Waste not, want not…

I’ve been harvesting so many tomatoes and cucumbers we just can’t keep up with them! So my resident chef has been busy in the kitchen – pickling cucumbers (with some of the dill I’ve also grown):

And making passata – using up some of the tomato harvest and including basil, also homegrown:

We also have a glut of chilli peppers but haven’t done anything with them yet – so watch this space…

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Wordless Wednesday

More allotment progress…

A productive day at the allotment – took some water down in containers so I could finally get round to doing some planting.

Brussels and cabbages at one end of the new bed and onions further down.

I’m hoping all the netting will protect against all the creatures that nibble away at my crops…

On my way past the neighbouring plots, I took this photo of pumpkins – think I’ll be trying to grow some of these next year:

And also these beautiful Cosmos – I’m really looking forward to growing lots of flowers.

Wordless Wednesday

Hoping for rain…

Crazy I know, but I’d really like a few downpours, preferably overnight to avoid spoiling the
lovely weather we are having at the moment. Our allotment has no water, so every plot has a
variety of receptacles to collect rain water – but of course we have only just taken over our half plot so our containers are empty!

I think we’re going to have to get some containers we can carry and take them down there from home as I can’t plant my cabbages and sprouts without watering them. Really can’t wait to get them in as Gary has worked wonders on the plot.

Those are raspberries on the right, we’re keeping them, as well as some asparagus which was just about covered up by the long grass before we cleared it.

Some of the nearby plots look fantastic, I’m getting lots of ideas about what to grow next year. Definitely some flowers, I fancy having a cut flower patch as well as some giant sunflowers. I fished out some of the free packets of seeds I’ve been collecting hoarding and will make a start with them I think.

We also saw that quite a few of our plot neighbours are growing things in car tyres which looks like a great idea – something else for Gary to look for on Freecycle…

Wordless Wednesday

Squashed…

My two butternut squash plants have turned into triffids in one of the raised beds – I’ve got two squash plants and a cucumber here, plus a few sweet corn plants – they aren’t doing quite so well though.

The cucumber is going great guns, with four cucumbers at various stages of growth but until now there didn’t seem to be much going on in the squash department – all flowers and no fruit. But I’ve just spotted this hiding away under a leaf:

I think it should be a bit further forward by now, but hopefully it still has time to grow and ripen.

Tree Following: September update

We’ve had a few weeks now of trying to avoid standing on fallen apples on the path and grass – as mentioned in my last update, this is probably my least favourite time for this crab apple tree.

It is beginning to look a bit bedraggled now, past its prime.

We have collected two boxes of the apples with a view to making something with them – but no great inspiration yet, crab apple jam doesn’t appeal much. If you have any ideas or recipes, please feel free to put them in the comments…

If you want more details of the Tree Following challenge and to have a look at a wide variety of trees that are being tracked, head over to the Loose and Leafy blog. If you click on my Tree
Following category you can see my original post in March, as well as the monthly updates to compare the difference.

Meanwhile, down at the allotments…

The farm tenancy contract for our half an allotment plot has been signed and we have taken possession of the field of dreams*

*weeds

The aim is to get one bed planted up at the weekend, I’ve got some cabbages, brussels and onions ready to go in and can’t delay too long as my man with the spade (and rotavator) has been busy:

He’s also sourced some pallets and is planning to build a shed…watch this space!

Wordless Wednesday