The Autumn Vegetable Garden Reset Has Begun | Gardening Vlog

We are moving headlong in to early autumn now. The weather is noticeably cooler at night and the whole garden is getting that slightly dishevelled and untidy look about it. I’m not sad about this, it’s utterly charming to see so much growth and plants throwing out seeds of promise for the next season.

The autumn (or fall) reset is quite a common idea in the home and garden sector. Packing away the summer chairs and cushions from the garden, setting out the autumnal colour accents around the home. It made me realise the garden is the same. The colours of autumn are slowly creeping in, as the lush vibrant greenness of summer is replaced by yellow and browning leaves and our kitchen gardens or allotments start to wind down at the end of a truly magical growing season.

I’m not totally ready for the season to be over but I’m looking forward to the change. It’s something I’ve often been keen to avoid in all aspects of life but every season with a garden is transitory. What’s being lost now will soon be returning again next year. It’s makes it so much easier to accept.

This week has been a tough week for the household as we now have to adapt to becoming full time carers for my mother in law, after a recent hospital stay and complicated diagnosis. I apologise that this video is not my usual type of production. It’s been tricky to film but I’m hoping the pressure will ease as we adapt to our new normal.

With that said, there’s still lots to look forward to. @SowChatty returns next Tuesdays, 9th September At 7pm on Kerry’s channel @dogontheplot

We can’t wait for you to join us. We will be discussing green manure/cover crops, among other things. If you have any questions on this topic (or any other burning questions) please post them in the comments below and we’ll
Endeavour to answer as many as we can.

Channels mentioned in this video:
@dogontheplot

Items you may find useful:
Prunarbo 50mm Electric Shears https://amzn.to/47rMUFa

The above link is an affiliate link. You won’t be charged any extra but I may receive a small commission on any purchases made.

