Home Alone , and other things.

It's been a quite couple of days for me as Austin went off to Surrey to stay with his sister for the week-end, so I was 'home alone' I didn't have use of the car so the allotment was off limits as it's a good walk and I had twisted my knee stepping out of the shed last Wednesday. It's much better today thank goodness and on the mend. So I had a nice couple of days in the garden, pottering about albeit slowly due to the knee. I managed to get a few of the new plants recently bought planted in the beds. I took a few photo's whilst sitting in the garden, so here they are.

By the time Austin was back this evening I was a bit concerned about the lottie greenhouse as we have had a couple of hot days and I hadn't been up to water it. When he got back we went up and gave the plants a good soaking and harvested some tomatoes and a cucumber and a few small green peppers from the greenhouse and other bits from around the plot. It's been an amazing year for all that we have had from the plot, and there is still so much more to come.

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A few photo's from around the garden this week-end.

The wild corner with the Japanese anemones which stand almost 4 ft or more.

An old favourite bench that has seen better days and needs re-painting.

I've at last planted these in the cutting bed, I love their scruffy petals.

A little Viola growing in a crack (self seeded)

Some wild life in the garden ( I took these for Kella ) she has some amazing bugs and creepies in her garden it's like a mini zoo !

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Aubergine's

Aubergine on the patio 'Baby Rosanna', it has lot's of flowers and many small fruits growing, apparently they only grow to golf ball size so just nice to roast with other veg, Yum !

'Baby Rosanna's' first tiny fruits forming.

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Lemongrass update

The Lemongrass taken on 23rd June 2009

One of the Lemongrass plants taken today.
The lemongrass plants are coming on a treat and I can't wait to start using some, the stems are thickening, so it shouldn't be too long.

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Hydrangea

I have had this Hydrangea for many years. It's growing in a half barrel. I don't usually feed or pamper it and it's usually a deep purple. This year I decided to give it some feed for Ericacious plants, I wish I hadn't as it's now changing to pink, I hope it goes back to it's old colour when the feed has all gone from the soil.

My Lace cap Hydrangea taken 5th July

It's just starting to change to a lighter pink.

Taken yesterday, it's definitely changing colour.

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Pooh Bear

At last I have finished my grand-daughters Pooh Bear cushion, it's the same as her brother's but Florence's has a pink balloon (sorry Pooh !) and pink edging. It's the longest I have ever taken to do a sewing project, the garden and the allotment take up so much of my time.

A close up of the hand embroidered Pooh, balloon and bees. The clouds have been quilted to make them stand out.
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Today's harvest

I went up to the lottie to water the greenhouse this evening, and came back with this lovely harvest, plus a carrier bag of runner and french beans. The little squashes are 'Munchkin' and they are delicious roasted. The peppers are just as I like them which is small. The tomatoes are a mix of cherry, and others that I have forgotten the names off hand. My sweetcorn still isn't quite ready, I am waiting patiently. I have to get up there and weed and pull up spent flowers as it's looking a bit untidy.

This and That, Odds and Ends.

One of my blogger friends, Moe, asked me if I bought anything at the flower show, well I was quite restrained ! but I did buy a few things, and here they are below.

I couldn't resist this Lovely 'french style' tin plant holder, it may never get outside however, as I like it in my kitchen !!

I have been after a Vietnamese coriander since last year, and now I have one. They are spicier and hotter tasting that the usual coriander and great in oriental dishes and stir fries. The plant is very attractive is fairly hardy, but needs to be overwintered.

I bought this beautiful Dahlia, only mine is only in bud, so no flowers as yet.

I also bought this Leucanthemum, 'Aglaia' every second person seemed to have one, so I guess it's one to look out for in the garden centres. I just liked it's unruly scruffy petals, bit of a hippy in the plant world if you ask me !!! I just haven't found a place to plant it yet, so re -potted it in a much larger pot for the time being.

I didn't buy this at the show, a friend bought it for my birthday this year. I love it and when I get around to it it's going to hang over the summerhouse in the garden.

My 'Lemongrass' I sowed five seeds all germinated and this one is thickening up beautifully, so I'm hoping to have fresh lemongrass this year 'maybe'. It's got a long way to go before being fully grown, the photo below is one I took at the flower show on the oriental garden.

Full grown 'Lemongrass'

My Herb table, the herbs are growing faster than I can use them, I need to dry some, or maybe freeze.

Sundays Harvest

The garlic planted in the autumn is an amazing size, my garage smells terrible ! so I moved them to dry in the mini greenhouse at the back of the garden. I will definitely be planting again in the autumn, a cold snap really makes the bulbs swell.

