Tag: Runner Beans

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers10 Comments

Sixtyish on Saturday

Reclaiming Paradise

In a small departure from the Six on Saturday rules, today’s post celebrates my challenge to harvest sixty different edible plants from my garden and allotment this year. Last week I hit my target, with the wondrous Howgate Wonder apples coming in at number sixty. I’ve now gone over the target and you can read all about what I’ve harvested since January here This year the Howgate Wonders are bigger than ever. I weighed one and it was 1lb! Not all are quite that big but there have been about thirty of these lovelies on the tree. So far they’ve … Continue reading Sixtyish on Saturday

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

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers6 Comments

Not counting my chickens..

Reclaiming Paradise

.. but my plan to harvest sixty different fruit, vegetables and edible plants this year is nicely on track. As I explained back in January the plan is to see if the garden and allotment can produce sixty different vegetables, fruits, herbs, or edible flowers and weeds over the course of the year. I’ve now recorded forty-five – see the running total here – with my climbing French beans the latest in the harvest record. So, I’m fairly optimistic that I’ll reach sixty by the end of the autumn harvest. However, I’m not counting my chickens too soon as all … Continue reading Not counting my chickens..

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden10 Comments

The joys of home – six on Saturday

Reclaiming Paradise

Earlier in the week I blogged about the joys of tomatoes and my envy at my friends’ ability to grow them so easily in the south of France. Today’s #SixOnSaturday celebrates what’s growing in my Scottish garden today. Peas – these are Prussian Blue – or at least I think they are. They are from saved seed and I seem to have got the varieties mixed up a bit. Anyway, they taste great. 2. Overwintered broad beans – Aquadulce Claudia I think . They’ve been superb this year. These are the last of a massive crop. I’ve also had a … Continue reading The joys of home – six on Saturday

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers13 Comments

A handful of beans

Reclaiming Paradise

My runner beans have been really rubbish at germinating this year. Every year I grow them in in small pots or cardboard tubes in the grow house and then plant out once they are past the slug vulnerability stage. But this year only about half of them have germinated. I don’t know whether it’s been the very up and down weather – cold at night, hot during the day, or the beans themselves, or the compost I’ve been using. Whatever the cause, the effect is that I have much fewer plants than usual, either in the garden or in the … Continue reading A handful of beans

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Wildlife11 Comments

Six from a frosty allotment

Reclaiming Paradise

I nipped along to the allotment today to see if Storm Arwen had done any damage (it hadn’t). So here are #SixOnSaturday from the allotment. This year’s very impressive runner beans were still standing, if looking a little the worse for wear, so I cut down all the bean tendrils for the compost bin: The sweet peas are still hanging on in there, so I left the wigwam up to provide them with a bit of support. Didn’t manage to get an in focus photo though (I blame my frozen fingers). I found a desiccated bean and brought it home … Continue reading Six from a frosty allotment

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers2 Comments

Every one a winner

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve fallen a wee bit behind with the blog but here is an update from last week’s allotment show. It was a joy to take part after last year’s was cancelled. It threatened to rain but in the end the sun shone. I arrived in good time in the morning to rush round the plot and harvest my vegetables, piling them up outside the shed so that I could choose and polish any prospective winners. Here was my initial harvest: raspberries, apples, ruby chard, courgettes, potatoes, sweet peas and a huge bucket of runner beans. You can also see my … Continue reading Every one a winner

Cooking and eating from the garden8 Comments

Start of the preserving season

Reclaiming Paradise

The jam making season has started here at Reclaiming Paradise. I’ve got a glut of green tomatoes, plums, runner beans, courgettes, a couple of marrows, apples on their way and one giant cucumber Where to to start? Some of the tomatoes are ripening but a few of the others have blight so I reckoned I need to pick some and start the preserving season. Whether to make plum jam and green tomato chutney, or green tomato marmalade and plum chutney? I decided on the marmalade first – it’s simmering away as I write: See here for the recipe – green … Continue reading Start of the preserving season

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden3 Comments

Welcome harvest

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve been away for a little while, catching up with family, swimming in lakes and stretching my legs rather more than I intended. It was nice to get away from some of the everyday stresses but it was also nice to get home to see what was happening in the garden. Here are some of the joys I came back to: peas – green and purple, broad beans, raspberries and a few strawberries, lettuce and the last of the redcurrants. Quite a feast. The red currants have been a bit of a disappointment this year as the best of them … Continue reading Welcome harvest