The kitchen garden in September

It’s been a glorious end to September, blue skies and low autumnal sunshine giving the garden a rich golden glow.

Our apples and pears have cropped heavily this year and we’ve started to pick our bounty. The pear trees branches are drooping heavily with weight of the fruit. Sadly I’ve just noticed an apple trees that is leaning at a 45° angle with the weight of its harvest. I’m hoping I can pull the trunk back up with a sturdy stake and a tree strap.

I’m still filling the house with flowers from the cutting border. The sunflowers are fabulous, but, it’s the dahlias that are the star of the show, they really take off into another dimension come the autumn. Long may the frosts evade us.

We continue to crop courgettes, tomatoes, kale, spinach, salad leaves, runner beans and beetroot. We’ve just started to harvest our butternut squash and borlotti beans. An oddity for this time of year, I cut our first crop of purple sprouting broccoli, I can only think I sowed it far too early. It was not a pleasant addition to our supper, six caterpillars were discovered floating in the water and further intruders were discovered on our plates. It’s not all rosy living the ‘Produce from the garden’ good life!

As usual here’s the September summary in pictures:

SunflowerInstant happiness! Cut and come again sunflowers.Cosmos PurityA sea of cosmos ‘purity’PearsPearsApple and pear harvestApple and pear harvestBorlotti beansBorlotti beans, dried in their pods on the plant. I can’t wait for a borlotti bean and sausage stew!Tomatoes in greenhouseTomatoes still going strong in the greenhousePlum tomatoesDelicious plum tomatoesHerb bedMy herb bed, packed with sage, thyme, parsley, oregano, chives and garlic chives with their beautiful white pom pom flowersButternut squash HunterButternut squash ‘Hunter’Runner bean flowersRunner beans flowering and cropping wellCourgetteCourgettesKale RedborTastes amazing, looks stunning in the vegetable patch and will see us through till springKale Cavolo NeroCavolo Nero, an italian kale perfect with pasta, it will also see us through until SpringPurple sprouting broccoliThe offending purple sprouting broccoli, fingers crossed it will be at its peak after Christmas

A mornings harvest and more cabbage white caterpillar problems

Every morning I potter into the Kitchen garden and gather the ripe and ready produce. Today it feels as though the kitchen garden has moved up a gear.The harvest!

 This mornings harvest

Courgettes, mini cucumbers, tomatoes, beetroot, runner beans, French beans, salad leaves, cosmos and dahlias, all producing a hearty crop on a daily basis. Apart from the beetroot, they’re all cut and come again crops, so the more I harvest the more they’ll produce. They just need a good daily water and occasional feed.

The cabbage white butterflies have found my purple sprouting broccoli for the second time this year; sadly the caterpillars have caused far more damage on this occasion, munching their way through several of the plants. They’re all about to be re-homed in the compost heap.

Cabbage white caterpillarsThe culprits!Purple sprouting broccoliThe damage!