What about all those still green tomatoes?

Outdoor tomatoes

Well, they took a while but now they’re turning red, there seems to be no stopping them!  I keep picking them and every day there are more  - great as we use a lot of tomatoes, they most definitely won’t go to waste.  Also, there are still so many green tomatoes that I am thinking of making a green tomato chutney with some of them (recipe to follow – when I have tried and tested it!)

It is now starting to get cold so I think the days of tomatoes turning red outside may be numbered.  Many of you may have the same problem and not know how to ripen that last glut of tomatoes – these do not have to go to waste as there are ways to ripen them, or there are many green tomato recipes out there.  I will give a couple of suggestions on how to ripen tomatoes so you can have lovely juicy tomatoes after the season has ended for growing outdoors.

One way is to wrap each tomato individually in tissue paper and place them all in a box stalk up and leave somewhere with good air circulation (cellars and sheds are good for this, remember though that they need a temperature of a minimum 14C to ripen so make sure it’s not somewhere too cold (temperature is more important than sunlight – if they have the right temperature they will ripen). This way will take around 3 weeks for the tomatoes to ripen.

A more well known method is to use an apple – put the green tomatoes into a bag with an apple, the gas that comes off the apple (ethylene) will speed up the ripening process.  Keep a check on tomatoes ripened using this method and ensure any with signs of rotting are removed.

Another way is to place them on a south facing windowsill at this time of year, it will be warm enough inside and any sun they do get won’t be too hot now.

How to get new strawberry plants from this years strawberry patch!

If you have strawberry plants in your garden then now is the time to get some new plants from them! – no seed sowing needed!

You will probably noticed that your strawberry plants have long stems shooting off all over the place – these are called runners.  On these runners you will see new shoots. These are what you will use to get a whole new strawberry patch – depending how many strawberry plants and runners you currently have.

1. Pick the runners that look at their best so a couple of healthy looking leaves
2. Take some small plant pots and fill with compost (one per runner)
3. Place the part of the runner with the leaves into the compost, pressing down (you may need to use some garden staples to hold the runner in place to start with
4. Water and leave
5. Keep compost moist at all times
6. Once the plants are strongly rooted you can snip of the runner and replant into prepared ground – do this with them all and there you have your new strawberry patch, ready for next year.

Strawberry plants in general only last around 3 years so by doing this, you will always have fresh strawberries in time for Wimbledon!

Lots of vegetables!

I am loving having a garden so much!  We moved into this house in December last year and previous to this I had been living in a flat close to the centre of York (about 20 minutes walk).  We now live about 15 minutes drive away from the city and a mile out of a village!

Spring time – looking bare!

Before I moved to the flat I was used to country living having lived in a few houses out in the country and  at least 3 of them had been a mile or more from a village so this part wasn’t totally new to me but having lived in the flat for 5 and a half years it was certainly a big change – a very welcome one I must add!

I loved living at the flat due to it’s convenience but I was constantly wishing I was out in the country and in particular I missed having a garden.  We now have a big garden – both front and rear which is fantastic!

Kevin made me a raised bed – my salad garden

I have claimed a large (and growing!) part of the rear garden for my vegetable plot.  Although I have grown a few vegetables before I have never grown them very seriously – just sown a few seeds in a spare bit of garden!  This is very different – I have a part of the garden allocated solely for growing vegetables.  So this year I made a start albeit a bit less organised than I would have liked – but it’s all part of the learning process and I think I have learned a great deal from this years crops.

So far we have had:

Potatoes – many (we haven’t bought potatoes for a good few moths now – we had new potatoes early in the season and we are still harvesting them now!)

Runner beans – these went on for ages and although they are a little stringy now, they are continuing to grow!

Strawberries – we had quite a few fresh strawberries, I have to say though that not many of them made it from the garden to the house as they were so tasty!

Spring Onions – we use a lot of them and we have been harvesting them bit by bit and still have many left.

Beetroot – although we don’t use much of this we have had quite a few, my grandma loves fresh beetroot so she has benefited from the fact that most of the household here don’t like it (though they did all like the Chocolate and beetroot cake – recipe pinched from my brothers blog, also posted on here, I believe he stole it so I will do the same!)

Lettuce – another thing we use a lot of, we still have lettuces coming through now and looking very healthy.  Unfortunately due to lack of knowledge some of my earlier lettuces bolted (went to seed), the good thing is, I know why and how to avoid it next year.

Pumpkins – these are looking great and starting to turn orange now.

We have apple trees that were here when we moved in and are just ready now – and delicious!

Chillies – we have had a couple of chillies from the chilli plant – and maaaaan they are hoooot!

There are carrots nearly ready and a few parsnips.

Tomatoes are just turning red now – we have had a couple so far and they are so tasty.

Cabbages, curly kale and brocolli are also on their way ready for a winter harvest!

Small selection of the herbs that are growing

I almost forgot to mention the herbs I have grown too – plus the ones that were here already, there is:  mint, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, sage, purple sage, lemon balm, basil and lavender (I may have forgotten some here!), next year there will definitely be some coriander and parsley added to that – amongst others!

I have to say, things from the garden are so much tastier than from the supermarket and of course being fresher they are also so much healthier too and completely organic at the same time.

I now need to get myself a greenhouse so we can enjoy more all year round!