Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy these last few weeks, as I expect you all have as well. But I thought I should find a least half an hour today to do a post, as it's so easy to get out of the habit of regular postings.

Last Friday we went to stay with my son and his wife and enjoyed a day/night with the grandchildren, then on Saturday we caught the train and went to our other son who lives in central London. We had a fabulous time and visited Camden Lock , we haven't been there for years. It's an amazing place, buzzing with life and teeming with people. I must have taken over 150 photo's and have captured the spirit of the place, but that will have to be another post or even a link to flikr. If you ever get a chance to go I can really recommend it.


In the evening we ate out in Primrose Hill at a traditional Greek restaurant, the food and ambiance was brilliant. We then walked up Primrose Hill which is always crowded with people whatever the time.

On Sunday we went to Leicester Square and had lunch in a vegetarian South Indian restuarant and went to look around the amazing 'Liberty' store. The interior of the building is stunning, and for 'crafty' people like myself the haberdashery and fabric departments are awesome, I had to be dragged out screaming I WANT I WANT !!!!!!


Anyway ! that was the week-end, so now back to reality and the Garden (watered by a kind neighbour in exchange for Lot's of veggies) and the allotment watered by my daughter. I went up to check the greenhouse and the tomatoes were HUGE and some were ripe. There were courgettes (oh No) aubergines (moussaka today ) and hundreds of red and white onions to pull up and left on racks to dry, a few of the smaller ones I bought home to dry in the garden

Moussaka

These are the 'Abraham Lincoln' tomatoes grown from seed (VICTORIANA NURSERY)

the largest here weighed 12 ozs on it's own.

Little and Large ( a mix of different tomatoes)

The Newly built brassica tent, not quite a cage ! as we need more aluminum rods as I didn't buy enough, I have got all the 'Build a Balls' I need though.


Rosie has new clothes

Flowers picked from the garden this morning

Dahlias make a beautiful bouquet

That's about all for this post. I actually feel very tired today after all the walking about in London and I haven't done half the things I wanted to do. Never mind there is always tomorrow ! I now have to get on and get that moussaka cooked.

Have a good week everyone.

M x

A long overdue update

It's over a week since I last did a post and seeing as I spent part of today working on the allotment, I thought I would share some photo's of the plot. Austin helped me dig over my two largest beds, one where the pumpkin and squashes were growing and in the other bed the french and runner beans were. As we cleared the beds and weeded, we covered the ground with black plastic to smother any weeds that had any thoughts of sneaking up on me over the winter.

I have to say I lose interest at this time of year, it happened last year around this time as well, but come the spring my enthusiasm will return. I still have the following growing : curly Kale, perpetual spinach, parsnips, beetroots, Florence fennel (which are swelling nicely) and a couple of cabbages. Oh and purple sprouting broccoli and brussel sprouts, but they have to grow through the winter and hopefully we will have some sprouts for Christmas.

The best thing I ever did was grow so many flowers up there because it's so colourful and many flowers still have lots of buds to open for a while yet. I have stored all the squashes and the pumpkin in the greenhouse, where I also have more little chillies growing, in fact lot's of little chillies !

I must get that Pumpkin weighed ! it was very heavy.

The 'Pink Giraffe' Dahlia is still a lovely sight, I have three up on the plot.

Dahlias and Echinacea, grown from seed this year and still looking lovely

Covering the beds for winter.

Clearing the beds, and planning for next year.

Not so tidy, but still lots of colour.

Florence Fennel, almost ready to harvest.

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My hydrangea from the garden. faded and looking delicate and so pretty

The colour from the front, such delicate colours as they age and fade.

Colours from behind, a nice minty green, I like this better.

I have actually been spending more time working on the garden than the allotment just recently. I have widened a couple of my borders so I can plant more annual flowers such as Cosmos, I bought a packet of seeds recently that are double flowering and they look stunning, so can't wait to sow them next year. The borders already have lot's of perennials, so I thought it would be nice to add some annuals as well, especially cornflowers which looked really nice with the colours of the Cosmos this year. We also cut down a couple of large shrubs which were old and very woody, we now have to try and get the roots out.

That's about all for this update. I hope you are all enjoying your gardens and allotments and getting on with the preparations for the winter months. The best thing is the planning for next year, and looking through the seed catalogues deciding what to grow next.

