Peas

The first of the peas have been picked. They don't seem to have done as well as in previous years, I assume it's because of the dry weather we've been experiencing. There was only enough ready for one meal, but there are lots more pods filling up so hopefully we'll get a bigger batch at the next picking. These are Onward which I grow every year, I think I might have a change next year.

At long last we've had a proper downpour, I can't remember the last one we had. The allotment will be really glad of it, as will the grass which is looking very pale and dried out.

We go on holiday at the end of next week so at the moment I'm trying to get the garden and allotment sorted out ready for our departure. I'm harvesting whatever I can so nothing goes to waste.

An Unexpected Visitor

We were on our way to the local gala on Sunday when I noticed something moving in the road. It turned out to be this little guy, well, he wasn't actually that little, more the size of a large tortoise. He's a red eared terrapin. We started knocking on doors asking if anyone had lost him, looked for notices in shop windows for anyone missing their pet and asked at the local vet's with no luck, so he's now gone to live with someone who hubby knows who keeps other terrapins. Many people bought these terrapins as tiny pets when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a big TV hit without knowing that they quickly grow to quite a size and can bite. Many were then dumped which has caused problems for wildlife. I'm sure he'll be happy in his new home.

I had high hopes this year of getting more than the measly one cherry which we got last year from our tree. There was lots of blossom on the tree at the beginning of the year but I think it must have suffered the same fate as the blueberries in the late frost. The result was only five cherries which were happily growing but one by one they have all disappeared, I suspect birds have taken them, so there isn't even one cherry to harvest this year.

I have noticed on some blogs that some people are now picking ripe tomatoes. My plants are only just starting to produce small fruits but they're a long way off from being ripe. I thought I must be behind this year so I checked back on my blog posts from last year and it seems that I was at exactly the same position with the tomatoes last year. Blogs are so useful for keeping this kind of information.

Keeping It Native

This Meadow Cranesbill is flowering non stop at the moment. It's a gorgeous colour and as you can see there are many more buds yet to open. It was planted last year in my wildlife border. I used a number of native plants in the border in order to attract beneficial insects to the garden. Native wildlife is best adapted to native plants for food and shelter, so by adding native plants to your garden you will attract more wildlife. I have seen an increase in the varieties, as well as the number of bees and butterflies visiting the garden since last year so the border has worked well. If you would like to know which other plants were used, they are all listed in my post from April last year.

We've had three full trugs of strawberries so far this week, that equates to about fifteen pounds. There will be more to pick today too. I can see that we're going to have to make some jam in order to use them all up. We had a treat on Wednesday evening and melted a bar of chocolate, in to which we dipped some strawberries, delicious but naughty.

There'll be no sweetcorn for us this year. I never planted them out as they seemed to go yellow and stopped growing. Last year's were a disaster too. They were planted out but only grew to about a foot high. I'm wondering now if it's to do with growing them in toilet roll inners. Last year was the first time I'd done this, and they'd always grown well in previous years. I think next year I'll try growing them in plantpots as I have done previously without any problems and see how I go.

My second cucumber is now ready for taking from the plant and there are four courgettes on one plant which will also be ready for harvesting. More tomatoes are growing, and the beans are climbing their wigwams. The early potatoes are being harvested from their containers, and the ones planted at the allotment should be ready. Even the onions and shallots which were planted really late seem to be coming on ok, though I haven't grown them before so I can't really tell if they're doing well or not. On the other hand, the leeks and squash are still waiting to go out, there's nowhere dug over for them yet. Most of the brassicas wilted and died. This happened last year too, I just can't seem to grow them from seed, though a few seem to have made it. The weeds aren't just threatening to take over anymore, they're actually doing it. I really must spend more time down there.

