It's that time of year again !

It's that time of year again when beds have to be cleared, the last of the harvesting done for vegetables that had run their course, and plants dug up or into the soil and weeding where it's been impossible to weed whilst some crops were growing.

Personally I look forward to this time. I love clearing the beds, weeding and raking them and covering them with black plastic to keep down the weeds over winter. There are beds that have to be left uncovered, for growing Brussel sprouts, Purple sprouting broccoli and cabbages to see us through the winter and Spring, not forgetting the garlic and leeks.

We spent 3 hours yesterday harvesting the remains of the sweetcorn. I then cleared the bed and dug it over and weeded it. I also dug up the last of my carrots and a very large and deformed parsnip. I blanched the sweetcorn ( 8 cobs) for 2 mins and then froze them. The carrots and parsnip I cut up and blanched and froze them in a bag together, ready to put into soups or casseroles. I bought back a small trug/bucket of runner beans. I have enough frozen to see us through the winter, so these are going to neighbours as we are sick of eating them now.

Sadly my favourite French beans are finished and I picked the last handful today and pulled up the plants. I also pulled up the last remaining cabbages. We managed to save three firm heads, the dark outer leaves were munched by slugs and caterpillars, so we stripped them back to the middle and composted the outer leaves.

The plot already looks tidier with the sweetcorn all gone.

Parsnip, carrots and the last remaining cabbage heads. A new batch has been sown.

Sweetcorn, blanched and ready for the freezer.

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PUMPKINS GALORE

This is the largest, I could just about lift it to put the wood underneath it. I can't wait to weigh it.

I found this one growing under a leaf.

This is going to be a whopper as well. Great, lovely pumpkin soup & pumpkin pie.



This one is beautiful

The 'Munchkin' squashes are scaling the wire perimeter fence. They are unstoppable.


This squash is amazing, I bought one to eat from the supermarket last year and saved the seeds. I cut off a large one and it's ripening, (the original was yellow when I bought it.) I found three more growing today.

These photo's are for KELLA, as she is keen to grow 'Munchkin' next year. I found that is I leave them to ripen and become a deep orangey yellow they aren't good to eat. They go green near the skin and as they are so small, if you cut that away there is hardly anything left to cook. So I am going back to what I did last year when I first grew them and that is to pick them when they are still a creamy yellow. I scoop the seeds out, cut them up with the skin still on and roast them in a small amount of olive oil and garlic until the flesh is soft. The skin then peels off easily with a knife and they can be eaten or made into soup with other veg added.

Just right

Too ripe

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Two photo's from the Garden.

Thunbergia 'Mango' I know I showed this on a previous post, but many flowers are opening now and it looks amazing, it's such a vibrant colour.

A friend gave me a rooted cutting of this Goji berry bush and it's doing so well and flowering.

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And finally (sorry about the long post) I have made some beetroot and apple chutney. I have so much beetroot I didn't know what to do with it. I even bought home a bucketful yesterday and there is still more on the plot. I Really have to get my planting amounts sorted, I grow too much of everything.

Party time ! a different kind of post today !

I thought I would share some photo's with you from the 25th wedding Anniversary party that we went to on Saturday. It was a 70's & 80's themed fancy dress, (optional). I am ashamed to say we took the option not to, and I wish we had made the effort now as there were so many great costumes there as you can see by this small selection below.

It was actually a very tiring afternoon/evening, as it took us two and a half hours drive to get to the venue, we then we stayed until almost 11pm and didn't get home until well after 1am.

It was however great to catch up with family some who we don't see very often, so we are glad we decided to go.

I have no idea who most of these people (in the photo's) are, they were friends of the couple who's party it was. I was happy just taking photo's of all the great efforts people went to.

'Austin Powers' this chap was a real poser !

'Rod Stewart'

'Prince' and 'Batman'

'Psychedelic Hippies'

'Sergeant Pepper' I loved this outfit

Hippies again


These two chaps loved being dressed as girls !!
not sure who they were meant to be though.

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A Bumper Harvest.
Last of all I thought I would show off my bumper harvest that I got from the allotment today.

I have to get up there and do some serious clearing up very soon. I have some huge pumpkins growing and lot's of other squashes, the beetroot has grown rather large, I should have pulled them up ages ago, but we didn't need them before. I am going to make apple and beetroot chutney with the very large ones as I don't think they will taste as nice as when they are smaller.

Little & Large !

The Harvest

Runner and French beans, tomatoes, Sweetcorn, courgettes (yellow & Round) baby Aubergine, Green Peppers, Chillies, cooking Apples (from the allotment's Apple tree that everyone shares) 'Munchkin squashes'

My Post's are like buses ..........

.....Nothing for a while and then two come along, just like London transport !!!

I am in the mood for blogging so here we go with what happened today. I got up late this morning, I wont say what time but I hate it when I do that as almost half the day is gone by the time I have had my breakfast and showered. I did go to bed extremely late though almost 2am. I really must sort out my sleeping habits. I am worse than a teenager !!! I must add here though that I don't get up this late very often, but do go to bed late far too often.

I sowed some cabbage seeds today for eating in the late winter/early spring, I have only just made it in time to sow them, as august was the last sowing month. I sowed some more of Sutton's Seeds 'wheelers imperial' as these have been so tasty with nice light green very firm heads. I also sowed Thompson & Morgan seeds 'April' (spring) cabbage I tried these last year but they all got munched by slugs or something, so I am trying again.