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.

Time for an update

I can't believe that I haven't written a post in over 2 weeks. I would love to say that it's because I have been somewhere really exciting, but that isn't the case unfortunately.

I have been busy though. We had friends stay with us for almost a week and then we have had birthday BBQs to go to and over the last few days we were babysitting the grand-children whilst my son & daughter-in-law had a well deserved day out in London on their own. So they had fun and so did we.

I made some chocolate cookies with Bertie who will be 2 years of age next month, that really was fun, especially making sure he didn't eat the dough before we shaped the cookies. I rolled the dough into balls and it was his job to squash them into flat cookie shapes.

Apart from harvesting and watering the greenhouse on the allotment I have to admit to not having done much up there at all. I am trying to be a bit more relaxed about it all and not let it tie me down like it did last year. I was spending far too much time there last year, I suppose it was because I had just taken it on and was planning out the beds and paths and I admit it did get a bit addictive and time consuming. This year has been a good balance of time spent on the lottie and days away, and I have managed to work more in the garden at home.

I have lots of pumpkins and squashes doing really well at the moment, the colours are really nice and I love the way they scramble around all over the place. Some have even escaped through the wire boundary fence and onto the pavement outside the allotment.

I have harvested some pretty amazing sweetcorn, this years crop has been very good. I had 6 cobs this evening, I also had 4 courgettes, 5 beetroots, raspberries, a couple of little 'munchkin' squashes.

A couple of the pumpkins.

Almost the last of my carrots, just a few left now.

A harvest from last week-end.

Myrtle shrub in flower in the garden.

'Toad Lily' in the garden, this has been flowering for a week or so.

The Echinacea's that I grew from seed this year.

Busy Bees

A few photo's of the new flowers in my garden.

Dahlias

Dahlia 'Karma Fuchiana'


A half price bargain , not sure of the name.


Leucanthemum, I'm hooked on these, I have the white and now the yellow one.


Thunbergia 'Mango'

What a splendid orange flower, I love it.

Ooooooh I do just love a bargain.

My First bargain this week was this little completely folding, painted hardwood, bistro set from 'Wyvale garden centre' I have had my eye on it for months. We didn't have a set anymore as the mosaic table got rusted and really old, now being used for my herb table (you can see it in the corner of the photo) anyway back to my bargain, it was in the sale for half price, so we couldn't resist it and it looks perfect in the garden.

Next bargain of this week was from 'Homebase' which was three perennial border plants all reduced from £6.99 each to £2.29 each, they just needed deadheading and dead leaves removed and a bit of a feed and already I have new flowers in 2 days.
The plants are : Alstroemeria 'Jazze Purple Rose' , Verbasccum 'Jackie in Pink' and verbascum 'Jackie in Yellow' all very beautiful. ( photo's below) Then after I had paid for them the assistant said that over in the corner there were plants for free for customers to help them selves !! so I had 2 Aubergine plants and 4 strawberry plants of a different variety to the ones I have. Amazing, now I have the bug and want to scout the garden centres for more bargains.

Alstoemeria 'Jazze Purple Rose'

Verbascum 'Jackie In Yellow'

Verbascum 'Jackie in Pink'

Dahlia 'Pink Giraffe' (a stunning plant)

Although this isn't a bargain buy, as I paid a lot of money for the original plant at Hampton Court Flower Show three years ago. I only had flowers the year I bought it, and after that it didn't do very much at all, so last autumn I dug around and found the tubers which had increased by then. I dried them and stored over winter, and this year I have got 6 very large plants from the original one, so I am delighted with the results as the flower is beautiful and great for cutting.

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A few photo's of around the garden today. I am glad I worked on the garden this year as we have been enjoying it so much (weather permitting !!) the borders look full and the plants colourful.

Leucanthemum 'Algaia'

These have yet to go in a border, but I like to take my time as I often make mistakes and have to dig plants up and re position them.

Japanese anemones, they have literally taken over a huge corner of the garden and are very hard to keep under control, but they are lovely.

My surprise 'calendula' the tri colour petals are really nice.

They may be 'plastic' but they are very cheery and catch the light beautifully, I love quirky things around my garden

Blueberries, lots of fruit this year and next year should see a great harvest.

Sweet-peas, one of many in the garden.