Taking Stock...

Weather: The tail end of an Indian summer - lots of sunny days. The forecast is stormy! Max 14C

Harvest since last post: (three weeks ago). The end of the summer veg. Spinach 14oz, Courgette (gold rush - all the green ones are long finished) 1lb 2oz Butternut Squash 2lb, Conference pears 10oz, Black Russian Tomatoes 5lb 8oz, Costuluto Fiorentino tomatoes 5lb 11 oz, Runner Beans 3lb 3oz, Chioggia Squash 25lb 10oz, Unripe tomatoes (mixed varieties) 12lb 8oz, Aubergine 2oz, Salsify (first pickings of the season) 8oz, Black Grapes 9 oz, French Beans 4oz. Plus some good pickings of parsley, thyme and bay leaves.

The leaves are turning as you can see from the photograph of the runner beans clambering in to the Crimson King Acer! The runner beans have had a bit of a late showing. They have been sparce until now with plenty appearing to have been fertilised but shrivelling and falling off rather than developing into edible beans. I know I wasn't the only grower to find this this year - although some people appear to have had brilliant crops. Why should this be?

I grew a traditional variety called Best of All - and the advice I had from several quarters was that it was probably lack of water or bad pollination. I did come across one other option on the various internet searches I did and that was that the nights may have been too warm for them. Although August was a horrible month with lots of rainfall and hardly any sunshine the average temperature wasn't particularly low - and that was down to warm nights. My walled garden is very sheltered and the day time warmth is stored in the stones creating a microclimate that must have kept the night time temperatures even higher than the local averages.

From mid September when the night time temperatures have dropped my beans have started cropping which to me points to that theory being my favourite!

I have spent this lovely early autumn weather battening down the hatches for winter and moving perennials in the flower garden. I also managed to empty one of my compost heaps so that I have space for the beans and other cuttings and clippings that are so plentiful at this time of year. The greenhouse has been cleared, as you can see, and the far end has been bubble wrapped to keep the heat in for my most tender plants.

And now is a good time to take stock of some of the successes and failures of the summer garden. The biggest failure were the Aubergines - I had six plants taking up two growbags and from them harvested barely one pound! With the grow bags at £5 each and taking into account tomato feed etc that brings them in at around £14 pounds a pound! Could it be that I ignored my In Tune with the Moon calendar at my peril here because I see from an earlier post that I didn't sow the seeds on an auspicious day for sowing fruit?

My chilis have been poor for a second year - two Prairie Fire plants have survived but I am only likely to get a dozen or so chilis and I used ten times that amount in a year. The seeds were from a two year old packet and they took little input in the way of special treatment so at least I didn't make a loss on these!

Top of my pops though this year has to be the Black Russian tomatoes. A huge crop - nearly 20lbs ripened and a further 4 lbs picked green but many will ripen. I had six plants in two grow bags so that adds up to £10 plus tomato feed etc say £15 maximum which brings them in at well under £1 a pound and they are the tastiest, juiciest tomatoes I have ever grown. They are fantastic to cook with and great in a salad - you can't ask more than that!

The Costuluto Fiorentino tomatoes had a similar if not slightly bigger crop but they were a bit dry and not nearly as tasty as the Black Russians. It may be that as an Italian variety they suffered from the lack of sun and would have had a better flavour it the growing conditions had been more favourable....on balance though I think I will try another variety as my 'red' tomato next season.

Any suggestions gratefully received!