Overflowing Compost Bin

The garden has been lacking some serious attention over the last few weeks. For the last month if the weekend weather has been good I usually head off climbing. So I managed to take some time and devote an afternoon to attend to some overdue maintenance.

This time last year I was harvesting plump red tomatoes. This year they are still all green. I have neglected nipping out side shoots and the growing buds with the result that all the plants energy is going in to growing taller and sprouting lots of side shoots. 

I did some serious pruning on the tomatoes, cutting back the main stem to just above the third truss (even sacrificing less well developed trusses further up the stem). All side shouts where also cut back. This generated a lot of green waste and filled my larger compost bin to overflowing. I also trimmed most of the shoots from the pumpkins and squashes.

Hopefully there will still be enough time to get a tomato crop in the coming weeks before the weather gets too cold and wet.