These five were pulled up over a week ago and are drying beautifully. I just have to learn how to plait them all now as I have about thirty garlics so need to store them well.

A half trug of peas. I left them too long and some were very big, but still tasty and useful for soups or in recipes. I have cut the plants down now and frozen all of the peas. I hate the job of shelling them.


This is the last crop of Broad beans, I had three carrier bags full, so gave a lot away to elderly neighbours. The rest I have frozen, next year I will cut back the amount of plants I grow, I really must get the hang of quantities. The plants are gone now and I have two free beds, which is just as well as my brussels and purple sprouting broccoli have to go in soon as the plants (individually potted) need to go in the ground.

I also picked a bag full of spinach and loads of french beans ( my favourite crop) which I never expected to crop this early, they are so delicious. So that's about it with the latest news on the lottie.

I hope all of your crops are doing well and the weather isn't to bad wherever you live.

Sweetcorn and Monsters

Well it's Friday once again and I am looking forward to getting my big shed put up at the allotment over the weekend. ( the little one will go to my daughters plot ) I'm not sure if we can manage it on our own without all out warfare, so we may have to rope some kind friends into helping us put it up and prevent a divorce. I will post a photo when it's up.

We went away to visit the grandchildren on Thursday and got back today (fri) and was surprised to see the Sweetcorn that I put on damp kitchen paper on Wednesday morning had already started to sprout, so that's the sweetcorn and now for the monsters - the courgette plants are HUGE they were diving out of the pots when we returned home, they are truly monstrous, what are the plants going to be like I wonder ?

The red Basil seedlings are getting big enough to pot on, the Lemongrass is taking ages to grow, perhaps it will suddenly surprise me and shoot up really fast one day. Talking of surprises ! I have a naughty habit of taking seed heads off plants that I like the look of (does anyone else do this ? I bet they do !) and so I have a little plant growing that I call "surprise", as I have no idea what it is, but it looks a bit like a Calendula type plant, I will just have to wait and see. I will keep you updated as it grows and flowers. I had about 5 seeds, but this is the only one that grew.

The red basil seedlings

The slow growing Lemongrass

The courgettes on Tuesday

Courgette seedling Friday, Monsters !

Potted on, but they will soon outgrow these pots ! I didn't have bigger ones.

Chitted Sweetcorn, ready to pot up.(above)

The Surprise plant.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and that the weather is nice.

Busy Busy Busy, I need a holiday !!!

I have spent many hours on the lottie since Saturday, generally doing jobs like turning the compost bins, weeding, raking beds and putting horse manure on the rhubarb and raspberry plants. A very kind allotment neighbour cut our grass borders with his petrol mower ( we have a manual push one) so Austin trimmed the edges for me, so it's all looking really tidy.

Yesterday I dug my runner and french bean trench. I dug it fairly deep and lined it with wads of newspaper and then put in a lot of horse manure that I had rotting from last year, then covered it all in with the soil again. I was so tired that I went to bed early- 11pm and really for me that is early! only trouble is I was awake again by 5am, so had a cup of tea and went back to bed again. I also put in my potatoes. - Nicola, Swift and Desiree.

Today I went up again and planted my parsnips that I had chitted ( yes chitted !) I am doing my own parsnip trial. The parsnips are Gladiator F1

Trial No 1 is 5 x pot sown and grown seedlings which I transplanted into the bed. Apparently parsnips don't like this ! but we shall see.

Trial No 2 is the chitted parsnip seeds. I dug some trenches filled them with multi purpose compost, carefully put in the chitted parsnip seeds, covered them with more M/P/compost and a scattering of earth.

Trial No 3 was parsnip seeds sown straight into the ground with a little mix of compost added to the planting area. I will update you as to which does the best.

I also sowed 5 short rows of Carrot's - Early Nantes 5. I then harvested some of my purple sprouting broccoli for dinner. I have waited nearly a year for this, I also dug up a couple of large leeks.

I TOLD YOU I WAS BUSY DIDN'T I ????
I've also been sowing more white onions as the first lot don't seem to be doing so well. I think I sowed them too early as this second sowing look so strong in comparison (see photo below) and the lemongrass that I sowed a couple of weeks ago is coming on now.

We are going to help look after the grandchildren on Friday and Saturday so wont return until Sunday, we are so looking forward to it, but I have to get someone to look in on my seedlings, it's a wrench to leave them in the hands of someone else at this crucial stage, I'm sure you all know what I mean !!

Photo's below are - from the top Chilli seedlings ready to pot on. next one is the Lemongrass, then it's my second onion attempt, much better seedling this time ! then it's the chitted parsnips, they look like little tadpoles !

Kale - Tosca De Nero on the right and short green curly on the left