Strawberry Glut

I can't believe how well the strawberries are performing this year. This is what my hubby picked last night, about five pounds, and we're getting this amount nearly every day. My daughter, who is a proper strawberry fan, is eating them for breakfast, lunch at school, and tea. She follows that with some for supper before she goes to bed, nothing like getting the most out of the strawberry season. I've got Honeoye, Elsanta and Alice, though which is which I don't really know as I can't remember which were planted where, so much for my carefully made notes. This is one glut which I don't mind at all, there's always someone willing to take strawberries off your hands if you've got too many, my mum and dad have been enjoying them too.

What about the weather? It's been fantastic for sitting and watching hubby and son playing cricket on Saturday, not so good for getting round to weeding the allotment. I think I would have burnt to a crisp if I'd spent any serious time down there this weekend, all we've managed to do is pick the strawberries and give everything a bit of a water, though the water butts have now dried up and as there's no water on the site we have to take water with us when we go which is a bit of a bind, but we do manage.

I noticed at the weekend that the first of the tomatoes are just starting to grow. I've had flowers for a while but it seems to have taken a long time to see any fruit. Just a matter of time now before I taste those first sun warmed tomatoes.

As Cool As A Cucumber

My first cucumber is just about ready for harvesting. This is Bella which is an F1 variety and has been bred to only produce female flowers, so there's none of the hassle of having to remove the males. I also sowed the seeds of a variety called Cucino, which is a small mini cucumber. I thought it would be ideal for lunch boxes but I haven't been as lucky with that one. The seeds germinated ok but the plants have just given up. I sowed a second batch of seed but the same thing happened to them. Cucumber seed is so expensive too. The Bella seeds should have cost £4.45 for the packet which contained four seeds. Luckily I got them in the Wyevale sale for 50p, bargain.

The strawberries are continuing to produce really well, much to my daughter's delight. She's taking them to school every day to have with her lunch. The plants have been netted to stop the birds from taking them and I haven't come across any slug damaged ones either.

My allotment has been a little neglected this year, mainly due to the fact that the kids have taken on more out of school activities which demand my time, and also because we couldn't get a head start at the beginning of the year because of the bad weather. It's looking very weedy and overgrown at the moment so we're spending quite a bit of time down there trying to get it ship shape. I still haven't got my squash in, but I'll hopefully find time this coming week to do that.

Lottie Hobby

We had a lovely day at Gardener's World Live on Saturday. The sun came out, though it was a little breezy. It didn't seem quite so full as it was last year, so it was more enjoyable not being crushed in a crowd, in fact I didn't get my shins bashed at all by any plant trollies. There were some lovely show gardens and my daughter, being a guide, was happy that the girl guide centenary garden had won best in show. It was actually very cleverly designed, representing rainbows, brownies and guides, with messages from the children themselves written on to message sticks. I was quite restrained and didn't spend too much money, but I had to have a fuchsia I saw, named Lottie Hobby, very apt. It's quite an unusual fuchsia, very small flowers and leaves. I lost many of my fuchsias this winter so I will have to make sure that I give them extra protection this year.

We went to the allotment on Friday evening and picked the first of the strawberries, which we took in our picnic to Gardener's World Live. There's loads of fruit on the plants, we just need them to hurry up and ripen now.

We've got glorious sunshine here today. I've just sneaked a peek at the weather forcast for the rest of the week and the good weather looks set to continue. Looks like we'll be getting the watering cans out.

Nemesia - Vanilla Scent

Last June, I blogged about two plants which I had bought, Nemesia - Vanilla Scent and Heliotrope - Butterfly Kisses. Both of these plants are usually grown as annuals but are in fact tender perennials. As they were being grown in containers I thought I would have a go at overwintering them in the greenhouse. Unfortunately, we had an extremely cold winter and many plants which I usually successfully overwinter died, I didn't hold out much hope for the nemesia and heliotrope. On inspecting the containers in spring, it was obvious that there was no life whatsoever in the heliotrope so it went into the compost. I nearly made the same mistake with the nemesia, it looked dead so it was put to one side ready for the compost heap. As hubby was filling up the compost he noticed a tiny green leaf on the nemesia so called me over to ask if I was sure it was dead. It got a reprieve and look at it now. I won't be so quick to consign things to the compost in future, thinking they're dead, or thinking that they won't last more than one season. Nemesias are one of my favourite flowers. I always include them in my summer bedding, they look lovely in the little window boxes on my daughter's wooden playhouse.

