Pinnacle

This must be the climax of the growing season: the 2014 carrot harvest.

Do I hear anyone chuckle? It is an improvement over last year’s harvest of about 500%. So if we keep on going at the same rate I reckon we’ll have enough carrots for one meal in about 5 years.

Luckily we’re more successful with the tomatoes. I took my machete (secateurs) to the tomato jungle and cleaned a path. The result is in the freezer in the form of tomato soup.

Indian summer and micro carrots

After the first autumn storm that floored what was left of the sunflowers, the weather turned for the better and we’ve been enjoying fabulous sunny days for the past few weeks. This provided a great opportunity for getting all the spent annuals out of the garden, move some plants around and….guess what do some more hard landscaping! The undergardener still had some plans for more curves and better defined edging. And who am I to oppose, the more flower/veg beds the better!

Removing the sunflowers, which grew remarkably big root clumps, I also came across my experimental carrot planting scheme. When the garden was exploding with plants this summer I still desperately wanted to squeeze some carrots in. So, I planted them in the gaps between the sunflowers. I can’t recommend that method, as they have grown the size of my fingernails in all these months.

It is good to see that we’re not the only ones enjoying the last rays of sunshine. The masses of bumblebees have disappeared (I’d like to say they moved South, although I don’t think they migrate…), but the last bees are hanging on to the few remaining flowers. Preparing for the winter by soaking up as much sunshine and nectar as possible. Perhaps there is sufficient room in our garden, next to the bird box, to hang an insect apartment block where they can crawl into, protected from the weather, so we can enjoy their visits again early next spring.