I'm Digging This: How Grows It? (September)

A warm welcome to September, well I say warm; it's all well and truly on the slide into Autumn now and you can feel it starting to resonate down deep in your bones. The mornings are darker, the days are noticeably shorter and the temperatures are starting to take a dive. But before we get into all that let's review how things went last month and get a gander at these lovlies.

'Ere 'ave a look.

They’re the cock of the walk aren’t they?

These Gladdies were the pride of the border throughout August. Check out the gamma point of this colour.

This here is the money shot as the pic is all natural and unenhanced and shows the real vibrancy that these plants can bring when they really turn it on.

They showed up in their trillions (well about 30) and even the paler colours are delightful and delicate

The first part of August was hot as hell. That’s purely surmised you understand as I’ve not actually been to hell, not yet leastways; (unless you’re all counting the old Waitrose car park in Berkhamsted, or Stansted Airport, as that’s sure one hell of a dookie).

Next came the monsoon.

If you remember we had record breaking temperatures in July and if it hadn't been for the August bank holiday weekend, last month would have been another record breaker in terms of rainfall averages (or lack of).

So, what of our veggies?

We did really well with these yellow courgettes, they are reliable and ripen very quickly into huge specimens.

Though to be absolutely honest they don't really deliver on flavour - taste is minimal.

The beans on the other hand were the exact reverse in that they were quintessentially delicious but we really felt that the cropping averages were well below par.

There was an early set back when all of the plants on one side were demolished by black fly although these did revive and are now producing flowers; but it remains to be seen if this is too little too late in terms of being able to develop as the sunshine ratio is now greatly diminished.

We've already researched high croppers and will definitely select a different variety for next year.

The tomatoes this year, despite days of prolonged sunshine, have been slow to ripen and I don't think that's just us, it seems to be a national trend but now they're coming thick and fast and the flavour is exquisite.

Do be mindful though that if you decide to try these cherry tomatoes that they do need plenty of space as our plants here have now reached 7' and they also have a wide spread.

They're sweet, juicy and so delicious no short-changing on flavour here and there's no doubt that they earn their keep in the long run.

The full sized tomatoes from the Gardeners' World trial are maddeningly slow but are at last on the verge of ripening.

Lots of people keep theirs under glass right through so those will be quicker.

Plus we started these off about three weeks later than the others so on timing they are about right.

Now we've got them to this stage not sure whether the ripening will happen more quickly if left on the vine or be accelerated by being brought inside?

So we've picked just one to test this and never fear will let you know how best to turbo ripen off your toms.

Remember those cucamelons?

They've spent months busily developing a multi-layered tangled mat of foliage and then some tiny fruits begin to develop.

But these have a nasty habit of detaching themselves and dropping off before developing to full size.

Of the one fruit that has ripened we can report it does have some inner seeds, reminiscent of a cucumber but the texture is less firm while the skin is slightly tough.

Might be nice for making pickles as it was slightly gherkinish.

You'd need a bit more of a batch though than we've managed here.

Many of the plants have given of their best and are now beginning to look decidedly shabby so we've already started to cut hard back to lose any tatty foliage and keep things going for as long as the weather allows.