I had a few comments on my last post mentioning how early it is to be harvesting my first courgette. This prompted me to look back at my earlier posts to see when I harvested my first courgette last year, and it turned out to be the 19th July, this was from a plant in a container in the garden, the plants at the allotment didn't start producing until later. I planted my first courgette seeds this year on the 21st March hoping to get an early crop, and sowed some more seeds at a later date in the hope that when the first plant gives up producing, I will still have other plants which are still going strong. I don't mind a courgette glut, I love them.

We've had some gorgeous days again this week but it's looking very overcast today. I'm hoping the sun will come out again at the weekend ready for my trip to Gardener's World Live.

It Must Be Love

I decided to empty one of my potato containers at the weekend and this is what I found, well, not the courgette of course, that's the first one of the season which was taken from the allotment on Saturday. These potatoes are Sharpes Express, a first early which I haven't tried before, and as I haven't yet eaten them I can't give you the verdict on taste. Apparently, they're quite a dry potato so they're good for chips too. There were quite a lot of very small potatoes which would have grown if I'd left them a little longer, but I'm pleased with the amount of reasonable sized ones. Just look at the cute little heart which I found. I have more containers which I will leave to grow on for a while longer, I just couldn't resist my first taste of the season which I will have tonight smothered in butter.

I'm looking forward to the weekend as I have tickets for Gardener's World Live. I went last year but was going to give it a miss this year as I'm having to watch the pennies quite carefully at the moment since I have given up work. I then found that Tesco's were offering the tickets on their Clubcard Deals. I swapped £6 of Tesco Clubcard Vouchers for each Gardener's World Live ticket, and as it's free for kids at the weekend it's only cost me £12 in vouchers in total. It was a lovely day out last year and the ticket also gives entry to the BBC Summer Good Food Show, so all I need now is for the weather to be kind. They're open tickets so I can go either day, I'll just wait and see what the weather has in store before I make my mind up whether to go on Saturday or Sunday. If you fancy going to Gardener's World Live but haven't got a ticket, head over to Carrots and Kids where Deb is offering ten pairs of tickets to ten lucky winners.

What A Disappointment

After the success I had with my blueberries last year, I was hoping for similar results again this year. Unfortunately, the late frosts in May dashed any hopes of a bumper harvest. One of the bushes has no developing berries at all, and the other has only a few. As you can see, the blossom has completely shrivelled and died. All I can do is put it down to experience and remember next year to cover the bushes with fleece if a late frost is forcast again. I thought it was going to be the same with the strawberries as many of the flowers had a telltale black mark in the middle of them which is knows as black eye. These flowers will not set fruit, but luckily, the plants have produced many more flowers and it looks like I will get a bumper harvest from the strawberries at least.

I was thrilled to be given the Beautiful Blogger award by Scented Sweetpeas this week. Thank you very much, it's always good to know that people enjoy reading my blog. This is the second time this award has been given to me so I will spare you all reading another ten things about me. As it's always so difficult to choose a few of the many blogs I read to pass the award on to, I will nominate you all. If you would like to accept the award the rules are to display the award on your blog, list ten things about yourself, pass the award on to other blogs which you feel deserve it and leave a comment on their blog to let them know that you have given them the award.

There hasn't been much gardening done here this week because of the weather. I was hoping that it was going to be fine as my son has had two field trips to go on with school, but no such luck, it's still raining. The weeds are calling out from my allotment so I'm hoping that it brightens up at the weekend so that I can go and do something about them.

