Two gifts

First, some daffodils from the shop to cheer up the house and pretend that Spring is here. I picked some forsythia from the garden which will hopefully burst into flower, and found some fallen pussy willow twigs on the playing fields.













And from a friend, a double layered box of apples - very handy as the ones I have in store are ripening and rotting too quickly. I had to move things round quickly to find space, so pumpkins are having to share space with apples.

Picked this week - 16th November

 This vase of flowers is rather typical of this week's pickings - a mix of almost every season.

 Tomatoes and radishes



Raspberries








Spinach, american land cress and even some small pieces of rocket







then two carrier bags of windfall apples from my parents' tree

Autumn allotment

 We're now at the time of year when most crops are being lifted and the ground dug before frosts really start.
There are still several sorts of brassicas that will hopefully grow and crop over winter - cabbages in the foreground, floppy brussels sprouts behind and, to the right, kale. Elsewhere we have more brussels, red cabbage and some broccoli. If everything grows,we'll have plenty of winter veg.

Most of the 'orchard' fruit has been picked - just a few apples left - and the leaves are turning golden, especially on the cherries and the mystery tree in the background. We've still to discover what this is as although it was filled with blossom this spring, it's still to set any fruit.

Picked this week - 21st September 2014

Another busy week, warm with a little rain but still needing to water at times - astounding for September.

Lots of offerings for salad lunches - cabbage for coleslaw


a mixed batch of radish







beetroot

spinach

possibly too many tomatoes

and weird cucumbers

Decide to take off these two smallish butternut squashes and hope the others on the plants will grow more

more of the disgusting-looking mildewed peas

French beans - for the green bits and the seed.

Also a bag of runner beans which must have run away from the camera(!)

Apples and pears



raspberries, strawberries and blackberries

and the only surviving grape. Something, probably a mouse, has eaten the rest!

September in the garden - vegetables and fruit

The baby cauliflowers have survived all the attacks from slugs and snails, and I'm hoping they'll now make it through winter for Spring dinners

Some rather late leeks have taken ok but all the spring onions have been eaten away.

A mixed-up veg and flower bed - cabbages and leeks with fuchsia ont he left, lavender at the front and strawberries along the path edge.

 Spinach - at least this grows well even if lettuce doesn't

 Some flowers and occasional fruit from the strawberries, though not doing as well as the allotment plants

 The greenhouse is very full - with ripening tomatoes



This is perhaps the best crop ever of poire jaune tomatoes

 There are grapes



                                                            chillies







and ripening onions on the shelf

 Two of the three apple trees are looking full of fruit but it looks rather messy and scabby. I'm not really expecting a good apple harvest from them.

Picked this week - 31st August 2014

 It's been one of those busy weeks when all we seem to have had time for at the allotment is to keep pace with everything that needs to be picked! Nice but tiring, and meanwhile the weeds grow...

Started in on the sweetcorn harvest and if they're all as good as this one, we'll have plenty.

a couple of large beetroot and small turnips








LOTS of tomatoes. Two bagfuls from the allotment and a mix of cherry, poire jaune and 'normal' salad tomatoes from the home greenhouse

spinach from both garden or allotment though no large amount from either

 the occasional handful of peas

 A carrier bag of runner beans

 and a smaller bagful a few days later










 some welcome radishes from an early August sowing

 good sized peppers though I'm not leaving them to ripen on the plants








a variety of odd-sized courgettes and cucumbers

 and plenty of fruit - blackberries, strawberries and autumn raspberries, apples which have had to be picked to save the trees branches and a lot of plums. We've now cleared all of these from the tree and sadly there's rather oo many with grubs in them.