Picked this week - 24th August 2014

 Back from holiday to find the allotment overflowing with fruit and veg.
Not so many blackberries but the autumn raspberries and late season strawberries are cropping now which brings back a taste of summer in a wet week.





Quite a bit of rhubarb

 

and our first plums - though a lot are damaged by maggots!






Lovely peppers from the greenhouse.

 Picking the cabbages small before the caterpillars munch through them







Later pea rows starting to crop

There's no lettuce but fortunately I have some spinach rowing both at the allotment and in the garden

 A handful of french beans - and a big bag of runners







Surprised that I didn't find huge marrow-sized courgettes waiting for me but perhaps the weather has been a little too cool

It hasn't stopped the cucumbers in the poly greenhouse though

or the tomatoes

 I'm very pleased with the crop of yellow poire jaune tomatoes from the 'home' greenhouse

and I wouldn't want to miss this week's flowers

sweet peas, rudbeckias, montbretia and carnations

Picked this week - well ,two weeks - 17th August

 I had computer problems last week so couldn't post my usual wekly round-up, so here's a bumper harvest of all manner of things starting with several small cabbages.

 Peppers! probably the best I've ever grown - and there are more to come.

The later pea rows are starting to crop now.








Lots of beans - runners,french and a few borlotti

 starting to lift the onion crop

 Lots and lots of blackberries, the occasional raspberry or strawberry, windfall pears and apples which had to be picked as they were too heavy for the tree!

 Cucumbers...





 and another with courgettes and tomatoes....

and more - one green and strange crystal lemon

Waiting for rain

I thought we'd had quite a bit of rain this last week - certainly the crops look happier and in less need of watering. But then I spotted this huge crack where the soil has dried out completely - obviously we've not had enough yet to really make an impact.

Picked this week - 3rd August 2014

Started thinning out some of the larger apples as the smaller trees are looking over-laden.

Picked lot of blackberries to go with them - and a few raspberries and strawberries






More rhubarb but it's a bit scraggly this week






a handful of peas


cabbages - not real football sized ones though

two sorts of summer turnip

runner beans

courgettes and yellow cucumber




more courgettes, more yellow cucumbers and tomatoes

more tomatoes

and the first of this year's chillies

August in the garden -veg

 The veg patch is edged with marigolds - to add colour and to keep greenfly at bay. There's a single lettuce seedling, some very small brussels sprouts, a row of leeks and a couple of cabbage in this bed

with nasturtiums running through them

 rhubarb filling this patch

 small autumn/winter cauliflowers

 and newly planted celery and red cabbage. This is the first year I've managed to grow any celery - but even if it doesn't crop well, its bright green should look good against the cabbage.

 Tomatoes are filling - on the left are 'normal' red ones Moneymaker or Alicante







On the right are yellow Poire Jaune













 Not many grapes this year but they're filling well




 







and nearly forgotten, by the old playhouse, Blauwschokker peas - purple-flowers and green peas inside a purple pod