Blue Skies

I planted some borage at the allotment two years ago and I haven't been without it since. It's a prolific self seeder and the bees love it. I've been at the allotment today and have done a little work, though there's still plenty more to do. The borage plants got pulled out to enable me to get some of the beds dug over. I want to get as much digging done as possible before winter comes as the frosts will break down the clods of earth making the earth more workable when spring arrives. Anything for an easier life.

We've had some real downpours over the weekend. There was heavy rain on Friday night which lasted right the way through to Saturday evening. I'm glad we hadn't planned to go to a bonfire. I thought the weather was finally changing, yet look at the gorgeous blue sky on the photo I took today. Perhaps our first frost is still a little way off.

The pumpkins which I wrote about in an earlier post got a reprieve. It turned out that my daughter had a drama rehearsal on Halloween so we didn't end up carving them after all. I think I'll have a go at making pumpkin soup.

Tatty Plants

You may remember that I bought some new strawberry plants - Flamenco, which are everbearers, at the start of the year. I potted them up intending to plant them out at the allotment once I'd prepared a bed, but I'm ashamed to say that I never got round to it so they're still residing in their plant pots. I had intended to purchase some other strawberry plants too as the ones at the allotment were coming to the end of their productive life. That's another job I didn't get round to, however, the ones at the allotment did ok again this year. I've now pulled all the old plants up so I really need to have some more ready for next year. I came across an offer on the Gardener's World website of twelve Sonata strawberry plants for £4.50. I ordered a pack myself and ordered a pack in hubby's name too. They were delivered in a bit of a sorry state, though mail order plants often look this way when they're delivered but they soon pick up. I've potted them up in to generous sized pots, as you can see, and they'll now stay in the greenhouse over the winter to recover from their ordeal of being sent through the postal system and to establish themselves. I'll plant them out along with the Flamenco strawberries when the weather begins to improve next year.

I've noticed lots of wasps around over the last week or so. I don't remember seeing them around this late in the year before, certainly not in the numbers I've seen this week. I wonder if they're another thing which this mixed up weather has confused.

The clocks went back last night which means there's even less time to spend outside in the garden or at the allotment now. Hubby often has a trip to the allotment when he gets in from work, but as it will now be dark at that time the after work visits will cease until March when the clocks go forward again. I suppose it's now time for the winter hobbies to start up again.

They Won't See Us Through Winter

Hubby went to the allotment today and has now dug up the maincrop potatoes - Maris Piper. I wasn't expecting great things from them for a number of reasons, it was late when they were planted, the dry summer wasn't ideal and there wasn't much top growth. All things considered, I still wasn't quite prepared for the small amount which hubby brought home with him, just a little under ten pounds. The seed potatoes cost more than I could buy ten pounds of potatoes for in the greengrocers. There were a few more than these but they had been eaten, and some of the plants didn't have anything underneath them at all. I've made the decision that I'm not going to grow potatoes at the allotment next year. Instead, I will grow early potatoes in containers at home, as I did this year, and the potato bed at the allotment will still be kept in my four year rotation plan but instead of having potatoes planted in it, it will have sweetcorn and squash.

I was really pleased with how my cherry tree performed this year, we harvested plenty of cherries from it, more than I ever expected really as it's grown in a container and I thought that might prevent it from producing so well. Now that I've seen how well it's done, I'm happy to try another fruit tree in a container. I thought this time I might try an apple tree. There's so many varieties to choose from so I've got lots of research to do, but it's a fruit which we all like so it makes sense to have a go at growing our own. I know a container grown tree won't produce a huge crop, but it will be good to have a few home grown apples to eat.

The beans at the allotment have finally finished producing now. They've done so well this year and there's plenty in the freezer for the coming weeks. It was worth making a late sowing as we got a late harvest, though we may have sown them a little too late had it not been for the heatwave we got at the end of September. All that's left at the allotment now is parsnips, leeks and brassicas.

Halloween Pumpkins

These pumpkins don't look very scary now but I'm hoping they will do so by the time Halloween comes round. I only grew one pumpkin plant and this is the fruit which it produced, one pumpkin is smaller than the other but it's still large enough to carve. As a child, it was always swedes which we carved, and tough going it was too. It's much easier to carve a pumpkin.

I was pleasantly surprised on Sunday to find that I was able to harvest some climbing beans from the late sowing I made. I suppose the mini heatwave helped them along, though how long they'll go on producing for depends on the weather. There's still plenty of runner beans being harvested too.

The weather has certainly turned much colder this week. I was wearing my summer jacket and flip flops when I took Archie for a walk this morning and I came home frozen. It's definitely time to dig out a warmer jacket and boots.

