Tag: Marrows

Cooking and eating from the garden, Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers2 Comments

Apple Day

Reclaiming Paradise

Apparently today is apple day – something to promote apple growing, harvesting, orchards etc . Time to celebrate the apples in my garden. This year has been a particularly productive apple year, particularly for the Sunset eating apples which we’ve been eating for weeks. This is the supply in the kitchen at the moment: We bought the Sunset apple tree about twelve years ago after going to a community allotment apple tasting day to decide which one we thought tasted best. Sunset won and so we ordered our tree. It’s been a steady producer of tasty little apples ever since … Continue reading Apple Day

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers6 Comments

Harvest time and a monster at the allotment

Reclaiming Paradise

This late summer mini heatwave is causing all sorts of gluts in the garden. We’ve already had lots of plums (which would be great even without the heatwave), runner beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. We took this little lot on holiday with us and they fed us for the best part of a week (along with a bit of pasta and pasta sauce) Don’t you all take your veg on holiday too? They deserve a little change just like the rest of us. On our return there were even more plums – kindly harvested by my son and stored in the … Continue reading Harvest time and a monster at the allotment

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden2 Comments

Late summer harvest

Reclaiming Paradise

When the Scottish schools go back in mid August there’s always a subtle change in the air, a hint of the end of summer and autumn round the corner. We felt that seasonal change as children and later as parents, as the new school year brought change, anticipation and regret that summer was over. That particular seasonal marker no longer affects us directly but I can still feel the change in the air in the garden. Fortunately it also brings the start of the late summer gluts. We’ve picked the first plums, savouring them before the novelty wears off. I … Continue reading Late summer harvest

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers6 Comments

Harvest

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve been away from home for a week or so, walking and swimming in the rain. We had a bit of a plum glut just before we left, so we took the plums with us. I also made an emergency supply of plum jam the night before we left, rather than doing any packing, getting my priorities right, as I was worried they wouldn’t survive till we got home. Some of the tomato crop also joined us on our holiday, including a double Costoluto Fiorentino and the first of the impressively coloured but decidedly small ‘Indigo Blue Berry’ and a … Continue reading Harvest

Cooking and eating from the gardenLeave a comment

Catching up

Reclaiming Paradise

Tonight I’ve been making chutney: This is mostly plum, with some windfall apples, some red onions, one green tomato (it was showing some signs of blight so I picked it from the plant to save the others and cut the brown bits out) and some radish seed pods. The recipe is based on something like this. The plums are nearly, but not quite, ready for eating so it seemed like a good idea to start processing some of them before we are overwhelmed. The onions are from the allotment: The radish seed pods – well the radishes as always are … Continue reading Catching up

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden10 Comments

Late summer promise

Reclaiming Paradise

It poured with rain in the night and I wandered round the garden this morning to see what was happening in the vegetable beds, accompanied by my furry assistant. I had a sense that the season was turning. The potatoes and soft fruit are nearly finished and I was beginning to worry if anything would take their place. A closer look showed the promise of late summer joys. So here’s what I found for today’s #SixOnSaturday. First, in my runner bean bed, where the sweet peas have been blooming for a few weeks, the runner beans are beginning to form … Continue reading Late summer promise

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers4 Comments

The year’s turning

Reclaiming Paradise

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 studies,  for the moment, and moved on to do voluntary work, while my younger son starts a new course away from home next week. We miss their youthful enthusiasm, mess, music and musical friends. There are still some musicians around, popping in from time to … Continue reading The year’s turning

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers3 Comments

Competition time: flowers v vegetables

Reclaiming Paradise

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 can grow up alongside the runner beans, as I explained in a previous post But we also won a prize for a vase of annual flowers: What the judges didn’t know was that they were really vegetables – can you spot the radish flowers? Here … Continue reading Competition time: flowers v vegetables

Cooking and eating from the garden, Why I garden1 Comment

A garden feast

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve spent most of today at the allotment, tackling weeds and harvesting onions. Everything is coming along nicely although the peas are still rather straggly, which is strange as the peas in the garden raised beds are in full flourish, with their beautiful butterfly wing flowers: The onions have been magnificent this year but feel a little overwhelming at the moment. I’ve also had an invasion of musical instruments, bikes, camping equipment, bags of laundry and random pairs of shoes this weekend. And that is a good thing, because it means that my lovely young people are around, filling the house … Continue reading A garden feast

Why I garden12 Comments

Reclaiming Paradise awards 2018

Reclaiming Paradise

As the old year rolls on and we venture into 2019, it’s award season at Reclaiming Paradise. In a year of weather extremes and personal complications, we celebrate all that is great, good or frankly unsuccessful in my garden and allotment. This year I  cracked a bone in my arm, helped my mother move house, acquired a second cat and was overcome with day job commitments. But the garden, the allotment and the blog bring me joy, and the Reclaiming Paradise awards help me to celebrate that with you. Here are the award categories: Most impressive garden developments; Most unlikely … Continue reading Reclaiming Paradise awards 2018