Autumn tidying

Today was a tidying up in the garden sort of day. I cleared all the tomato plants from the raised beds . The tomatoes have been pretty good this year but some had succumbed to blight. The green ones should ripen indoors and I've left a few in the seed house as well These are …

Harvest

Today was a big harvest day at the allotment. There's a real nip in the air and temperatures of two degrees forecast for next week. So we decided to harvest all the allotment tomatoes before they succumb to the cold. They are still very green but abundant and luscious nevertheless. We picked about 3 kilos, …

Ten years

It's ten years since we moved into this house. It seems like an appropriate moment to reflect on how the garden has changed. I kept a garden diary for the first five years that we lived here and have continued for the following five with this blog - its a little erratic but it records …

Lost and found

I am sure we have a poltergeist in the house. Not the kind that screams and throws things at the walls but the kind that moves things about. As I've explained before on this blog, I'm mainly a vegetable gardener but I can't resist sweet peas (or daffodils, roses or snowdrops). So I have a …

Fruit smoothie cake

I had another glut problem this morning. Not plums or marrows but bananas.  I don't usually buy bananas, thinking that it is better generally to use up my own gluts first.  So someone else had stockpiled them in the knowledge that the younger generation often snatches them for on-the-go breakfasts, late night munchies and sophisticated …

Autumn raspberries

Autumn raspberries are a delight. They start to ripen in early August when you want to shout at them to slow down - it's not autumn yet. Then they keep on coming, handfuls at a time in my garden and in small bucketfulls at the allotment. I harvested these at the allotment at the weekend …

The year’s turning

Plums are dripping off the trees, apples are falling on the ground. Tomatoes are beginning to ripen and we are drowning in marrows Autumn has arrived. For the first time in over twenty years there are only two of us in the house to share in all this bounty. My older son has finished his …

Competition time: flowers v vegetables

I've always though of myself as a vegetable grower rather than a flower grower. So it is with some irony that I seem to keep winning the flower prizes at the annual allotment show: I was rather pleased with this prize though. I do love my sweet peas but I only grow them because they …

Runner beans and nasturtiums

Down the allotment at the weekend, there were tons of runner beans and giant courgettes.  I forgot to take photos but here are some of the runner bean flowersI've grown the red flowered 'painted lady' beans for years but these are 'moonlight', from a seed swap back in the spring. I also have sweet peas …

Nesting bees

It was one of those days when you are sitting having your lunch, pondering the nature of utility and beauty and realising that your garden is not quite passing the William Morris test: 'Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful' - for more see here …