Anyone else feel sad ..

[Trixiebelle]

After the harvest/summer in the allotment?

I took the tomato plants out of the greenhouse today, dug up the sweetcorn, put the coriander to seed in a big plastic bag, cleared away the dead leaves from squashes, cucumbers and harvested the last of the potatoes  :(

I know that Autumn and Winter will be as good as Summer (leeks, cabbage, apples, pears, onions, sprouts etc.) but I still feel a bit emotional.

Trixie XX

[Trixiebelle]

[lorna]

Trixiebelle. SNAP!! Have also cleared greenhouse of tomatoes and cucumbers which I didn't like at all. Only grew Gardeners Delight toms and they have been brilliant but won't grow that variety of cucumbers again. I also picked my one and only melon, just had a taste and it is delicious. Must have more melon plants next year. I now hope to have a blitz on the garden as it has been very neglected over past few weeks. I won't be growing any veg this winter as I am still trying to get rid of conifers and as I lop the greenery off have got to use veg patch to stack all the greenery until I get round to shredding it. I have always hated winter and so will do decorating in those miserable days of winter!!
Regards Lorna

[jennym]

I always feel a bit sad when the last of the summer things are picked too, but then I do get a sort of pleasure out of seeing parts of the plot neatly dug, and covered, ready for next year. Lorna, winter is my decorating time of year, too, and there's a fair bit to be done here ;D

[Tulipa]

Me too, I picked runners and courgettes today but feel there may be only one more meal of each to come and am really sad about it.  

I still have leeks, parsnips, beetroot, carrots, spinach beet and chard in the ground plus a some green tomatoes that don't seem to want to ripen any more, so not too bad really but the bare patches look so sad.  

I shall plant some broad beans and garlic soon which will help, but I don't want it to be winter, I still want to be in my garden... :(

[valmarg]

I hate this time of year as well.  Shutting everything down for the winter, nothing much to pick for several months.

Last weekend was the autumn equinox, so all we've got to look forward to is six months of more dark than light.  Gloom!!

But hey, three months tomorrow and it will be New Year's Eve, we will have turned the corner, and it will be getting lighter again.

It's just the next three months that really get me down!!

Anyway, we have the 2007 catalogues coming through the letterbox, to cheer us up, and start planning how much better we are going to do next year.

It's just the next three months!!

valmarg

[grawrc]

I hate the short days and the long nights, the cold and the rain, but I love getting all the beds A1 sorted and ready for planting. I also love the gradually improving soil - heavy clay when I started 2 years ago. Now very friable top 3-4 inches....

[cambourne7]

but you got months of pouring over the seed catalogues planning - thats just as much fun!

[saddad]

I'm with Graw on that... as I drive to work I love to see the overwinter wheat coming through... I expect to see things germinating in Spring but in Autumn it reminds me of the resurrection... no matter how dark it is today new life is only a matter of time...
::)

[Mrs Ava]

O, see, I don't mind.  I like to see areas clear, nicely dug, plenty of organic matter going down, and I like the change from summer 'soft' veg to good winter veggies.  I love the changes in season, I don't like the early dark nights, but I like to see the soft garden lights lighting the garden as it looks so beautiful lit up in the winter.  I like the change in the weather, it has been mild for so long!  I love the planning, and the excitement of the growing year ahead.  I also enjoy taking cuttings, sowing overwintering seeds and not cutting the grass so much!!  ;D

[mc55]

I got rid of all of my outdoor tomatoes, squash and pumpkins yesterday - they were an absolute mess.  Also cleared out the potting shed so that I can dry off my pumkins & squashes.

Dug over 4 beds and planted my garlic and onion sets.  Weirdly I love to look at the freshly dug beds, they are so beautifully tidy and neat.  Will plant my broad beans next month.

I hate the nights drawing in though, can't get to lottie before its dark in the evening now, so can only visit at the w/e  :'( 

Will hopefully dismantle and move greenhouse over the winter (from a friends garden to the lottie) - although its been on the to-do list since May ....

