Garden update and some spinning

Yesterday it poured down rain. There was a wild thunderstorm which left the dog staying very close to me and the cat hiding away. I don't know how much rain we got, but an awful lot. I had to drain water from the planters, the pond is full and the dye pots which I've neglected to put away have 5 inches of water in them, while the canning jar I use to make Indigo stock has 2.5 inches of water. The tomatoes were battered down a bit, but part of that is my fault for thinking they'd be normal tomatoes and using only 4 foot high twirly sticks to stake them with. The garden seems happy for all the rain though...

The garlic has all been harvested. I did that on Monday and managed to bring it inside before the rain, so it's safe and drying. However I set it in the sunroom, which is also my studio and had to move it back outside today because of the rather overwhelming garlic smell. I didn't weigh the garlic, but I'm guessing there are a couple of kilos here.


The scarlet runner beans which I so carefully timed planting so that they would bloom in two weeks, are blooming now! They have been for almost a week now. So much for planning my harvesting! What a beautiful colour though. More of these will be planted next year. I'd never grown pole beans before but I'm sure harvesting would be easier than the crouching down to get the bush beans.

Sugar Pie pumpkins. These are supposed to be small, dense, sweet pumpkins for eating rather than jack-o-lanterns. In all the other times I've planted pumpkins, I've gotten one or two fruits per plant. Sigh, we're going to be eating pumpkin forever! They are already a bit bigger than expected and it turns out there are a goodly number of them. Good thing my guys like pumpkin pie... a lot!

I wish there were a few more of these. There are tomatoes and a fair number of them, but for the wildness of the plants, one would think there would be more fruit. Of course the bees only started visiting the garden in the past couple of weeks, which might have been a factor. I've no idea what colour or variety these will be. They are from a mixed packet of heritage seeds. I know they aren't Brandywine, since the only variety listed in the packet which had potato leaves was that one. The rest are going to be a wait and see, to find out if they are red, pink, yellow, orange, purple or white fruits!
The Ruth Stott compost garden method has worked better than we expected save perhaps that is is likely a little nitrogen heavy. That would be why the incredible growth of greenery there this year with tomatoes 6 feet tall and pumpkins threatening world domination. There was more than the suggested spacing between plants, but it's a bit of a wild affair. To the right of the knotweed are the cucumbers, corn and zuchinni. The cukes are about as wild, although with lots of baby fruit right now and the corn at least looks healthy with the start of a few little cobs. The other garden looks a little sad in comparison but after yesterdays rain the leeks look like we'll actually get a harvest!

I did some spinning too. This is some commercially dyed red superwash. It was spun to be sock yarn. It's very pretty, very soft and I managed to tangle the rest of the singles so I don't know if I'll ever get the rest ready to ply! It was my own fault and I'm a tad ticked off with myself because it took the better part of a week to spin the 107gms of roving. It's a gorgeous colour. If I spin the purple up and take a little more care when plying, I can always use the red as toes and heels I guess.