Hello everyone! It's time for Garden Bears' World and this week, we are looking at the allotment and all the produce we are still picking in autumn. This post shares some pictures we took a couple of weeks ago , but there will be an update soon!
Because the weather has been mild most of the time, the 'green manure' Polar sowed on some of the beds is growing well. This is a plant called Phycelia which helps to cover the ground and keep nutrients close to the surface, and will be dug in when spring comes.
Polar and Grizzly grew some good squashes this year. You saw some of them when we carved them for Halloween. Polar is bringing home the rest of the little orange Potimarron ones, but the bigger Queensland Blue are stored on a shelf in the allotment shed for now, where they are dry and frost-free until they are needed for cooking.
We also grew some very good cauliflowers this year. These are not quite ready in these pictures but look for them again in my next post.
These pretty Romanesco ones taste scrummy but also look very classy when served with Sunday dinner. Polar cuts them in half down the middle to cook them and she and Grizzly have half each - minus what we are allowed to nibble!
When our human guardians harvest cabbages and cauliflowers, there are lots of scruffy outer leaves, which are not fit to eat, and these go on the compost heap to rot down with horse manure and non-perennial weeds. The compost they make is then dug back into the ground to help grow more next year. You can see that the slugs have been busy chomping the outside leaves, but the inside ones are fine.
Look how well the wild flowers are growing in our little bear garden now! We are all so pleased, because we love bees so much and want them to have lots of nectar all through the year. I think we will have some lovely foxgloves and honesty flowering next spring and, hopefully, daffodils coming through before that. Polar says she has the seeds and we can grow some giant sunflowers there in the summer too.
I'll be back at the allotment soon to show you what has happened since this visit. Goodbye for now from me, Endon Bear, and Garden Bears' World.
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