We then went off to the shops to buy a 25th Anniversary present as we are going to the party in London tomorrow. I know I had left it late to buy the present, but luck was on my side as we saw a beautiful photo frame which was perfect for the occasion. So there we are ! nothing too exciting but that's life. I did get a very nice harvest again though, and a nice bunch of flowers from the garden. So that kind of made up for the rainy day.

A little 'Pink' bouquet from the garden.

Vietnamese coriander, growing like crazy. I keep rooting new plants from it.

'Baby Rosanna' aubergine, lots of little fruits

Tomatoes on the patio, ripening AT LAST!

'Munchkin' squashes , and loads more growing on the plot.

Today's harvest

Yesterdays sweetcorn harvest.

Yesterdays beetroot, minus one. (cooked)

This fantastic orange Dahlia has a bit of a tale to it ! and an apology to my neighbouring plot-holder (Ronelle, if you read this it's for you). It was very windy yesterday (really it was!) and when I was leaving the allotment I have to pass Ronelle's plot (really I do, honest!) and the wind had broken this beautiful flower and bent it's stem, so what could I do ?? it would have withered and died. SO I picked it and bought it home to put into some water where it perked up and it is a real stunner. The photo does it no justice, as it's the blousiest loudest orange I have ever seen for a Dahlia. I love it, so I am going to beg Ronelle for a tuber.

I wish you all a lovely week-end.

A surprise gift and other bits of chit chat

Special delivery

The postman delivered a small brown package for me today, I wasn't expecting anything,

so I couldn't wait to see what it was. Inside was this beautifully gift wrapped pressie. I knew at once who it was from because this person always wraps her gifts no matter how small, exquisitely.

I t was a surprise gift from my blogger friend Pam she makes the loveliest things. Inside the blue tissue paper was this little pin cushion with it's lovely beaded edges and complete with some bright coloured pins pushed in around a circle on the fabric.

On the other side is another coffee cup.

This was made from some fabric I had sent to Pam as a bit of a challenge, I had bought half a metre of the fabric to make something out of it, but I was stumped for ideas of what to use it for, so I thought I would share some with Pam. The fabric design is lots of squares of different brightly coloured coffee cups & saucers, and mugs. So when I sent some off to Pam, I never expected I would enjoy one of the results of her many talents.

Thank you so very much to Pam, and I look forward to her posting some other things she makes with the other pieces of the fabric.

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Baking

If you like baking, and especially like cup cakes for special events I can recommend this book. My son's girlfriend made him some delicious ones for his birthday recently using the recipe's from here. I was so impressed I had to buy my own copy to have a go at making something from it.

The best price seems to be from 'Amazon.co.uk' where I got it for £8.49 and no postage costs. It varies from £12.99 to £16.99 elsewhere. There are lots of lovely goodies to bake in here. bye the way 'The Hummingbird Bakery' is a famous bakery in London where they sell the cakes made from the recipes in this book.

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The Cutting Bed

Just to say that if you like dahlias, and want to add to your cutting bed then you can't get better than these 'Pink Giraffe' Dahlias, I cut them last Friday and they were already in flower for days before that on the allotment, and this photo was taken this morning and they still look fresh, I'll maybe get another day or two out of them.

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Harvests

A few photo's of the latest pickings from the allotment: some very large beetroots and two tiny ones pulled up accidentally.

Five very large tasty onions. I have pulled up around 70 ( drying off in the lottie shed) and still have more to pull, so shouldn't need to buy any for many months.



And last of all bags of French beans 'Fasold' I am picking these most days as I hate them to get too large, the runner beans are starting to come fast and furious now.


We all seem to have powdery mildew on our courgette plants which is slowing down the fruits developing, I look at other plots as I pass and everyone seems to have the same problem, I hope it doesn't spread to other squashes and pumpkins.

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Well thats about all my news over the last couple of days. The weather is foul, raining all day today so couldn't get to the lottie and I need to bring the onions home to dry out as they are overpowering the shed with the smell and the space they take up.

The vegetables.

I worked mainly in the greenhouse today. I potted on the pepper plants and chillies ('hot stuff' & pyramid) The aubergines are growing well and I am trying not to over water them and not getting their leaves too wet as apparently they don't like this. I intend putting them outside at the end of June, and hopefully I will get bigger fruits than I did last year.

The courgettes are flowering and the round Italian ones are starting to get little fruits. The runner beans and French beans are going well and climbing up the poles. The bolliti beans are being a bit slow, but they went in late so hopefully they will suddenly take off. I have been mulching them all with comfrey leaves and grass cuttings.

The munchkin squashes seem to like where I have planted them and starting to produce the first flowers. I have masses of strawberries waiting to ripen and the raspberries are bushing out at an amazing rate. I still have to plant out the broccoli and brussel sprouts and more squashes and pumpkins, but have yet to allocate a spot for them.

I think the potatoes will be ready to dig up next week, I am going to have a poke around in the soil tomorow to see how big they are.

The rhubarb doesn't seem as big and healthy as last year, I need to look up what to feed it with.

Spinach beet, and to the left Mizuna.

Dark green Italian Kale.

The main Onion bed. The small raised bed by the compost bin is also onions.

Sweet-peas, sweet williams and cosmos.

Broad beans, not quite big enough to harvest yet.

In this raised bed is mainly peas (kelveden wonder) and some garlic, and beetroot.