Harvest Time in the Garden

 So this is near the end of the first growing season in my courtyard garden.  I am really happy with the way things went this year.  I grew this small squash Uchiki Kuri initially up a small tripod, and then I let it climb and trail wherever it wanted.

 My new gardening companion Daisy has helped throughout the season.

 I used some metal frames around these growbags.  The frames supported 3 canes in each bag and I tied them all together for added stability.  So with 4 bags, each with 3 plants I grew a dozen plants on the ground.

 One of the most important factors is knowing the aspect of each wall of the garden.  This wall is South facing and has full sunshine for most of the day.  Using every inch of space here is key to having a productive garden. Climbing beans grow happily among climbing cucumbers, climbing squash and climbing courgettes.  Tomatoes also use some of this space.

 Just as an experiment I planted a few sweet potato slips in the ground here.  They are a relative of the bindweed family and although I planted them fairly late in the season they have put on a good top growth.  I am going to leave them as long as possible but I am not hoping for much this year.

This Romanesco Courgette was a huge plant,  eventually making about 8 foot across.  This was planted in the soil and used quite a bit of my valuable space but did show a really good tolerance for powdery mildew - hardly effected at all.  I may look for other more compact varieties next year as well as my favourite climbing courgette.