Picked this week - 29th December 2012

 a quick trip to the allotment just before Christmas gave us some leeks, cabbage and VERY dirty parsnips.

The allotments are now flooded again by persistent rain.The blackcurrants on the second plot are standing in water so I'm hoping the weather with dry up soon.

Planting out brassicas

After last week's cold spell - with daytime temperatures barely above freezing - this week has been pleasant and mild (by comparison). So yesterday encouraged by some warm sunshine I decided to plant out some cauliflower and cabbage seedlings round the garden. Not many - only half a dozen in total - but something to fill the bare salad beds from now till Spring.

Picked this week 9th December 2012

We had a brief trip to the allotment mid-week to just check up on things and found some bits and bobs to pick; salad leaves, kale (yet again) and the hearts of some cabbages that had been frosted. There's still a few parsnips and leeks left unpicked but unless it gets much colder they'll keep as well in the ground, so we're leaving them there.
From the garden I managed to find more leaves - mainly land cress - enough to add to sandwiches.

Garden in December

 December has come in with clear nights and the first hard frosts.

cotoneaster

 Colour is now mainly down to berries - till the birds eat them.

pyracantha

A few flowers are still there though - early polyanthus

winter jasmine in full bloom

 and the odd kaffir lily

The frosts have killed the rampant nasturtiums and it's now possible to see the small winter vegetables that were growing through them - cavolo nero kale with some late flowering bedraggled candytuft -

and a short row of leeks

The greenhouse is double and triple layered with fleece, bubble wrap and plastic sheeting but with the cold night time temperatures of this last week I don't think the pepper plants will survive even under all these layers.

Hardier things are ok though - winter lettuce in the propagator, winter hardy spring onions to be planted out into the greenhouse floor soon and brassicas to maybe go outside when the weather warms again.

Picked this week 2nd December 2012

Same old, same old....



It's only when you start to grow-your-own at a serious level that you start to realise how boring vegetables can become - yes, it's another week of leeks, parsnips, kale and a bit of broccoli. 

Not even any raspberries to perk things up though I did find a handful of salad leaves. It makes me appreciate how monotonous our winter diet would be if we had to rely on what we could grow.

somewhere under the mud there are parsnips, I hope.