Ladybird Ladybird Fly Away Home

The allotment has been neglected this weekend in favour of tidying up the garden. The jobs which had to be put off last weekend because it was raining finally got done, the rabbit hutches were moved down on to the patio for the winter, the garden had a general tidy up and even the grass got a final mow. I make sure that I don't tidy the border up too much though as the birds like to forage for seeds and the insects need somewhere to sleep over winter. The ladybirds were out with us enjoying another sunny weekend, though the temperature didn't rise to the same height as it did a fortnight ago.

A job which I didn't get round to doing is sorting out the greenhouse. The tomato plants have finished producing now so they need to be removed and the greenhouse needs a thorough washing down which will help to remove any nasties which are hiding in there. I'll be able to move my tender plants in to the greenhouse for winter as I'm sure it won't be long now until we get our first frost.

Although I haven't done any jobs at the allotment this weekend, I do need to pop down there this afternoon to see what needs harvesting. I'm amazed that I've still got beans to pick, and I know that there's a couple of pumpkins that really need removing from the plant now. I shall carve them for Halloween.

It's That Time Again

It's the time of year when our allotment rents are due. My plot is just over half the size of a full sized plot and for the past two years I've paid £20. This year the rent has increased to £24 which I still think is a bargain. Other allotment sites in our area have water charges added to their rent, but as we don't have water on our site, we're not charged for that. There's plots which haven't been used at all this year, yet there's lots of people on the waiting list. I don't know people's personal circumstances, but in my opinion, if they're not going to use the plot they should allow someone else to get some use out of it. I remember being on the waiting list and seeing overgrown plots not being tended, it's so annoying.

I have two Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids, and they're both just throwing up a new flower spike. This will be the fourth time that they've come back in to bloom. I always thought that Orchids were hard to take care of, yet all I do with mine is water them once a week and cut off the flower spikes once they have faded. I've never fed either of them yet they keep rewarding me with new blooms. They'll be in flower again for Christmas.

I can't believe how dark it is, both on a morning and on an evening now. The days seem to have shortened so quickly this year and the clocks haven't even gone back yet. The drizzly days don't help either, there isn't much light through the day and I'm having to turn the light on to enable me to see if I'm reading something. We're only just out of summer yet I'm longing for spring already, it's going to be a long winter.

The Last Of The Tomatoes

This is the last pickings of the tomatoes for another year. It's very rare that I buy tomatoes from the supermarket, they always disappoint when you're used to the superior taste of home grown, so it will be the best part of another year before I get to taste a tomato again. The Tangellas have been my star tomato this year. They've got a fantastic taste, and I've had a huge harvest from them. The Gardener's Delight grew very leggy, even though they were grown in exactly the same way as the other two varieties. The first tomatoes I harvested from the plants were extremely small, but they did eventually give me some decent sized ones. I was very impressed with San Marzano last year, yet the five shown here are the only tomatoes I have harvested off two plants this year. They developed blossom end rot earlier on in the year, a sign of erratic watering. It was around the time that we took our fortnight's holiday, so I wasn't too concerned, but the plants just haven't produced many tomatoes at all. I shall try a different plum tomato next year, I've already got the seeds.

I had intended to plant lots of daffodil and tulip bulbs at the allotment this autumn ready for cut flowers for the house in spring. I feel like I'm so behind with everything at the moment though so I'm going to leave that for another year. I think it's more important to spend my time getting the allotment in order before winter sets in rather than using the time to plant bulbs. I do feel a little downhearted though, I always mean to be more organised at this time of year yet I never am.

I had made lots of plans for getting jobs done this weekend, but it's been so miserable that we've spent time indoors instead. We had continual drizzle yesterday, certainly not allotmenting weather, and today isn't much better. I think autumn is finally here.

Winter Crops

I didn't have much growing at the allotment last winter so I wanted to rectify that this year. My brassicas are doing particularly well at the moment, the cabbages are just starting to heart up and the sprouts are just starting to form on the Brussels plants. I've also got purple sprouting broccoli, calabrese, cavolo nero and curly kale. There's lots of top growth on my parsnips so I hope there's lots of growth underground too, they're mine and my daughter's favourites. My leeks are still rather small but there's plenty of time for them to grow, and there's lots of them so we won't be without. I've also done an experiment and sown a couple of containers of carrots. As you can see, they're still very small. I'll move them in to the greenhouse when the weather gets a little colder, though I don't think I'll be harvesting them over winter, I'm hoping that they'll give me an early crop next year. I've sown potatoes in containers over the last few winters but I never got round to it this year, so that's one thing that will be missing on our Christmas dinner this year.

