Kokova Magazine

It is hard to believe that it is now five months since we started clearing a pumpkin patch for our food editor, Sarah, to grow her Halloween fruits.

And even more unbelievable that the pumpkin patch ended up as a small allotment, with a multitude of beds growing food for our tables.

We have been lucky enough to have started harvesting vegetables within a few short weeks of planting, with radishes being the first to show themselves worthy. After the radishes came the strawberries, swiftly followed by spring onions, beetroot, peas, beans, leeks and plums.

The apples are now falling daily from the tree and we haven't bought any from the shops for over two weeks. With our home-grown we are going back to basics, with each apple being peeled and cored to make sure we are not munching on bugs that have found their way in. I remember doing this all the time as a child before pesticides and ready washed fruits came our way.

The apple tree is special in as much as it bears three different types of apple, so we are in fact spoilt for choice. Typically we have a smaller sharp green variety, a sweeter red, and a paler green - that is a personal favourite; crisp and sweet together. We also have a supply of jars on route so we can start storing a rather large amount of apple sauce.

We have about 20 small bunches of grapes turning red this week and hope to harvest soon. The plums have all fallen and been turned into jam and the strawberries were long gone the moment they blushed pink. We do, however, now have nearly 15 new strawberry plants in the greenhouse ready for next spring.

Our small fig bush finally decided to join the party late into the season and has produced numerous tiny fruits all rushing to grow.

The success of our peas has now meant a new crop being planted in the hop of making it to harvest before the frost puts paid to our plans. Sadly, we also seem to have many empty spaces in the beds, due to late starters and lack of planting - so our job for September is to see what we can grow over winter and how we need to put the garden to bed once the rest of the produce has been picked.

This has been a huge learning curve for us, but one that we have really enjoyed. Our runner beans are still flowering and being picked in large amounts every day. The plants have certainly enjoyed their sunny position and appear to have no desire to stop throwing off plenty of beans.

A late, late starter is seven courgette plants, that are now occupying a cleared end of one bed. Whether they will make it in time or not is a guessing game and one we will have to wait and see (as well as research a bit too).

The wild garden has become home to many insects and buzzy bugs, and the addition of a young frog who seems to have made it her home. Our old makeshift supermarket tub full of weed and water will need replacing with a small pond to ensure she has room for her family to grow.

We still have a good collection of leeks supplying our kitchen. they are small as they were planted too close together but as big on taste as any twice the size. And the corn that was planted many months ago now appears to be flowering and turning to cobs.

The last of the lettuce is hanging in despite the sudden turn to cold and whatever we don't eat, our Guinea Pigs certainly will. However, I seem to have a container full of new lettuce that I don't remember planting, yet still it grows. I can only assume I was having a day of planting old seeds from wet packets and this tub got all of the crinkly red lettuce variety (I am sure that is not quite the official name but is suits the look).

So now, aside from maintenance and weeding, we are mainly sitting and waiting for the pumpkins to grow on their patch, and watch as the nights begin to draw in as we wait to welcome Halloween.

You can see our full story in pictures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/yoursourcetoday/sets/72157644421469845/