There is nothing better than being able to chat with a like minded friend.  Someone who won’t roll their eyes when you start moaning about your tomatoes and will get equally excited when you tell them the number of eggs the chickens are laying. Comparing notes about what’s growing in our respective veggie plots was a comforting experience.  To know that another novice grower is also wondering how big your pumpkin plants should be growing or whether you’ve spawned a triffid.

We were both as clueless about when the potatoes should be lifted.  The rule of thumb as I understand it is after they’ve finished flowering.  But what if they don’t seem to have flowered or the flowers blew away in a freak gale.  A couple of weeks ago common sense prevailed and I checked my veggie calendar where I’d written down when I could expect the spuds to be ready.  I admit to feeling just a little dumb to realise that I was already a week late.  My Granddad in law will be tutting at me if he read this blog!

I’ve never grown spuds before and like most things in my kitchen garden they were planted late with a wish for a miracle.  But since miracles have been happening with my growing adventure I was highly excited about harvesting the potatoes.  So much so that I forgot to check my garden planting plan and started to dig up the main crop rather than the earlies.  Sheesh, what a beginners mistake! But for all the angst I dug up some fresh new spuds and I’m rather proud of them.

They tasted brilliant although were not really the required ingredient for his lordships banqueting plans that day.  He did see sense in the end though and we’ve been enjoying these new spuds since.  I can highly recommend them as potato salad with a few snips of chives from the herb potager.

Same day as the spuds came out of the ground I pulled up some other root vegetables which between you and me have been a bit of a surprise.  I planted two types of turnip and I thought they’d take ages to grow only to realise on my calendar that they don’t. So even before autumn set in we’ve had our first vegetable stew made with vegetables from the garden (spuds, turnips, carrots, celery and onions together with some herbs).  I did feel very virtuous that day.

Away from the root vegetable section there is still plenty of growth.  The fridge is groaning with courgettes and brocolli is prodigious in its growth that unless you’re quick with the harvest it can bolt during the course of a day.  I need to get a bit handier with the freezing regime.  I’m keeping a close eye on the kale and fennel too.  I’m hoping MT will cook up one of his delicious fennel risottos this weekend.

There are also cabbages, beans and peas coming through.  I’ll be pickling up a batch of red cabbage this week and also braising some for the freezer as there is nothing better than some hearty red cabbage when the nights are dark and you’re bundled up for winter.

It’s not all sweetness and light in the kitchen garden though.  The aubergines are growing but not a hope that they will produce anything this year.  Also the peppers and chilli plants are a non event too.  Even if they were planted earlier they would have struggled without the massive amount of sunlight they really need to thrive. I do like looking at the tomatoes for their weird shapes.  I planted heirloom organic varieties which are supposed to have great taste so I look forward to putting that to the test next year.

Controlling the bassets is a full time occupation too.  Now that they’ve worked out where the peas and beans hang it’s tough to stop them scavenging. But stop I do since I want as many greens as I can for our table not basset tummies.  It’s always a fight to keep the courgettes off them too.  No accounting for canine taste.  Sometimes they are content just to lay in the sun between the beds and keep me company.  Other times they want to “help” and seem bemused when they get yelled out to “get offfffff”!

All in all I am pleased with how things have gone so far in the garden.  I’ve planted out my asparagus seedlings, leeks, onions and swedes.  I’m trying to grow some more salads greens so we’ll see how they fair.  The thing I enjoy most is to be able to wander around in the evening sun.  It’s like a spotlight on what’s growing there and it seems that all the plants strain to catch the last of the rays.

Even though I had a clear picture in my mind of what the garden should be like before it was built, I still have to pinch myself when I sit on the edge and look at it.  A small patch of food production in the big country backdrop of where we live.

In those moments of contemplation I think through the importance of writing down all that’s happened this year so I can learn from all the lessons so far.  I know it’s something I should do but can’t help feel that I know it won’t so just as well I keep this blog so that I do have a record of some of what happens.  But you never know I might manage to find the time.  And then there might be a list of other chores that has to be done first. Or some photography, or baking.  Oh so many things to think about!