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.

Fruits of my labour.

I was away for a couple of days, and got back late this evening, so I had to go up to the plot to water the plants in the greenhouse. I have cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers and all sorts of chillies growing in there. They are all thirsty plants that need lots of water, and were so dry it took me ages to give them a good soaking.

Whilst up there I picked french and runner beans and tomatoes and yellow courgettes. I swapped the beans with a friend who has masses of blackberries on her plot and her raspberries are always earlier than mine, so she said to pick what I needed, great swap !! my raspberries are just beginning to ripen very slowly.

As you can see by the photo's below I have lots of squashes around the plot. The only trouble is there are so many too close together and I don't know what some of them are.

The plot looks very full now and a bit untidy everything has grown so tall

Florence fennel just starting to to swell nicely.

One of the squashes

The sweetcorn has grown to well over 4 foot tall, you can see the squash I planted underneath it just rambling through.

Nice and ripe and this one is ready to pick.

The squash beneath the sweetcorn.

Munchkin squash

Pumpkin

I don't know if this will ripen as I grew it from a seed I saved from a squash I bought from the supermarket last year which was grown in Cyprus, so we may not have enough sunshine to ripen it.

An update on the crops.

I have had quite a relaxing day for a change. I got up late (I wont say what time) but I went to bed extremely late last night, so I needed to catch up with my sleep. I had also fed my little grand-daughter throughout the previous night so my daughter-in-law could get a restful night, so I think I deserved a lie in.

The only thing about getting up late is that I can't wait to get out into the garden to see whats going on, does anyone else do this ? I think my neighbour must think I am a little eccentric (or crazy!) as there I was in my P.J's pottering around the garden, pulling up the odd weed, when he called out to say hello!

I went up to the allotment at about 6pm with the intention of just watering the greenhouse, but ending up staying for almost 2 hours. I was digging up marigolds from the herb bed and planting them elsewhere. There have grown enormous, goodness knows why, perhaps it's the' growmore' plant food, I have never seen such big marigolds.

The sweetcorn is looking very healthy with nice thick stalks and growing tall. The spinach beet (perpetual spinach) is delicious and never stops growing, it's great to pick it knowing that it will keep going. Delicious lightly steamed with baby broad beans.

The runner and french beans are growing well up the supports, and the raspberries have doubled in size since I put them in last year. I am very pleased with the onion growth, I was a bit unsure about growing them from seed, but they are trouble free and I would defiantly grow from seed as opposed to sets again next year.

I want to get an Asparagus bed going for next year, even if I have to forfeit potato space. I have been harvesting a neighbours plot for the asparagus., and it has been a real treat. They gave up the plot to move to one nearer their area and no-one has taken it over yet, so myself and a couple of others have been harvesting it. That is until it became really very badly infested with asparagus beetle, they are horrible little things.

The fact that the plot hasn't been given to someone from the very long waiting list is a disgrace, it's been empty now for around 2 months and there are over 100 people waiting for an allotment. Also it's unfair to the next person who takes it over as it is now full of weeds and badly overgrown. Had it been given straight away the new tenant would have had hardly any work to do other than do a plan then prepare the beds for planting. This is an issue that needs addressing all around the country.

Onions and munchkin squashes

Raspberries


Runner beans and French beans


Sweetcorn

Spinach Beet and Calendulas

Where did the week go ?

I can't believe that it's a week since I last posted. I have been very busy tending the garden this week, which got neglected a bit last year. Luckily I have mostly perennials which appear each year as if by magic after a dormant bare winter, and suddenly the garden looks lush and full with hardly any effort. However this year I have made a few changes to some of the beds, , so I needed to spend more time this week doing just that and fitting the lottie in whenever I could.

I went to the lottie after 4pm today and didn't get back until 7.45. I dug the bed for the sweetcorn, and it was so hot! I managed to get them all planted, but I still have to plant the broccoli ( green & purple sprouting), brussel sprouts, pumpkins and squashes, so lots to do yet.

The runner beans and french beans are growing well and have started climbing up the poles. The cucumber is growing like crazy in the greenhouse and the Aubergines are now ready to be put into very large pots for the greenhouse ones and to be planted out for the ones going in the bed where the wallflowers were outside the greenhouse. It was sad to pull up the wallflowers today, but they had all really gone past their best and had to go to make way for the aubergines and outside tomatoes. Below are some views of the plot taken yesterday and today.

The Herb and flower bed. More sweet-peas behind.

The Sunflower hedge, with the 3 varieties of Courgettes in front.

The first sweet-peas, 'Cupani ' lots of others are just coming out too.

The Sweetcorn went in today, at last.

Looking up the plot towards the shed

Looking down the plot from the shed area.

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.