Despite a garden full of builders and no indoor growing space until late July, the autumn is proving to be bountiful chez snail. One of the raised beds spent much of the early summer completely covered in building materials, but clearly the tiny potatoes remaining after last years harvest loved the conditions. We went from this:
There’s a bed somewhere under there
to this:
Not bad growth!
in a just a couple of months. Resulting in this 615g monster:
Wow!
and hopefully many more to harvest, as this was just one very close to the surface that Max would have ‘harvested’ otherwise. We will let them continue growing until the tops die back before we dig the bed over and can see our final crop.
Meanwhile, inside the limery, chillies and sweet peppers abound, tomatoes are ripening and we’ve had a couple of large courgettes from the plant sown in July,. I’ve potted up the plants from the courgette seeds sown in August and we are crossing our fingers for a few fruits from those a bit later in the autumn.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that the chillies ripen (they have started and the pyramid chillies are already hot) and that the younger courgette plants mature, but even if they don’t, we’ll have had an amazing end to the season, including a couple of months when we haven’t had to buy any sweet peppers.
As to future crops, we found this very promising ginger root in the local organic shop the other day:
It’s now been planted and we’re hoping for good things. In addition, the passionflower has taken off:
Up, up and away
And I’ve sown some more lettuce in a big tray that can be brought indoors when the weather cools. So, no shortage of fresh goodness here.
The Snail of Happiness 
Ann Laken
/ September 21, 2015Wow! I’m mega impressed!
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thecontentedcrafter
/ September 21, 2015So exciting! I am amazed at how much has come on so quickly!
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narf77
/ September 21, 2015And these gorgeous images completely validate your Limery Ms Snail 🙂
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Nanette
/ September 21, 2015Fabulous! It also makes me want to build a limery…oh wait, I have a limery climate all year round lol I love that your potatoes enjoyed being kept in the dark and grew beautifully despite being covered in rubbish.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ September 22, 2015I am rather jealous of you not needing a limery, but now mine is up and running I can at least have a taste of summer all year round.
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katechiconi
/ September 21, 2015Wey hey! The limery’s off and running! Look out for those bonnet chillies, though, they are *killers* if you overdo it a bit. The volunteer potatoes are amazing, just goes to show that you can’t keep a good crop down…
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The Snail of Happiness
/ September 22, 2015I have a feeling that eventually our garden will contain nothing but potatoes! Ah well, at least I know that they will be eaten. We counted our chillies last night and we have about 150 fruits (plus more developing) if you include all three varieties… I think I will be giving quite a lot away!
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katechiconi
/ September 22, 2015Make some lovely spicy pepper jelly to sell alongside your hats! I have a good recipe if you’re interested?
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The Snail of Happiness
/ September 22, 2015Yes please – that would be great
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Jenny From the Garden
/ September 21, 2015Oooo! I might have to add passionflower on my to-grow list for next year. Just lovely!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ September 22, 2015I might experiment with taking cuttings to share with friends in the UK since I wasn’t an easy variety to get hold of 🙂
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arlingwoman
/ September 22, 2015Wow! Do you think you’ll grow greenhouse things in the limery and have all sorts of vegetables in the winter? I’m impressed by your zucchinis and the hardiness of potatoes! I have never grown ginger. Must look it up and see if I can.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ September 22, 2015I’m hoping we will have some crops throughout the year… it’s all a big experiment really, so I’m happy to try all sorts of things which may or may not work. I really hope that, if nothing else, we can have salad leaves 12 months of the year.
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anne54
/ September 22, 2015The Limery is paying for itself already! Everything looks so healthy too.
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katythenightowl
/ September 25, 2015Well done you! I’m amazed to see such bounty after the long delay 🙂
Pop around soon, yes? I’ve something for you 🙂
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