Mamma Mia here we go again !!

I don't know about anyone else but I am so fed up with looking at bowls of tomatoes taking over my kitchen, hasn't it been a great year for them ?? trouble is I grew too many. So here I go again making more batches of Italian style tomato, garlic and chili pasta sauce. I have frozen about five pots already and used some to cook with and it was delicious. So here are all the ingredients and all grown on my plot I might add !! ready to make another big batch of the sauce. I am scared to look out in the garden in case I see more ripe tomatoes !!

What has everyone been doing with their tomatoes ?? I would love to know, so any tips please pass them on.

This is another veg that I have had in abundance, cute little 'munchkin squashes' and as sweet as they look I am running out of ideas to cook them apart from adding them to soups and stews, and baking them. Does anyone else grow these ?

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I won a giveaway prize from Damien at 'Two chances veg plot blog' it arrived this morning and is a 'Lands End' gift voucher for £25 to spend on something from their range of clothing. Also enclosed was three packets of nasturtium seeds, lovely ! so thank you Damien and also to your little girl for picking my name out of the hat.

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

And in the greenhouse ..........

There are these beauties growing. Plus lots of different chillies (no photo's )

These are the tomato plants grown from seeds from Victoriana Nursery and they are called 'Abraham Lincoln' so far they are huge and look to be growing even bigger every time I visit the greenhouse. One fits into the palm of my hand, I can't wait to try one as soon as they are ripe.

I have 2 cucumber plants grown from seed, can't remember which seed company off hand, but they are called 'Burpless' I grew them last year and they are delicious. I can't keep up with harvesting them and have been giving loads away, shame they can't be frozen.

Fingers crossed I will get some decent Aubergines this year, so far 3 have started swelling.

The first little pepper has just started to grow, I have about 6 plants in the greenhouse so hope to get a good harvest from them.

It's such a busy time of year in the garden and the allotment so forgive me if I don't post as often and I am trying to visit the blogs on my blog list as you all inspire me.

Have a lovely week. M x

A good start to the season.

I got to the plot yesterday to do some serious work and ended up staying there for four and a half hours. I dug another trench for the asparagus, that was hard work in itself, but then I had to fill wheelbarrow loads of manure and tip it into the trench with some compost and sharp sand. I planted the 'Conovers Colossal' that I'm trialing for 'Victoriana Nursery' I also bought 4 crowns of 'Pacific Purple' asparagus from a farm shop, which is why I had to dig another trench, I just fancied trying this purple one as well.

I pulled back the black plastic that I had covered some beds with over winter, it was great to see NO weeds. I have to work out where the potatoes and the Broad Beans are going, as both are ready to be planted soon.

Broad beans and Sweet Peas, photo taken 7 days ago

This photo taken today, they have grown very tall in 7 days

Onions, Red and White growing nicely and being hardened off each day, I have 3 more trays as well as these

Tomatoes growing in their little light box. These are 'Gardeners Delight' ( on the left) and just one so far has germinated of the 'Abraham Lincoln' but I'm hoping more will pop up soon of those as I am trialing those for Victoriana Nurseries. I have about another three more varieties that I'm going to sow next week. I want to try something different to the tomatoes I usually grow, and more varieties as well.

Needless to say I am aching everywhere to day, muscles I had forgotten I had. I will never learn that it's best to do little and often rather than long stints on the allotment. Ah well ! at least the sun was shining and I did achieve what I set out to do, so a very satisfying start to the season.

Cock a doodle doo

No I haven't got myself some hens and a rooster! that's me crowing as I am rather pleased with myself. Yes I know pride comes before a fall and don't count your chickens etc, BUT -- and this is the first time I have tried this - OK! I'm going to tell you ! I bought some very tasty tomatoes from M & S a couple of weeks ago, so tasty that I decided to scoop out the seeds from the one I was eating. I dried them on some kitchen paper for a few days.

And now look at them, I am so pleased with myself, I know it doesn't take much to amuse me.

Well that was a little experiment for me in what people have been doing for centuries, which is just as well or where would we be today without men and woman saving precious seeds for us to grow ?

Here's an update on other things growing.

Do you remember my post about chitting sweetcorn seeds ?

Here they are now (below) I potted them on when they looked like little tadpoles. It has been successful so far they need to grow a bit more then they can get planted out in a few weeks. I sowed 2 types : Lark F1 and Ovation F1

The Munchkin squashes and the courgette plants are growing well and if the weather stays this good I will be planting them all out soon.

The Cabbages have been planted, 2 types : Wheelers Imperial & Greyhound and the green curly kale. They have been netted against the pigeons using blue water piping for the tunnel and the pond netting was from "Wilko's" (best price)Two last photo's. The first is of the beautiful Cerinthe that I have been growing since planting the seeds way back in the autumn they are just beginning to flower. The other photo is of a tree Peony that I took a photo of in my local nursery and now i am lusting after it, I have to buy it ! if they still have it.

Cerinthe

Tree Peony

That's the end of this post, until the next one Happy sowing and growing to all.

Potatoes and Tomatoes

The weather here today has been very wet and dull, what a contrast from yesterday ! I really was looking forward to getting up to the lottie and harvesting all the remaining brussel sprouts. There are quite a lot, so I intend freezing them. This will then free up that bed so I can dig it over and put some compost on it ready for the next crop (haven't decided what yet !) oh well hopefully it will be a better day tomorrow. My potatoes are chitting well, and I intend to get them in during the next week or so. I have a small amount of "Nicola" some "Swift" and some "Desiree". I grew "Pink Fir Apple" last year, I loved them, but no one else did, so I haven't bothered this year.

The "Saint Pierre" tomatoes are doing well, I have grown far too many, but these 6 are going in the greenhouse on the plot as soon as they are a little sturdier, the others I will give away or sell at my boot sale. The small "Red cherry" are also growing well and I have some "Alicante" which were sown later but are catching up fast.

Rain and Grey Skies

The sky is grey today and what's worse is that it's raining as well. I briefly went to the lottie yesterday, just to see if the snow had weighed down my netting on the purple sprouting broccoli, I thought it might have been crushed. But, it was fine, yeah!! still not ready yet though.

I have however lost most of the Broad bean plants that I put in the ground, I may have a couple that might survive. SO lucky I planted 20 more and here is a photo of them below, they are looking good.

I have potted on some of my tomato plants, I have as I suspected, grown far too many, but that happened last year and it felt nice sharing them around the allotment.

I went to a potato weekend at my local Wyevale garden centre and bought just 5 of "Nicola" just being sentimental really as that's my daughters name, Ive no idea what the potatoes are like (anyone else grown them ????) and I bought "Swift" and "Desiree" both recommended by a

plot-holder called Bill who has a fantastic yield with his, so I know I can't go wrong if Bill grows them. All the potatoes are now Chitting (see photo)

Whilst at the Garden centre, I couldn't resist buying a nice sort of "Folk Art" garden sign for hanging in my Lilac tree near my Summerhouse.

So another day with nothing to do at the lottie, so Austin & I are off to the cinema to see "Slumdog Millionaire" it did very well at the Bafta awards yesterday.