Late September garden givings

It’s late September. Storm Agnes is drenching us with rain and battering us with wild gusts. Heeding storm warnings, yesterday we removed the last of the sunflowers to the dead hedge. A few blooms remained even though the plants were leaning this way that, buffeted by autumn wind. While it seemed a shame to take the sunflowers out while there were still flowers, the seeds will be food for birds and insects rummaging in the dead hedge. The stalks, too woody to chop up for the compost bin, will help build up the hedge too.

The last of the sunflowers

Autumn may be truly upon us, but the garden is still giving in spades. Having dealt with the sunflowers yesterday, we picked French and runner beans, a few small courgettes (love them this size), radishes (good in stir fries if you don’t like them raw), sprouting broccoli, coriander and, from the polytunnel, tomatoes and lettuce.

Late September garden produce

Clearing the polytunnel of the cucumber and tomatoes is under way to make way for the lettuce, chard, pak choi and kohl rabi already sown in modules and placed on shelving to germinate. The kohl rabi planted a few weeks ago in the polytunnel is growing well but not quite the golf ball size ideal for picking yet.

In the plot there are rocket and scallions we could pick, and lettuce and kohl rabi under fleece to look forward to. The beetroot are still quite small and we’re not sure how much more they will grow. After the foliage has died down and we’ve had the first frost we’ll harvest oca, which we’ve never grown before. We planted just nine tubers from Seed Savers and are wondering what the yield will be like. Watch this space.