient and brilliant for those addicted to seed like you and I.  

However, there’s nothing quite like saving your own seed. The excitement of cracking open that crispy casing to see if you’ve got some perfectly dried seed or a pile of rotting mush (sometimes it happens). Seeds are full of promise. At this time of year, when everything is dying down and going a bit brown, collecting seed can be very uplifting. It’s like nature’s saying, ‘it’s okay dude, there’s always another year.’

And who can resist that? Not me… I’m saving Peas, Runner Beans, French Beans, Garlic, Shallots and Sweet Peas on a regular basis now. Some people will tell you that you can’t save Pumpkin seeds because they won’t grow true next year but I might give it a go anyway, just to see what happens. I’m sure in the days before supermarket seeds your average head-gardener would’ve given it a go too.

Anyone else had success with seed-saving? What do you save?