picked this week - catching up after holiday

been on holiday so a lot of things to catch up on in the garden. came back to find a bag of runner beans waiting for me in the fridge and lots more still to be picked. the cucumbers were trying to take over the greenhouse - have several strange shaped specimens of fruit. 4 sensible shaped courgettes and one weird one. lots of peas to be picked from the alderman plants - some have dried out too much so I will save these for seed. the side-shoots on the green magic broccoli have grown - rather straggly but fit to eat. a couple of handfuls of small gartenperle tomatoes ready.

autumn sowing

had a couple of days of seed sowing for autumn and spring crops - radish straight into the garden; winter density and red salad bowl lettuce in a tray in the greenhouse and 3 types of spring cabbage - offenham flower of spring, spring hero (only 5 seeds left) and advantage - in trays in the stenhouse ( an ikea sten shelving unit covered with greenhouse plastic).

picked this week

runner beans! a few too many if such a thing is possible, beetroot - pulling it as it starts to run to seed, a few peas, courgettes, the first cucumber,starting to pick blueberries as they ripen, still have some alpine strawberries coming, taken the 5 apples from the new tree - also picked some from the large pippin for chutney making

broccoli

chopped back the feltham first pea row, leaving the roots in, and planted out the last batch of broccoli plants - some Italian Sprouting and some Early Purple Sprouting

kelvedon wonder peas

had about 30 small plants of Kelvedon Wonder peas growing in plug tray. moved these out into the garden today - hope they can survive the slugs

runner beans

hopefully heading for a good crop of beans. have already had some surplus to freeze. they're mainly Scarlet Emperor plus a couple of white-flowered Emergo which aren't doing so well. this damp weather seems to be suiting the runner beans more than the french - they started to crop earlier in the hotter weather but have slowed down now.

summer

2 days of summer sun, now back to rain

picked this week

courgettes,potatoes,runner beans, broccoli,tiny cauliflower,a few peas,green tomatoes,mangetout peas- though number is reducing

a garden of blue and gold

calendula and platycodon

lavender and nasturtiums

montbretia

potatoes

have tipped out our potato bags as the blight was spreading their way. a bit of a mixed bunch - but, as they weren't seed potatoes but the sprouting bits cut off when peeling, not so bad.

picked this week

green tomatoes, runner beans, mangetout peas, blueberries,courgettes,some peas- not as many as last week, beetroot, some rocket and chard for salads,potatoes from a bag -about a meal's worth

planting and sowing

pulled up some spinach stumps and planted out some mixed broccoli - some Italian sprouting to crop in Autumn and some Early Purple for next spring. In gaps left after radish, have sown beetroot,swede and spring onions

pumpkins must like the rain

hopefully heading for a good pumpkin crop. some are coming a little strange - the red kabocha seed has thrown up something that looks like a round courgette, about the size of a golf ball.

grown from Red Kabocha seed

the big halloween pumpkin is now having to be supported in a net - it seems far too heavy for its stalk

norfolk halloween pumpkin

making the best of things

last week, the slugs ate most of the lettuce - so the late french beans had a space to be planted out into. this week, blight has tried to destroy the tomato plants, so we have odd gaps here and there where tomatoes have been pulled out. right on cue, a seed catalogue has turned up, full of things to sow this month and even in September - they're actually selling a french bean that can be set now and fruit by next month. I have enough bean plants and no space so won't try them, but certainly I'm tempted by late season turnips and carrots.