I'm hoping for some gardening weather this weekend as I need to do lots of tidying up in the garden as well as moving the rabbit hutches down from the grass on to the patio. The hutches are moved on to the grass in spring so that the rabbits can be let out in to their runs when the weather is fine, but the grass gets so waterlogged in winter that it's such a hassle to look after them there, so we move the hutches on to the patio for the winter months. The rabbits seem to enjoy this arrangement as they get lots of attention each time one of us either comes or goes through the back door.

After last week's heatwave, the weather has taken a turn for the worse. I've just taken Archie for a walk and I've nearly been blown off my feet, it's so windy. We've had rain overnight, but that's cleared up now and the sun is trying to make a breakthrough. It's still very cold though.

Ripe Peppers

What a long growing season my peppers have needed. The seed were sown on the 20th of February and the peppers have only just ripened. I've grown two varieties this year, California Wonder, which is a bell shaped pepper and is on the left, and Corno di Toro Rosso, which has a tapered shape, and is on the right. The California Wonder are extremely small and I've managed five peppers on the one plant. The Corno di Toro Rosso peppers are a much better size, but there's only three on the plant. I grew two different shapes to see if one ripened quicker than the other, but as you can see, they've both ripened at about the same time.

I'm still picking bagfuls of runner beans and there's still plenty more to come. Hubby picked some more beans from the first sowing of climbing beans yesterday which I think will be the last of them, though there's some small beans just starting to come on the second sowing so we might just have enough time to get a harvest from them before the frosts come. We also harvested the last beans from the second sowing of the dwarf French beans.

I've been hanging on for an Indian summer and just when I'd given up all hope of getting one, we had a mini heatwave. I should have been doing some jobs at the allotment this weekend, but instead, we made the most of what will probably be the last hot days of the year and had a couple of trips out. Jobs at the allotment will wait for another day.

Saving Seeds

I don't save many of my own seeds. Last year I saved some Tangella tomato seeds, purely because it's not that easy to buy them, there aren't many places which stock them. This year I'm having a go at saving some seed of the mange tout which I grew. These are Robinson and Stephens, which are actually peas, but they can also be eaten as mange tout. They were kindly given to me by Bilbo Waggins from The View From Bag End. I left the pods on the plants to dry, and now that I've snipped them off, I shall leave them a while longer just to make sure that they're thoroughly dry before removing the seeds. Fingers crossed that they germinate for me next year.

I was very sad last week when I came across a goldfinch in the back garden. It was laid on the grass as dead as a doornail. I've no idea what it died from, a cat certainly hadn't had it, it looked so perfect. Poor thing. I've never seen a goldfinch in the back garden before, I've seen them on a few occasions in the front garden.

It's a lovely bright sunny day today. I've been holding out for an Indian summer after the miserable summer we've just experienced, but it's been so cold lately that I'd just about given up all hope. That is until the weather forcasters told us that the temperature is set to rise this week. Perhaps we'll get our Indian summer afterall.

Know Your Onions

These are just a few of the many onions I've got drying out at the moment. They're Turbo which have been grown from sets, and they've done really well this year. There's some quite large ones. We don't use very many onions in cooking so they'll easily last us through the winter months. Next year I'm going to have a go at growing from seed and I've got a packet of Bedfordshire Champion at the ready.

After the gales we had at the beginning of last week, I was expecting to find lots of damage at the allotment. I'm pleased to report that everything was fine, even the bean wigwams were still standing, and we're still picking lots of beans from them. The late sowing of dwarf French beans are now producing, though I think we were a little too late with the second sowing of climbing beans, I don't think they're going to come to anything.

I've eventually got round to sorting out my seeds. I've been quite ruthless putting aside any which I know I'm never going to sow, or any which I've got duplicate packets of, and they've been taken to hubby's workplace for anyone who wants them. There was a full carrier bag full. I made a list of the things I want to grow next year, and headed back to Wyevale for any seeds I was missing. I managed to get everything on my list from the packets offered in the 50p per packet sale, and the total savings I've now made on buying reduced seeds this year stands at £50.01. Not bad.

Carrot Success

You may remember that I named this year the Year of the Carrot. I've never grown carrots successfully on the allotment yet, I manage to grow round stumpy ones in containers at home, but I really wanted to get some growing at the allotment. I've never even got them to germinate in the past. When we took on the allotment, we inherited an old bath which had been left on our plot, and hubby has put it to good use this year filling it up with old compost and sowing some carrot seed in it. Meanwhile, I sowed some carrot seed in the bed which had been allocated for my root vegetables this year. Well, the biggest success has been the bath. The picture is of carrots which have grown there, all different sizes, shapes and colours as hubby sowed all different kinds, he can't remember which varieties though now. The carrots which I sowed in the ground did grow, so I've had a success of sorts, though because I didn't cover them with fleece, they were decimated by carrot root fly. I'm not too bothered, at least I got them to grow, and I know what to do next year now, though I'll definitely be utilising the bath again.

