Busy Saturday

 Back from the allotment loaded down with all sorts of goodies - two carrier bags of peas, another of broad beans,






two courgettes,

a good handful of cherries





and a few raspberries.

Meanwhile, at home, the first chilli has set

Back from the holidays....

 we may have been having a lazy time of things for a few days but the allotment carried on growing ....so we came back to masses of broad beans, peas - both normal green and purple-podded - and soft fruit - raspberries, strawberries and a few cherries

Spring is on the way!

 They may not be as fantastic as the snowdrops we found last weekend at Dimminsdale Nature Reserve but at least I can see these in my garden any day.

 It's not just snowdrops brightening up the garden - polyanthus,which have tried to flower on and off all winter, are now getting properly intot heir stride.

 and crocus are starting to bloom

 the greenhouse is starting to fill up - with spring onions and brassicas which have over-wintered there

 sweet peas and tiny salad leaves

 and trays planted with broad beans and peas (the holly should deter mice)

 Out in the veg patch, the spinach is looking better for a few warm days




and I even found some lambs' lettuce growing weed-like among the strawberries.

These daffodils are what will really herald Spring in though - doesn't look like it will be all that long to wait...

Winter crops at the allotment

 Checking up on our winter crops and delighted to find broad beans poking through and brussels sprouts starting to form. The brussels could do with some colder weather - to stop them sprouting too quickly; the beans will grow better if it stays mild!

Picked this week - 20th July 2014

 Another hot and mainly sunny week - though with torrential rain at weekend - means the summer veg are coming along well.

More cherry tomatoes this week

 Courgettes again - the first one always feels like a treat,then there's suddenly a glut of them!

 Weird cucumbers and one sensible one - the crystal lemon cucumbers are meant to be yellow and round, but the 'normal' green one on the left wouldn't even make it to the 'mis-shapes' section in a supermarket!

 A mix of fruit - strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb and astoundingly the first blackberries. I'm sure these are earlier than normal








Clearing out the row of lettuce at the allotment - most of it having turned bitter so not nice to eat

 broad beans and a few peas that hardly made up a meal's worth

An accidentally-lifted-while-weeding turnip and two garlic bulbs.

Picked this week - 13th July 2014

Quite a lot of goodies from the allotment this week, much of it small-sized veg.

 I'm thinning the turnip row and eating these baby sized ones as 'radishes'.

Having to eat up the lettuce while still small as it's trying to run to seed. A lot of it is bitter and not at all pleasant so going straight in the compost bin.

Courgettes are another veg I'm picking young and tender rather than waiting for the marrow-sized

...and peas - though these are sugarsnap/mangetout peas intended to be eaten small

These are there more grown-up relatives

Tiny cauliflowers picked before they too burst, and the merest sprig of broccoli




The small cherry tomatoes are ripening but it takes a lot to fill a sandwich.









Not so small - broad beans.

But there are small apples from thinning before the branches break

and small alpine strawberries that are still fruiting even though the larger types have finished








and small grapes, accidentally cut off when I was pruning the vine. I have found a use for them though - in salsa, with cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

Full sized raspberries but tiny gooseberries - luckily my parents have full-sized goosgogs to share.