Still enjoying our own tomatoes in December

Although we are still enjoying our own tomatoes , it was time this week to harvest all the remaining fruits and start to clear the poly tunnel to both maximize the space for production but also for learning and to experiment over the winter.

 

Removing the tomatoes and grow bags gave us the room to build new permanent beds which would be far better for growing the tomatoes and much more next year.

 

 

 

With minimum space between them - just enough to enable planting, harvesting and watering - we were able to squeeze the maximum number in.

 

Ahead of next spring, the new beds gave us the opportunity to experiment a little - with plants such as mangetout, turnips, beetroot and fennel - just to see if they will grow and how long they take to mature.

 

Even in the winter the light in the poly tunnel is fantastic, even the weakest rays of sun make everything look magical.

 

The structures of the new beds also provides us much needed additional room for housing the salads and watercress trays over the winter. The light and warmth of the poly tunnel significantly improves growing conditions compared to the shade tunnel used in the summer.

 

To utilise every bit of space we adjust the bed size to suit - this final smaller one will be for our Salsola soda - Agretti a type of saltwort a little like samphire.

 

Having all the new beds now in place is very exciting, as we start to look ahead to next year and begin to plan our 2019 growing season.