Garden jobs for October

This is as bit of a pretend as I don't do most of these things because we are not here through the winter but this is one I do try to do in hopes I see it - plant bulbs in a layer in a pot.

- Buy tulips now while they're fresh in garden centres, but hold off planting till next month
- clear away summer bedding and annuals and compost them
- sow sweet peas in pots and keep in cold frame or unheated greenhouse over the winter
- prune tall roses to reduce wind rock
- pot up strawberry runners
- lift last of main-crop potatoes and store in paper or Hessian bags in the dark
- pot up herbs and bring indoors to keep you going through the winter

You will see tips for sowing broad beans and hardy peas for an early crop next year.  I honestly think we are too far North - I have never had success with it.  You might have a nice warm micro-climate in your garden so it may be worth a try.

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Young Gardeners

A couple of weeks ago I volunteered to help try to get some youngsters interested in gardening. The Community Group have a raised bed on the lotty which they could use.  if we actually end up with any interested in doing it for real next Spring we will need more than one bed.

For now this is it.  Ken and I pulled up all the weeds and covered it in cardboard to keep the weeds down for next year.

It looks a bit coffin like as it measure 3 x 8 feet - not much to go at there.

I am trying to set up a growing challenge with prizes throughout the winter - quite tough trying to find something for them to grow.  The one for September was the ubiquitous bean challenge. They also have to record four stages of its growth on a sheet which I have given them which then goes in their folder.  This is my bean after a week!

October's challenge will be a hyacinth in a hyacinth glass if Summerseat 'helps out'.

Putting the lotty to bed

This is the last photo of growing things for this year.  There are still loads of flowers and unripe strawberries on the plants and the rhubarb yielded three pounds of glorious stuff before this shot was taken.  I know I am not supposed to pick it this year but really how can you see three pounds of puddings rot away?

You might notice I have removed the bird netting until next Spring to help preserve it.

This is what the other two beds looked liked when we left.  Covered in cardboard to stop the weeds.

We also laid down down weed suppressing cardboard - aka Ikea boxes - where I want two more beds to go.  Fingers crossed that happens over the winter some time.  I am on a promise.

So, here we go - farewell lotty.  We'll check again next month but then that is pretty much it until next April.

Food again!

I know I recently wrote that this blog wasn't supposed to be about cooking but about gardening..... I know....I know.......... but the two are inextricably linked for me.  The whole purpose of the lotty is to grow stuff to eat!

I am still using up our spuds and have started on the beans we put in the freezer.  Yesterday we had ham (2 lbs weight?) which I roast in the oven for a couple of hours covered for the first one and a half hours and open for the other half hour at 180  degrees.  The point of this post though was to share the spud 'recipe' - more a method really but it is one of my absolute favourites because it is just a case of lobbing it in the oven with something slow roasting like the ham (or any other joint) and bob's your whatnot.

I am sorry the photo is a half attacked dinner but that was the point I decided to share the spud method with you.  Look in the Recipe section at the top under B for Bakehouse potatoes.

Photo albums

I have 58 web albums out there and have just discovered today that the link I have been happily posting here there and everywhere does not take you to them!  Apparently the (not-so) wonderful Picasa web albums doesn't have a single link to 'all albums' which you can pass out to folk - only a single link to each album.  Aaaaarrrggh!  This meant I have to sort out 58 albums between 11 blogs - and, believe me, it is a laborious process.  I have made a start and some blogs, like this one, are sorted.  

The irony is that when you get to a single album all you have to do to access all of them is click on the heading which says 'Marilyn Ormson's Gallery'.

Do as I say not as I do

Here's the list of my jobs for September.... yours will certainly be hugely different but maybe there is a reminder here for you:

Scarify the lawn - this will be the second September I haven't done it - just don't want to
Plant garlic Thermidrome - mmm not sure ...don't really want that amount of garlic
Plant tulips (add bonemeal)
Handful of bonemeal per square yard for the lawn sometime
Plant free daffs (from Summerseat)
Plant new strawberries in Ikea bag keep at the house until next year
Clean out the greenhouse (kill the monster cucumber plant)
Dig up last of potatoes
Pick last strawberries
Probably put the lotty to bed
Probably put outside furniture away
Slug pellet garden and bio slug pellet lotty
Cover lotty beds in cardboard to keep weeds down for next spring
Cover areas in lotty for new beds

Simplest is sometimes best

What we eat through the summer is dictated by what the lotty has produced that day/week.  We had our first rush of tomatoes and it set off a yen for fried - tomatoes - haven't had them in years.  Generous blob of unsalted butter in the pan - in with the tomatoes, some salt, some pepper, small pinch of sugar and go at them with a high heat and keep stirring gently until they are mushed and starting to caramelise.  Just yummy.  

We had them slathered on a half of a part-baked baguette with Tesco Finest chipolata sausages - cooked in the oven - 30 minutes at 190 centigrade.  Too much of everything to make a butty so we had to just pile it on a plate and knife and fork it.  I promise you it was the best lunch/dinner in ages.