[busy_lizzie]

Still feel quite good, because I am still harvesting stuff.  Came home today with 3 butternuts, brussel sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, some potatoes, some spinach and some sweetcorn. We have started clearing the plot a little too, but the sun was shining this morning and it felt good to be out digging.  The time I feel sad is when winter is well and truly here, and you get those dark winter days when it never seems to get light and you can't do any gardening at all but are just stuck in the house with cabin fever. Then I feel really sad and depressed, and it seems like a long time before spring.  For the moment I am still enjoying the early autumn.  :) busy_lizzie

[grawrc]

I think I shifted over a hundredweight of potatoes this weekend. Can't be bad..

[cambourne7]

Hi

I got a courgette from the lottie yesterday, I still have 2 beds of spuds to get out and hope the slugs have not got to them!

Felt rotten that i could only spend a couple of hours on the plot yesterday as the weed membrane has been taken over by foot high nettles which take no time to pick but its something else now i have to do.

I go so fed up ficing fulled the wheelbarrow twice and given my compost bin is still in peices i cheated and gathered up all my green stuff and black bagged it to go in my green bin!

I got 6 black sacks into mine and my neighbours bins :-) ( dont panic i have 2 green bins as i recycle so much stuff!)

so tonigh i am dropping the husband to the beer festival as payment for his help tomorrow jobs to do this weekend dependant on weather

• Finish Compost bin
• Clear weeds
• Cover bottom of fence on 2 sides of plot with fine netting to stop weeds growing through
• Replace roof on shed and make watertight
• put floor into shed and clad walls
• but shelfing up in shed
• put up guttering
• Finish filling raised beds
• dig out to spades dept my asparagus bed and fill with horse manure
• harvest potatoes
• finish covering weed membrane with wood chips
• plant winter onions
• Build fruit cage 34ft by 14ft
• prepare beds for fruits that i am buying in october

Over christmas i also need to save up for some pourous hose pipe which i want to put in my raised beds and will be feeding from pipes that link to a large 220ltr water but.

I also have an idea for adding some doubled over plastic sheeting to the top of some of the fruit cage with a small pipe feeding from the bottom layer to top up an extra water but that will be located in the fruit cage feeding my fruits via a drip feeding system.

ok looking out the window and am now feeling very sad!!!

:-(

[Trixiebelle]

That's an impressive list Cambourne! I've got a few of those things to do and THEN SOME  ;D

I felt a bit better today. It absolutely POURED it down with rain so I sat in the shed with a flask of hot soup, the radio, 3 chickens and a paraffin heater.

A perfect excuse not to be out weeding/digging and just looking at the last of the crops in the garden, the ducks running about in the rain  and the Marshall's Seed Catalogue ;D

[cambourne7]

Hi

How i envy you that one :-) sheds not water tight so cant realy shelter. I am more likly to run for the car and home :-(

I suffer with the wind as we on the top of a hill, well ok were on the edge of the sloap near the top of the hill more than rain. We even have a wind turbine near us as its so windy.

I have been looking at the various ways i can get the fruit cage to stay up nd am waiting for a quote on having scafolding put up ( old servicable stuff ) or 4by4 wood. I have a budget of £150 for the cage ( 34ft by 14ft ) but the scafolding is my prefered option :-)

Was going to sick anti bird spikes on the top of it and spray it green with some metal paint to make it blend in with the existing fencing.

And they would but it up :-)

Whats on your list?

c7

[Trixiebelle]

C7! My shed's not watertight either! I just sit in the corner where it doesn't leak  and put plastic bags over my Father-In-Law in case he gets mouldy  ;D

[Trixiebelle]

P.S. I cut out 'breathing holes' for him.

[Multiveg]

Pumpkins harvested so that the patch can be cleared to make raised beds.

I do feel a bit sad at the end of the season, but look forward to next year by reading the seed catalogues and deciding what lovelies to grow.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's not the most inspiring time of year, but if we didn't have autumn and winter, we wouldn't have spring either.

[cambourne7]

I am going to go into work tomorrow and get home early so i can finish off a few things during day light hours following my complete failure to get to the plot today.

Was so sore from saturday and i was up till 4am in pain and took some pain killers and crashed till 4pm!

so only managed to clear a couple of the beds that I wanted to :-(

Going to take my wellies and change of clothes to work with me and head straight to the site so if i finish work at 4pm i can get to the site by 4.30-4.45 still 2 and a half daylight hours - yippie Will try and keep that up tuesday and wednesday. Just have to get out of bed early!  :-[

Cambourne7