Greenhouse Clear Out

With the sun shinning I managed to have a bit of time in the garden yesterday to get a few jobs done. My youngest "assistant" has been poorly all day and spent a large chunk of the afternoon sleeping in bed, she's just a bit under the weather with a bad cold and a bit of sickness, but when they're little it hits them hard. 

A little messy

 Me and Ev decided to get some jobs done close to the house (within range of the baby monitor), one of which was to sort out the mess that is my greenhouse. I got all the old tomato plants down and stacked in the burning pile and the buckets of compost taken down the garden and piled up ready for a mammoth raised bed I'm planning. 

 I then swept it out and brought in a few plants I want to have a little extra protection. My Chilean Guavas have put on loads of growth over the summer and it would be a shame to loose them to a hard frost. My fig "cuttings" are now four feet tall and show little embro fruits on them, so I might have a fig or two next year if I'm lucky, I still think it's best to keep these young plants in the greenhouse although I plan to plant some out at some point.

Fig trees over 4ft big now

Spent compost/soil mix ready to make a raised bed. Crocks and rocks in the bucket ready to be reused new year.

Show's how warm it is - Ev spent ages playing with caterpillars all afternoon 

My cuttings and strawberries grown from seed.

If it was colder I would have done all this sooner, but it's been so mild things are just only just starting to die off. I'm starting to feel a little bit more organised in the garden which is a good thing.

A quick question - does everyone else bring their bay trees into the greenhouse to over winter or do you just risk it and leave them out (assuming they're in pots like mine)? How often do you water plants over wintered in a greenhouse - like me when you remember - Or are you more organised?

Unusual Fruits Ripening

The last few weeks has seen some of my more unusual fruit ripen on our little homestead.

The first was the musk melon, although to be fair to it I think the vine died off before it had chance to ripen fully. As such it was a little tasteless, completely edible though and probably alright in a fruit salad. I will try to grow these again though, as I planted them pretty late so they didn't really have a fair shot at producing fruit with such a short season. 

Musk Melon

 The second was our little Cocktail Kiwi plant. This tastes amazing, just like normal kiwi fruits only with no fuzz so you just pop the grape sized fruit straight into your mouth. I recommend planting this to anyone reading this blog. The books say when it's mature it can produce a thousand fruits so great for preserving.

Cocktail kiwi

 Another new fruit (to me anyway) is the Chilean Guava. This is another great tasting berry. The only down side is the skin is a little tough, luckily the fruit is so nice tasting, like a spiced blueberry, that you don't notice the skin too much. I'm glad I've got six of these plants, they have put on no end of growth this year, so hopefully I'll have plenty of berries in the future.

Chilean Guava

Has anyone else grown or eaten any interesting fruit this year?

Planting Chilean Guavas "Kapow"

I've been quite interested in  James Wong's "Home Grown Revolution" range from Sutton seeds. Lots of interesting and usual fruit and veg to try and grow. The other day I was feeling a little rash and ordered some things they had on special offer, one was 6 Chilean Guava plants for £10 (reduced down from £47.86). 

Well packaged delivery

 They're meant to taste like a cross between a blueberry and a strawberry and grow much like a blueberry bush with berries that are meant to be good for eating fresh as well as drying and preserving. The plants turned up looking healthy and strong (although the delivery driver had left them in full sun so it was lucky I wasn't out for too long as they'd all be dead).

Already the potential for berries this autumn.

How to ruin a perfectly good bucket... Er I mean pot

Drainage holes drilled

My mix for the plants 50-50 soil and compost with some wood ash and blood, fish and bone added for good measure

Rocks and pebbles in the bottom of each "pot" for drainage

Six "pots" ready to go

Instructions

Good roots on each plant, a little teasing of the roots out before they were planted, but I'm never sure if it makes much difference.

Placed at the front of the house where there's a slight micro climate due to the south facing wall.

I decided to plant them in pots as after dong some research on the plants, Suttons claim of them being tolerant down to minus 10 might be a little optimistic, so for the first few years they will over winter in the greenhouse to give them a little more protection, although I might leave one plant out and see how it fairs.

And as for the buckets rather than pots, it works out much cheaper than big pots (these were only one pound each) and they seem to last much longer than some pots you buy, as well as having carrying handles (compost womans suggestion from a while ago and it seems like a good idea).

Anyone else been trying new fruit or veg this year? There seems to be lots of interesting things about at the moment and I'm keen to try as many as possible.