#gardeningvideos #vegetablegarden #allotment #backyardgarden

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Hello, welcome back. Now, I can hardly believe we are already in the month of September. And September is still a very busy jungle-like month on the vegetable garden, but it’s also the start the very start of the autumn reset. And I’m armed with some tools to make my start. Now, I’ve always thought the sweet corn plants have the funkiest roots on them, don’t they? They’re like fingers. They are well rooted in as well. Are they weird? Now, when I was harvesting the corn last week, I said I should be careful what I wish for because I thought I had way too much corn to process. But it turns out that I absolutely didn’t. Once it was all peeled and chopped, boiled, and some of it was scraped from the cobs to just vacuum seal, I could have had another bed. So whilst it is a job it took me ages to do and it wasn’t the most fun I’ve had, I actually think I might be doing two bit of sweet corn next year. I didn’t do this last year, but I have read this year to keep the roots in the ground to help improve the soil structure. So, that’s what I’m going to do. I know I use it every week, but honestly can’t tell you how pleased I am with Prunarbo because as you can see here, it’s not very easy to try Oh, eventually chop through them. In fact, I don’t think I’m going to get through that one. That is looking much neater now. Now, before I finish with this bed, these are the flowerheads from the northern light leaks, which I’m trying to save the seed from. So, I’m pretty certain that they’re well pollinated by now. So, what I’m going to do is squeeze them inside these little bags. Going to tie it on quite tightly. And I’m hoping that when the seeds drop off, I’ll be able to collect them and save those seeds to sew again for next year. These are just organza bags that I bought from that place with a smile on the box. They look quite cute in their little organza bags, don’t they? And I’m hoping that the zenyas keep going for quite some time and they do seem to be having a bit of a resurgence. So, I’m really happy with that. But there’s another bed that needs clearing. And well, I thought I was going to be harvesting from it, but I’m not because I’ve let this one go too far. And it’s this cabbage here. So, it was absolutely fine on Wednesday. I haven’t seen it since then. It’s Friday afternoon now and well, a lot of rain yesterday means it’s blown [Applause] and it is not looking particularly nice in there. It’s not like it’s just blown. I’m assuming it must have gone yesterday morning because it’s all gone a bit of a funny color on the edges. So, I won’t be using this. But I have just spotted something incredibly cute on the back of it. Look at that. A little fluffy caterpillar. I don’t know what variety of moth or butterfly he’s going to turn into, but he’s super cute. He’s speedy as well. Wow. Where am I going to put you? Now, it’s a little bit different with the brassacas because I’m so terrified of club fruit. I don’t like to leave their roots in the ground. So, I will be discarding those. Now that this bed behind me is empty, the sweet corn bed is empty, and obviously you saw me clear the pea bed last week, I need to start thinking what I’m going to be doing over winter with these beds. Am I putting them to bed? Am I going to be sewing some cover crops? Or am I indeed going to be sewing cat crops? Maybe I could just grow cats. Mabel. Mabel. I’m going to go and get her. I’m back. This is Mabel. Isn’t she cute? This is Chip, the black cat that you normally see. This is Chip’s sister. You’re from the same litter, aren’t you? She’s looking at the butterflies now. You’re very pir. Go on then. Off you go. Sorry about that. I am easily distracted by cats, dogs, horses, cows, birds, anything really. Anyway, where were we? We were talking about what I’m going to be doing with my beds over winter. Whether I’m sewing cover crops, winter crops, or just putting the beds to bed. Now, I’ve decided that because a lot of crops are finishing earlier this year that I actually want to be sewing some cover crops to give them a real proper go of it. And it’s actually something that we’re going to be discussing on So Chatty next Tuesday. And you’ll be seeing that episode on K’s channel, Dog on the Plot, at 7 p.m. That’s the 9th of September. Now, these episodes are pre-recorded, but I will be in the premiier live chat at 7:00 p.m. So, you can join me there to ask anything about the episode while you’re watching it. And it’s also available on Spotify. Now, one cover crop that should already be sewn before the end of August is this one here. And this is red clover, which means I’ve decided that I’m not waiting until next week’s episode. I really want to give this a go. So, I’m going to be sewing some in this bed that you’ve just watched me empty. And I’m hoping to move some of it and have it around maybe the raspberry canes next year because those flowers are beautiful. I don’t want to be digging it over before they come out. So, I am just going to go ahead and get these in the ground. She says if I knew how to open the packet. Oh, they’re quite big seeds actually. Oh, and they’re all on the floor in the wood chip. I believe with a cover crop, you just broadcast sew them. But I’m sure if I’m doing that wrong, we can discuss that on Tuesday. You know, I’m standing here now, having just finished that bed, and I really want you to see what I can see when I turn around with the camera because the garden, even though it’s becoming more empty at the moment, it just looks amazing. Honestly, I’m feeling quite emotional about it. Take the empty bed out of the equation and just look at the Oh, just look at it. It looks gorgeous, doesn’t it? It’s so vibrant. And it’s so hard to believe that in another month, most of it’ll be gone. I can’t wrap my head around that. And last year, I was so sad at the end of the season, you know, when it was all closing down. I was really distraught to be honest with you because you know it was my first season with the plot and it was just it was just everything that I wanted it to be and it just felt final saying goodbye to the crops but obviously now another year of experience I know that this is only temporary both the season that I’m enjoying right now and the more barren season over winter it’s all temporary it won’t be long before we start again with a new season and I just I can’t wait. I can’t wait. I’m I’m excited for what’s to come and not just the winter crops, but for next year as well. Now, that said, I’m not prepared to say goodbye to everything just yet, and I’m certainly not prepared to be saying goodbye to the good weather that we’ve been enjoying. I mean, look at that cloud behind me, the sun in front of me, but that looks a bit ominous, doesn’t it? Now, if I walk underneath this archway, those birdhouse gourds outside, they are not catching up with the