Tuesday 22 July 2014

Pre holiday Blog post

Another good week for harvesting. 
Here is a good days haul: Courgettes, Peas, Broad Beans, Purple French Beans, Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries & Blackcurrants, Sweet Peas too.
And not a bad haul of Red Currants, about 4.5lb and not long before its made into Jelly, lovely on a Sunday Roast. 
Finally lifted the Onions, been saying I would for ages, here they are drying on a wire rack I set up on breeze blocks. The white are 'Senshyu' I'm trying them again this year. 
The others are 'Red Winter' not grown them before so will see what they are like. 
Didn't grow as many Onions this year as the Shallots have done so well, we will be eating those for months!
Sweetcorn doing well now they have been weeded, they have got their seed heads now, so not long before the corn starts to show & grow. Hope its a long hot summer for maximum growth & ripening. 
The Purple climbing French Beans are ready now for harvesting, a daily task but they freeze well if blanched, but loose their purple colour when boiled.

The Peas are cropping well too.

The Green Beans haven't reached the top of the wigwam, but wont be long.

Still no better taste than home grown.
The first of the Tomatoes from the Allotment Greenhouse, I think these are 'Money Maker' or maybe 'Gardeners Delight', we are growing both but forgot to look at the label (silly me). Even the ones outside are doing well, but still green.
I've been to the local stables, to get some horse manure, it took two trips to fill the holding bin, 12 compost sacks full each time, but will be plenty for soil conditioning over winter. 
I usually go for manure late in the year and it doesn't rot down fully, but this year I'm ahead of myself and getting prepared early. I have covered it in black plastic so it doesn't get too wet when it rains and keeps it warm too.
Well the title of this weeks Blog is 'Pre holiday Blog post and will be the last for 4 weeks. 
We are going to visit our son in Vancouver Canada and can't wait. 
Our Daughter will be looking after the plot for us as well as house and pet sitting, so its in safe hands.

So hope you all have a good Summer & see you in August.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

Sunday 13 July 2014

Harvest time again on the plot.

Harvesting at full pelt. 
Here you can see all the Blackcurrants about 10lb, some Raspberries, Loganberries, Blueberries a few Courgettes & Sweet Peas too. 

Most of the Blackcurrants will be made into Jam (6lb) the rest I will make wine out of.
It was time to lift the Shallots as the leaves were flat on the ground. Once home I weighed them and placed them on our drying shelves made from an old pine shelf unit, there's about 12lb too!
Yet more Beetroot, this variety 'Boltardy' has been a good cropper for us, we had to thin these out to leave room for the rest to get bigger!
The Sweet Corn is getting bigger, we have weeded them to give them more chance to grow without competing with the weeds! A long summer is needed to ripen the corn, lets hope it will be.
On the wigwams I put up behind the Sweetcorn, for the Beans & Peas to climb up, here you can see the pea pods not full of Peas yet but wont be long. 
The Beans are doing well too, they have reached the top of the wigwam and pods are forming. 

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

Sunday 6 July 2014

July & the weeds march on!

Yes July and the weeds are taking over, well not literally, but they are growing faster than some of the crops! But in this picture you see some rather tasty looking Parsnips & these are just the thinning out's, we will have them roasted as usual and they taste so nice tender and sweet too. 
But as I said weeds are taking over so we cleared the Asparagus bed, that we put a couple of Courgettes in, now the weeds have been pulled it will give the Courgettes more room to spread out.
I weeded the Cara spuds and earthed them up again, in the hope they put on more growth now as not competing with the weeds!
Crops harvested this week: Charlotte spuds, a Round Courgette, Beetroot, Broad Beans, Rhubarb, Raspberries, Strawberries, Gooseberries, Blackberries & Loganberries.

I might have missed something out, but you see its a bumper harvest again this year.
The Teasels we have growing outside our plot are lovely at the moment, I have taken a photo through them looking onto the Poppies on our plot.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian