Picked this week 30th September 2012

 A surprisingly productive week at the allotment - picking radishes, bizarrely shaped parsnips and carrots

the one and only pumpkin

some beans














quite a lot of brassicas in bits and pieces - particularly pleased to have salvaged some broccoli from straggly plants

brought home some rhubarb - shouldn't really have pulled this as it's a first year plant but they'd been broken off probably by the neighbouring fox rushing through

even some small tomatoes and chillies

In between the rain...

 Managed to pull in a quick visit to the allotment before another band of rain washed over us yesterday.

Mainly wanted to check on runner beans and blackberries but managed to find radishes, broccoli, rhubarb, kale and a pumpkin as  well.

It's unbelievable that hardly more than a week ago I was having to water these brassicas in! 

I'm hoping some good weather will return and help my late french beans and peas grow.

Also I could do with some dry weather to harvest seed from these over-grown spinach plants.

Autumn Sweetpeas

Rather surprisingly one of my batches of sweetpeas is making a last minute burst of effort and putting out lots of flowers. It's time to be thinking about sowing the seed for next year's flowers but I haven't collected any seed yet.

Picked this week - 24th September 2012

 Considering the way Autumn is advancing I'm a little surprised at how much we seem to have picked this week.
A mini-glut of cucumbers and a couple of chillies starting to ripen.

Some runner beans - less this week but still enough for dinners













French beans too - they're cropping more this week.
A few peas  and quite a bit of red oakleaf lettuce and American Land Cress which has self set at the allotment in a row of beetroot!

Some tomatoes - mostly picked green in case the night time temperatures drop low enough for frost

A strange pepper or chilli or something. The one at the top is a cayenne pepper and I thought the lower one was a jalapeno chilli but it's grown rather large and doesn't seem very hot from my cautious testing. 

 A red cabbage that had been ignored and started to burst open so now won't keep well.

The sweetcorn hasn't been a great success and I don't think we'll get real cobs from it now so I'm going to pull them as mini corn for stir fries

Lastly a couple of beetroot and the first parsnip of the year. I'm just hoping not all of them are going to fall into the 'comedy veg' category!

Sticks

Autumn is tree-pruning time. 

Chopping down the laburnum and lilac lets a little more light into the garden

and provides us with lots of bean poles and pea sticks!

Still growing - for now...

 Despite the cooler nights this last week, the sunny days have encouraged things to grow at last in the greenhouse




cucumbers are suddenly doing really well

and all sorts of chillies are setting, just on brink of ripening

Picked this week - 16th September 2012

Nice weather seems to be bringing a return to salad leaves and cucumbers. Still not many tomatoes but enough for lunch!

lots of runner beans and some french beans - i'm mainly leaving these to swell though for 'beans' to store overwinter.

cleared the allotment apple trees and some of the pears

a mixed batch of brassica leaves and broccoli






crystal lemon cucumbers, an outdoor courgette and a tiny tiny pepper










a more sensible shaped cucumber from the greenhouse at home and the start of chilli harvest

surprisingly, still picking raspberries and strawberries - not many each day but very nice on top of cornflakes for breakfast.

Getting ready for Spring

 I'm taking advantage of the nice weather - combined with occasional rain - to plant out daffodil bulbs ready for spring..

 and sowing seed for lettuces...which might be ready overwinter... 

Flower of Spring cabbages and All Year Round cauliflowers... to plant out in Autumn and hopefully eat in spring.

September butterflies

 Last week's settled sunny weather seemed to bring out more butterflies than I've seen all summer.

 Only the Speckled Wood and Red Admiral would stay still long enough for photographs though. The Cabbage Whites and Peacocks flew away.

Picked this week - 10th September 2012

Lovely sunshine all week and lots of harvesting to do at the allotment.
The beetroot aren't very large and there aren't many this year -  I think some of the seed just got washed away by heavy rain!

LOTS of blackberries in the thorny 'waste' patch

Lots of runner beans too this week - though I'm a bit worried by the signs of wind damage.

A few peas from the later row - and I cleared out the Maro peas for drying.

All potatoes now lifted, stored in bags and boxes under the stairs and in the porch. They've not been brilliant - too wet at the wrong time  - but ours have done better than others' at the allotments. This year it was good to have the highest plot with reasonable drainage.

September in the garden

The wet summer has at least produced more flowers on the montbretia - now looking very colourful in Autumn sunshine.

Michaelmas daisies are flowering a little early

and roses lingering on..










































bright highlights from calandulas and nasturtiums

a perennial fuchsia still growing well in middle of patio moving

 oregano flowering and scenting the garden

flowers at last on a shrub I was given  - hopefully it's a butterfly attracting buddleia

hopefully there'll be lots more strawberries to come - slugs and snails permitting.