The other day I looked out of the bedroom window and actually cringed at the mess the garden was in. As we had had most of our veggies and fruits for the year, it had been left and ignored and I felt so disappointed with myself.

There was the raised bed cover that we hadn’t used this year that had been left on the ground and had rotten and weeds had grown over it. All the beds needed cleaning out and weeding. The second lot of potatoes still hadn’t been taken out of the bed, and there was even a paddling pool still on the garden. All in all a total mess.

We started with the green house, which all the windows have blown out of! But we got the last of the tomatoes and jalapeños. The tomato plants still need clearing but at least we’ve got the goods!

I blasted the very large paddling pool, cleaning it as best I could with the hose pipe, then hung it over some garden chairs to drain. Then a few days later it got man handled into the shed to sort out properly in warmer weather.

All the raised beds were cleared out of the old plants and weeds, filling up our already quite full compost bin. It felt good to clear them out we still have 1 little red onion in the bed that decided to grow extremely late, and we did leave the one remaining sprout, that was really not looking well but the cold weather seems to have done it wonders and it has new healthier growth, so we left that there for now and we’ll decide if the sprouts are worth eating. Hopefully you can see it at the far end of the picture. (I may need to brush up on my photography skills).

The abandoned raised bed cover fell apart when I tried to move it. The brambles had tried to claim it, so it got dismantled. Which I’m not going to lie, was quite satisfying.

The next day we cleared the potato bed. This was our second lot for the year and we were pleased they did so well. Tony dug them up with a fork and I gathered them. We weeded this last bed as we went along too, and everything left over ( dead plants, weeds, rotten potatoes) ended up in the compost bin.

With it being so late in the year they were caked in wet mud, so they all needed to be cleaned. I cleaned them all off with the hose, Tony dried them and put them in the potato sack.

I had already picked the only 2 pumpkins that we managed to grow to maturity, which were the standard Jack o lantern type. I had planted a variety of seeds and although I got quite a few starting to grow they were eaten pretty quickly. We had a sweet variety (that i can’t for the life of me remember the name of, but it’s meant to be good in pumpkin pie) 1 had gotten fairly large and I thought I’d go and pick them as the vines had started to die. I knew they could ripen inside. When I went out the whole thing had vanished! Just the 2 green jack o lantern pumpkins sat waiting to be picked. I still have no idea what could have taken the whole thing and not left a trace of it.

So I brought in my 2 remaining pumpkins and left them to ripen. 1 was a funny shape, so easy to cut, so he got the chop first and was made into pumpkin soup and the seeds seasoned and roasted.

After scooping all the inside and the seeds out, I separated the stringy bits and binned them. I sprayed the seeds with fry light but you could use any fat lightly coasting them. Seasoned with salt, pepper and chipotle seasoning. I roasted on a low heat, (I have no idea what temperature now, but I’m more of a make it up as I go along type of person) then I obviously forgot they were in the oven, burnt most of them and ate them anyway because they were absolutely delicious!!!! Worth doing but don’t walk away from the oven like I did.

I then seasoned the pumpkin (which was quite small) with the same seasoning inside, popped it on a tray and roasted that on a medium heat. Keep testing it by using a sharp knife to see if the flesh is tender. Once it’s cooked scoop out the flesh and put it in a pan.

I diced up a small red onion from the garden and a medium potato from the garden. And popped that in the pan with water, salt, pepper (and because I like in spicy) chipotle seasoning and a couple of vegetable stock cubes, and let it cook.

Once it’s cooked I just blended it and it made 2 bowls. It was really delicious and spicy 🌶️ .

Back to the garden

We’ve still got quite a lot to do to get the garden ready for next year. It’s definitely hard to keep motivated when the weather is awful, but it’s got to be done.

That’s all for now. As always stay safe and stay well.

Kiera & Tony