ones in the poly tunnel. I’ll show you those in a minute. But I’m still pleased with them. I’m hopeful that they are going to mature and I’m going to be able to make some probably more appropriately sized birdhouses out of these. Those straw flowers that are next to it now. They’re starting to go over and starting to look a little bit tatty. Absolutely fascinated with them still. I’m going to try and save some seeds from them. And if we look at this one down here, I’m guessing this is kind of at the stage of seeds in there. Oh yeah, there they are. Look. Hang on a minute. Let me tip them out into my hand. Wow, look at that. Seed harvest. Saving some seeds is definitely something I want to be doing more of this year, especially things like the straw flowers because they aren’t the cheapest seeds to buy. And I will be saving some seeds from the sunflowers over the archways. And you’ll be pleased to hear after I keep talking about it, it’s finally time to start thinking about saving some of these sweet pea seeds. I’ve still got some of those organza bags in my pocket. So, I might as well just pull them off with that. And it’s quite good actually because I can still see some of the colors of the flowers. Not that I particularly care what color the flowers are as long as they’re sweet peas, but it does mean that I can try and pick a few pods that are from different plants to get some variation for next season. I think that’s enough. I got a little bag of them there, but there’s going to be plenty of seeds in there. And I have to admit, I have already bought some for next year because when I was out with Kerry at Fairways last week, was it? Or was it the week before now? Um, no, it was the week before. It was the week before. It was two weeks ago nearly, isn’t it? I could not resist some of the double colored varieties that were on sale there. So, I have already bought myself some sweet pea. So, probably don’t really need these, but I’m trying trying to be good. Now, staying on the theme of things that are growing in pods, these are my balotti beans. And I am really thrilled to see that there are quite a lot of pods on here now. Far more than I had last year. In fact, it’s really rather laden. So, as much as I didn’t do very well early in the season, we’re looks like we’re going to be doing well now. Everything on here looks incredibly healthy, including the French beans on this side. There’s loads of them coming. I mean, obviously that one’s a little bit too small, and so are these. But when you delve in deeper, you find the ones that you’ve actually missed buried right inside. But I’ll still eat them. Family not so keen, but I’ll still eat them. It makes me so happy seeing them. I was waiting so long for any French beans and now I am literally inundated with them. Now something else I’d like to show you that’s doing really strange things on the garden but looks super cool is a dia. This dia is a variety called patches. And this was bought for me by a friend last year after the death of my own horse that was by the same name. And I have quite a few of them. There was a few tubers in the packet. And on this plant over here is another bloom coming out. Look what’s happening here. It’s the same plant and it has one head just the solid pink color. It’s absolutely beautiful, isn’t it? I’m pretty certain there’s a reason why they do that. Because if I walk around here to this side, you can see that there’s a dia just about to open on this side that’s doing the same thing. One thing that’s impossible to ignore in the garden though when I walk in are these birdhouse gourds. These are the later pollinated ones. But they very quickly grown to a magnificent size and I keep banging my head on them. They are so hard. They are so so tough and very heavy and they definitely hurt your head when you walk into them repeatedly every day. Now these ones down the side of the poly tunnel are the original ones that pollinated. And this is all the same plant. It’s grown that much. It’s ridiculous. They are absolutely massive. But the mottling is becoming more pronounced on those now. So, I’m assuming that’s a good sign that they are further along on their maturity. But it is getting quite cold in here overnight now. And you can see that the melons and the cucumbers, they’re just not quite looking as happy as they were only a few short weeks ago. But on the complete flip side of that, the lofah has suddenly decided to spring back into life, having only given me a few flowers pollinated earlier in the season and then really struggling for the majority of the summer. Look at it now. It’s putting up some female flowers. But unfortunately, there’s no male flowers, so these won’t get pollinated. Even if there is or isn’t, I don’t know, time for them to produce a harvestable lofah. Anyway, I just swing by the patty pans. You can see that they are starting to get a little bit of powdery mildew now. So, I guess they won’t be long before they’ll be starting to look pretty tatty and coming to their end. And as much as I do like eating them, I can’t say that on that aside that they might be thinking about coming to an end because we have eaten a lot of summer squashes this year. Now, if I move out onto this part of the garden, I’ve been meaning to show you this for a couple of weeks now because this is the fig tree, and I did show you it at the beginning of July, and a couple of months later, the extra growth it’s put on it is out of this world. I am really thrilled with how it’s looking. And there are little figlets on it. I don’t know what they’re going to do over winter. They’re probably going to drop off, aren’t they? But I have high hopes for it for future years. And in fact, it’s done so well since I put it in this planter. As much as I don’t want to move it, I’m now starting to worry that it might be too big to be planted here. And if I’m going to move it, do I need to move it sooner rather than later before it potentially roots through the membrane that’s in there and I cause it enormous issues to move it. Now, while I’m going to have to wait a while for the fig tree to give me fruit, I don’t think I’m going to have to wait any longer for some of these apples because I’m pretty certain that I might have an apple ready. Because if you look in here, look what I’ve just spotted. What a beast. It’s huge. I think when the fruit trees start harvesting as well, you’ll really know that you’re stepping into the autumn reset, don’t you? Ah, so much work to do. So much to be harvested still and a lot to be thankful for, including so chatty on Tuesday. So, hope to see you there. I’m sorry that this is a bit shorter video than normal, but my mother-in-law came out of hospital only yesterday and it’s a little bit fullon at home at the moment. So, I’ve just grabbed a spare hour to come and do a little bit of filming, but I’m going to get back to my care duties right now. See you on Tuesday. Look after yourself. Bye.