The Gooden Life

Keith and Freya are ruminating on this growing season and putting the plot to bed for the winter. Digging and covering some beds, but also keeping an eye and the greens and other crops they'll be earing over this winter.But now it's time to start planning for next spring and remembering of course, to get your chilli seeds in on January 1st!We'll be back in February!

Keith & Freya are popping in their 2027 crop of garlic cloves, so they can harvest a crop in July next year!We are planting the normal cooking variety and also some elephant garlic, the giant ones which are mild and very good if you're rustling up a stir fry!The spuds ae nearly all up and the greens are catching up after the summer heatwaves but still shorter than we'd expect at this time of year!

Keith & Freya are cracking on and digging more of the main crop potatoes this week with mixed results. There's an invasion of Tomatoes! With cropping underway and pounds and pounds coming from 15 or 20 plants in total.And what effect is the changing climate having on our plot? Well, the Jerusalem artichokes are flowering in October, the lettuce and salad seeds we planted six months ago are now growing away, and the summer droughts have hurt the potato crop...... In places...

Keith & Freya are digging just a few main crop potato plants to see what level of crop they can expect this year.  The bugs are still trying to eat our green veg and it's planting time for Italian white endive and spring greens.If you haven't taken on a plot we've got some tips for you just in case the waiting lists are years long or you've got your eyes on that nice little patch of scrubland around the corner...... (Tip: Plant some seeds)

Keith & Freya are back up the 'lotty this week sowing the salad leaves which will fill our plates this autumn and winter...An update on the mellow yellow courgette harvest and how have we been doing in the battle against he brassica white fly and plate beetles?All that and an update on how the plants and crops are reviving after five heatwaves this summer!

Keith and Freya are in the strawberry beds making the most of the free plants nature provides, by planting the runners still attached to their umbilical cords. That's next year's and the year after's delicious strawberries and you've just got to take the trouble to root them. We are still cropping our runner beans too, and putting the wigwam they're trained up in partial shade has really paid dividends this year with a bumper crop.And after cropping our second early spuds it's time to start re-feeding the beds they have come out of... It's poo time!

Keith &Freya are in the August lull, the pause, that gap between the hard work of planting into the start of the harvest. This year that harvest has started early , with the heatwaves we've been having in the Cotswolds .So it's time to turn our heads and hands to plot-keeping, the little jobs (and not so little), that need doing. Painting, fence mending, general maintenance.It's also an opportunity to watch the wildlife and make sure they have water and snacks, because this weather is hard on them too!