Harvesting but still thinking ahead

Thursday September 1
Knowing that there would be a great deal of harvesting, I limited what work I set out to do on my visit. A late arrival at nearly 11 o'clock meant it was already warm but I set about cutting back the old canes on my summer raspberries. I also cut down the thinnest new canes leaving just the strongest. The crop this year was a bit sparse as it is the first crop since they were transplanted from the other end of the plot. However, the plants were old and growing wild before so if they don't crop well next year I shall be looking to replace them.
I now need to put in a wire along the row and tie the new canes in - before the wind damages them.
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Afterwards I used a draw hoe to make a trench between the runner bean plants as they were showing signs that they were not getting enough water probably because they are next to my Crab Apple tree. I had watered them last time but the water ran out into the potatoes next to them.

Then I started harvesting. Runner beans are cropping well now, both red flowered, Firestorm, and white flowered, Moonlight. I read that both are crossed with French beans which explains why they are supposed to be very tender, they certainly are tasty.

The climbing French beans, Cobra, on the other hand have been disappointing. They have been huge and rather tough so far, so I was pleasantly surprised to find some lovely young pods which I harvested. However, the dwarf French beans, Safari, also had to be picked and there was plenty of them.

I then turned my attention to the fruit. The early autumn raspberries, Polka, are cropping nicely giving large succulent berries and there were quite a few strawberries from my perpetual Mara De Bois.

There were also a few blackberries to pick. This is the first pickings from either of my blackberry plants but both are spreading out all across the plot and into nearby crops. I have already bought posts and plan to train them on wires along the boundary.

​The calabrese had several heads that were beginning to flower so I cut them. As well as this there were a couple of rather large green courgettes and several of my favourite yellow courgettes. Quite a haul to take home though I did remember to water the seeds as well as the tomatoes and the runner beans before I left.