Better Late Than Never

It's been quite a while since I last posted, mainly due to the school holidays last week. Hubby took the week off work too so we ended up making the most of the good weather and headed off all over the place enjoying ourselves. I took this photo last week thinking that I would do a post, but then never got round to it. Do you remember me mentioning the Micro Tomato seeds which I was having trouble germinating? The first batch of seeds I planted never came up and I only had three more seeds to try. Well, one of the seeds was ok and this is the plant now. It's potted up in a six inch plantpot, so you can gauge it's size, yet it has already got it's first trusses. It won't grow much taller now, but it should get some more foliage. Last year I got loads of tiny tasty tomatoes off one of these plants. It's so small that it lives up to it's name of Micro Tomato, and the fruit is tiny too.

As I've already mentioned, we had a lovely week last week. On Sunday we visited Newmillerdam where we saw coots and Canada geese nesting on the water and some had young in their nests. Mallards were swimming on the lake with their young following behind. Duncombe Park was the setting for a country fair on bank holiday Monday and after that we headed in to Helmsley which is a gorgeous little village. I would have liked to have visited the walled garden while we were there but we didn't have time, so it will give us a reason to return in the not too distant future. We had some rain on Tuesday so we stayed under cover of a shopping centre as my daughter had outgrown her school shoes and needed new ones before she went back to school today. The sun was back on Wednesday so we headed off to the Yorkshire Dales, my favourite place. We spent a while in Hawes before driving down to Burnsall where we parked by the side of the river for our picnic and a paddle. No school holiday would be complete without a trip to the coast, so on Thursday we spent the day in Scarborough. It was a gorgeous day, warm enough for my daughter to don her bikini on the beach.

On Friday, my daughter had been invited to her friend's house for a sleepover, so we decided to stay at home and I managed to find the time to plant up my hanging baskets, plant up all my containers with bedding plants and get my tomato plants planted in to their final positions in the greenhouse. I also evicted many of the plants waiting to be taken to the allotment from my greenhouse, so they're now on staging in the garden until I can find some more time to get them in to the allotment.

We spent most of Saturday at the allotment. Hubby built my bean wigwams and I discovered that I did have some spare space, so I've decided to grow some runner beans after all. I planted out two different types of climbing French beans, and have sown seeds direct for the runner beans. I noticed that my first courgette is growing, so it won't be long now until there's a glut. I was also pleased to see plenty of strawberries waiting to ripen. Many of the strawberry flowers were caught by the frost but lots more have opened so all is not lost.

I would have liked to have spent more time at the allotment yesterday but the heavens opened so I spent the day catching up on housework instead. I'm hoping to get down again later on today as the weeds are threatening to take over.

Photo Challenge

Tanya from Allotments 4 You set me a challenge last week to post the 8th photo from my 8th photo album. It turns out that the photo I had to post is connected with another of my hobbies, genealogy. This photo is of my great grandparents on my dad's side, and was kindly sent to me by a distant relative who I met through tracing my family tree. The lady on the left is my great grandmother's sister. I had a bit of a problem tracing further back than the gentleman in the photo as it turned out that his father was born with a different surname to the one he later took. I did eventually manage to get back to the 1700's on this side of the family, but I'm stuck again. I don't think I'll manage to get any further back as my leads have dried up. Genealogy is a great hobby with many twists and turns, and I've met many distant relatives who I never new existed.


The following are the blogs I would now like to challenge to post the 8th photo in their 8th folder:-


Eight by Six Gardening Blog
Flighty's Plot
Growing Our Own
Ma Larkin's
Moj Vrt
Pam's English Cottage Garden
The Green Grower
Two Chances Veg Plot Blog

I should have spent much more time on the allotment this weekend than I did, but I couldn't let the beautiful weather pass without making the most of it. On Friday evening we went for a walk in some woods near where my parents live. I used to play in these woods as a child, and it brought back lots of happy memories. The bluebells were in full bloom and looked so pretty.

