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.

Yesterdays Harvest,and a visit to Hilliers Gardens

Yesterday I worked for about 3 hours on the allotment. I went up in the late afternoon as it was far too hot to do anything earlier in the day. I weeded, deadheaded flowers, tied up the broad-beans which have grown so tall that they are bending over.
I dug up lots of early potatoes (swift) there were enough for the whole week for the two of us, that was from 3 plants. I picked lots of spinach beet, it's delicious steamed. I pulled a few carrots, but they aren't really ready yet as they were very small and forked. I guess I should have made sure all the stones were out of the bed I sowed them in, still they were so tasty!
I am getting impatient for the broad-beans, so I picked the biggest ones and got a small harvest of very tasty young beans, all steamed together for our dinner, very yummy ! makes it all worthwhile !

Today was again too hot for me to work on the plot, so we went to visit 'Sir Harold Hillier Gardens'. It's not far from where we live, about half an hour away in the car. I don't know why we haven't been before as it's an amazing place, and if you are interested in trees it's a paradise as there are so many species of trees there. I personally am not into trees as such, I love them and our world would be a sad place without them, but I don't feel the need to know about the varieties, or their habits, I just enjoy being amongst them.
We walked for 3 hours and still didn't cover all of it, so we will go back again very soon. I took lots of photo's as there was an 'art in the garden' exhibition with various sculpted pieces and wood and glass exhibits as well, I will post some soon.
Then we went up to the lottie to water, and I planted out my pumpkins and a couple more squashes. I still have lots of leeks, brussel sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli to find room for as they are all getting on now and need to go in ASAP.

Yesterdays harvest

Spinach beet, baby carrots & young broad beans.

Swift potatoes

Delphinium in my garden. The best they have ever been.

I think it could be the comfrey tea I'm feeding them!

Flowers from Sir Harold Hillier Garden's, Romsey,Hampshire.

The Poppies were beautiful