As I've mentioned before, I'm really pleased with my Tangella tomatoes. They've produced a very good yield and are still cropping now. My Gardener's Delight were very leggy and produced tiny tomatoes early on, but are now giving out some decent sized ones. The San Marzano have suffered from blossom end rot and haven't given one edible tomato yet, though there's some ripening at the moment. I might end up with half a dozen this year. I don't grow a huge amount of tomatoes as I only grow them in my 4X6 greenhouse and have already decided that I'm going to grow some outdoor ones in the garden next year. I was telling hubby's auntie that I want to make some soup and sauces next year, and she kindly popped round with a bag full of tomatoes for me from their allotment. I shall turn these in to soup.

Hurricane Katia was forcast to hit our shores yesterday, and it's certainly given our area a battering. Part of the garage roof over the road from us blew off yesterday and my greenhouse is in bits. Archie, the dog, was frightened on his walk last night as the street lights were out, and temporary road signs were following him down the street being blown by the wind. The rain has started now too and it's being driven by the wind. I haven't been to the allotment so I don't know if there's any damage there, I hope my bean wigwams are still standing.

What A Bargain

I always visit Wyevale Garden Centre at this time of year as they reduce all their seeds to 50p per packet and I stock up ready for next year. The seeds I bought this year should have cost me £42.14, I saved £35.64. Amongst the seeds are five types of tomato. One of the varieties I've chosen is Ferline. I've grown this before and it has good levels of blight tolerance, which will be more important to me next year as I plan to grow some plants outdoors. I also stocked up on Gardener's Delight, a favourite variety. The other three varieties are ones I haven't grown before, Black Cherry, Gold Nugget and Pannovy. All these tomatoes can be grown outdoors.

I also bought some onion seed, Bedfordshire Champion. I've always grown onions from sets but thought I'd have a go at growing them from seed next year. I've heard people say that they get a better crop from seed rather than sets so we'll see, they'll have to do well to improve on this year's harvest.

Other seeds which I purchased, which are new varieties for me, are carrots - Resistafly and Sweet Candle, dwarf bean - Purple Teepee, salad onion - Furio, and cucumber - Swing. I haven't ruled out another trip there once I've checked my seed box and see what I'm missing.

They're Coming Thick And Fast

I'm picking beans like there's no tomorrow. I've got dwarf French beans, climbing beans and runner beans and they're all producing very well. I also made a second sowing of dwarf French beans and climbing beans of which the dwarf French beans are just starting to flower, but the climbing beans are still climbing at the moment. I hope there's enough time left to get a crop from them. Beans have to be my most successful crop, they've never let me down, but have consistently given a plentiful supply every year I've grown them. I've never grown broad beans, I remember not liking them when I was a child, but I'm going to give them a chance next year and grow them for the first time. Who knows? My tastes might have changed.

I found another cucumber hiding in the greenhouse yesterday, that brings my tally for this year off three plants to three. To be fair, I haven't gone out of my way to look after them very well, I've really left them to get on with it, but still, three off three plants is pretty poor. I must try harder next year.

We've been out and about all weekend, making the most of the last few days of the school holidays. We've been really lucky with the weather, avoiding any rain apart from when we were driving home on Saturday evening. Today is a different story though, it's sunny at present but it's windy and we've had some downpours this morning. I'm still trying to hang on to summer for a while longer, but I think it's in vain.

What a whopper

I've never grown marrows before, but last year, after finding some overgrown courgettes which I'd missed when picking, I decided I'd use them to make stuffed marrow. It was a hit with hubby so I decided to grow the real thing this year. This is the first one we've had off the plant and we haven't used it yet. I've heard that it does taste different to courgette so I'm just hoping that we like it.

I've been reading of courgette gluts on many blogs but my plants haven't really got going this year. They're just starting to produce a decent amount now so perhaps the glut is to come. The Firenze courgettes which I grew in containers have given up the ghost, they've been a washout producing a few tiny courgettes before giving in. I've got yellow and green varieties at the allotment and both are now producing well.

It's always at this time of year that my thoughts turn to next year. Already I'm weighing up what's done well and what hasn't and what I'll grow again next year and what I won't. My mum and dad are moving in a fortnight and we're inheriting their freezer, so one thing I definitely want to do next year is grow more things to freeze. I already freeze some things, but even though we've got one of those American style fridge/freezers, there isn't enough space to freeze much. The new freezer, even though it's only small, will give us extra space to store gluts for winter use. It'll be nice to be eating from the allotment right the way through winter.