On Saturday we decided to head off to Yorkshire Lavender. This place will look fantastic when the lavender is flowering, it's planted en masse and everything is really well labelled. There are quite a few plants to buy and many herbs, including lots of rarer varieties which you don't usually see in garden centres, but I found them quite expensive so I was very restrained and didn't buy anything. I don't think I've seen as many mint varieties all together in one place before.

About three miles from Yorkshire Lavender is Castle Howard, so before heading home we decided to call in to their plant centre. I was surprised by the wide variety of plants on offer and at reasonable prices too. There is a courtyard at Castle Howard with a farm shop, book shop, gift shop, craft shop and cafe, as well as the plant centre, and you are able to go in all these without paying the admission fee, which I think is rather steep for a family.

On Saturday evening we had a quick trip to the allotment and I managed to get my dwarf French beans planted, as well as giving everything a really good water. I was pleased to see that some of my potatoes are just showing through the soil so after a little more growth I will have to earth them up.

We spent yesterday in the garden. My son was off playing cricket, my daughter had her paddling pool out and had friends round whilst hubby and I did some tidying up. One of my Christmas presents off hubby was a walk in plastic greenhouse, quite a bit bigger than the four tier greenhouse which I use inside my normal greenhouse, so we put that up yesterday and moved some of the seedlings in to that. I haven't used it before as it's a little flimsy for cold weather. I didn't want to put my seedlings in any danger of getting frosted, but I think they should be ok now. I'm trying to free up some space in my normal greenhouse as it's time that my tomato plants were potted up and set in to their final positions. They've started flowering so it won't be long now before they start setting fruit.

This week is Chelsea week. I'm not lucky enough to have a ticket to go, so I shall be watching all the highlights from the comfort of my own home. Some days there are three programmes on, so to avoid missing anything I have already set Skyplus to tape them all.

Green Seasons

I've been lucky enough to win another blog giveaway, this time on Monica's SmarterFitter blog. The prize was the Green Seasons Cookbook by Rachel Demuth. The recipes are seasonally inspired and many contain vegatables which I'm growing on the allotment. The seasons are divided up into seasonal vegetables, small eats, large eats and sweet eats, and there's extra chapters such as accompaniments, dressings, salsas, sauces and chutney, and techniques. Though I haven't had chance to have a proper read of it yet, I've had a quick flick through, and there are some wonderful recipes. This book will certainly appeal to those with an allotment or who grow their own vegetables. Thank you, Monica, I can see that this book will be well used.

I finally managed to get my maincrop potatoes planted on Sunday. I heaved a sigh of relief as it's taken me so long to find the time. I had eight tubers left over so I gave those to my dad. He's got a small area in his garden where he grows a few veg, and he hasn't planted any potatoes this year, so he was pleased to take them off my hands. I also planted my shallots. I know it's very late in the year to be planting shallots, but I'd already bought them so they might as well go in.

My beans have all been sown now, I'm just waiting for them to germinate. The weather is supposed to be improving, so the dwarf French beans which had already been sown will be able to go out very soon.

It's Pinocchio

Do you remember last October when I mentioned that my daughter was taking part in a bulb growing competition at Wyevale Garden Centre? She could choose three bulbs of either Pinocchio or Red Riding Hood tulips, and then had to write a diary and record how they grew. We couldn't remember which variety she chose, but once they were in bloom we were in no doubt that they're Pinocchio. My daughter decided to plant them in a container and topped the container off with bellis, which the tulips grew through. She handed in her diary last weekend and was thrilled to find out that she had won the competition. The prize was supposed to be a growbag with a tomato, pepper and cucumber plant, but they had also added to the prize with a watering can, some hand tools and some seeds, which was very generous. I'm quite intrigued by the pepper plant she was given as it's a grafted plant, which is supposed to make it more vigorous and it's supposed to produce up to 70% more fruit. We'll wait and see.

We had a lovely day out yesterday at Lotherton Hall where there was a garden show on. I picked up a convallaria manjalis - lily of the valley, which has been on my wish list for quite a while, but which I never get round to buying, and also a hesperis - sweet rocket plant, which is good for attracting butterflies and other beneficial insects. This will go in my wildlife border. As well as horticultural displays and trade stands, there were other attractions such as a sheepdog display, a shire horse display and a reptile and exotic animal house where the kids got to handle a tarantula, lizards, a baby meercat, a barn owl and a huge tortoise amongst other things. It was a great day out, and on our doorstep as Lotherton Hall is only about four miles from my house.

It's Bean Time

I think the weather has now warmed up sufficiently to sow my beans. I'm quite glad that I've held off until now as we've had some very chilly days recently, but if sown now, by the time they're ready to plant out the weather should be fine. I have already sown my dwarf beans, Safari, which I grew last year and were delicious, and Sonesta, which is a new one for me. They're a yellow waxy bean and supposed to be a heavy cropper. I've also got another dwarf bean yet to sow, Cantare, which were included in the seeds I won in the competition on Eight by Six blog. The climbing beans I've gone for this year are Blue Lake, which I grew last year. These kept on producing until very late in the season and had a great taste too. The other climbing bean I've gone for this year is Blauhilde, which is a purple bean. As you can see, all the beans I've chosen this year are French beans. I'm still unsure whether or not to grow some runner beans too. I think I'll wait and see what room I've got left.

Although I had other commitments at the weekend, I had hoped to snatch an hour or two in order to get my maincrop potatoes planted. Unfortunately that didn't happen, so they're still waiting to go in. I should be able to get that done this week, time's running out now.

I'm hoping to spend some time tidying up the garden this week. The grass is desperate for a hair cut, and the rest of the garden has been neglected in favour of the allotment. I find it very hard to get the balance quite right, one suffers because of the other, or a bit is done in both, but neither are done to satisfaction. I must work out how to manage them both better.

Seed Swaps

I have so many seeds in my seed stash that there's no way I will ever sow them all. I like to try new varieties each year, so those left from the previous year will probably never get used. Some packets of those that I do choose to grow each year will contain more seeds than I will ever use, especially before the 'sow by' date, some contain literally thousands of seeds. Then there's those seeds which come free as a gift in a magazine. I hate waste, so a great way of passing on these seeds to someone who wants them is through a seed swap. I have taken part in many seed swaps on a forum I belong to, Allotments 4 All, there is a link in my side bar. Some swaps can be between two people who are looking for specific seeds, and some swaps can be amongst a group of people, where a parcel of seeds will be posted to each member of the swap group, they will take out the seeds they require and add some more of their own surplus seeds to the parcel. Seed swaps are great if you are looking for a particular seed and can't find a stockist, or if you only want a few seeds of a particular variety rather than a whole packet. Last year, I swapped something for some Lunaria - Honesty with Georgie from Little London Garden. As you can see, they are now in bloom. I hadn't thought of cutting them for a vase, but stole the idea when I saw Jeanne's lovely display on Tales From A Cottage Garden. I took the photo outside as those taken inside the house didn't show the true colour of the flowers. The seed heads are just starting to form, they are used widely in dried flower displays and I remember my grandma always used to have them in the house.

The bank holiday weekend wasn't such a wash out as we were led to believe it was going to be. Saturday was a lovely day with plenty of sunshine, Sunday was a little windy but still dry, and yesterday was sunny with a few rain showers. I managed to get my first and second early potatoes planted on Saturday as well as my first batch of peas. My maincrop potatoes are still waiting to go in, but hopefully I'll get those in this week. I don't feel quite so behind now that the earlies are in though. I need to sow some more peas now as I plan on sowing them successionally to lengthen the harvest. I planted my onion sets last week which I know is very late, but I should still get a crop from them, I expect they'll just be very small. I noticed on Saturday that there are already some green shoots showing. I haven't got around to planting the shallots, I don't know if it's worth putting them in now or not.