Pre Christmas check

Leeks doing well.

Still got Beetroot in and this one is a monster!

All the Garlic has rooted, Carousel Pink is a lovely flavour too.

White Onions surviving this warm spell, but weather is predicted to get colder soon.

While I was there thought I'd dig up some Parsnips, for dinner & Christmas day of course.

So everything is doing fine and not waterlogged. 
Was a lovely day too, with a nip in the air.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian 

November's 2nd harvest

Finished digging up 1st row of Kerrs Pink potatoes and this is all I got. I think I planted them a bit late (end of June) so thats why a low harvest.

More pink veg, these are the Borlotto Beans, the foliage has died back now so time to harvest the pods. 

See below to see the beans we got.

 So despite the forecast of more rain! Today was quite bright & the sun even came out briefly. But at least I managed to dig the spuds up, harvest the beans & get a bag of greens for our chickens.

So here are the Borlotto beans after podding. If we had planted them earlier more would have got their mottled red colour.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

1st of November harvest

Time to test dig the Kerrs Pink potatoes, all the foliage has died back and the weeds are taking over! 

So not a bad harvest despite the inclement weather. 
Pumpkins, Potatoes, Parsnip, purple Peas, Tomatoes, Raspberries & greens for our Chickens.

So despite the temps dropping was glad to get such a lot. 

Sadly the Kerrs Pink yield wasn't so good and quite small too, but they did make lovely roasties with our Sunday dinner, will dig the rest up soon, hopefully before the 1st frost!

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian 

Onions update

The onions I planted out last Sunday have taken well and put on more growth. 
Really pleased as I forgot to water them in, but I think the overnight rain on Monday helped.

The Sunday Harvest: 
Raspberries,
Spinach,
Tomatoes
Apples (last two, not in photo).

Not a bad day weather wise, unfortunately had other plans so didn't do much apart from harvesting for us and our chickens, we always pick a bag full of greens for them.

Thanks for reading/returning.  Ian. 

I know my Onions !

Last week I dug up the Cara potatoes, so today I dug over the soil again to remove all weeds & their roots, as well as some Cara I missed, dont want them popping up amongst the next crop.

So I started off some onions at home in cell trays, see photo above. 
24x white Senshyu, 24x white Shakespere and 30x Red Winter, planted 12" (30cm) apart, in rows 12" (30cm) between.

The last of the Cox's Orange Pippins still on the tree, I tried a windfall one and it was so sweet. 

So that was all I could do today, still it did take 3 hours! 

Today's harvest:
Tomatoes,
Raspberries 
and Sweet peas.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian 

More autumn harvesting, spud time!

 So today we dug up the last of the 1st early Rocket potatoes, there is about 25lb here, so I estimate the total yield to be about 60lb (27kg) not bad from an inital purchase of 3kg.

In the space left after digging up the Rocket spuds we planted 48 Solent Wight garlic cloves. No space goes to waste even with winter just around the corner. 

As the foliage had completely died away from the Cara potatoes, I dug up the remaining 6 rows, there is about 130lb here add 16lb from the test row dig that makes 146lb (66kg) from a purchase of 6kg. I call that a result. 

Other harvests today: 
Runner Beans, Green Beans, Purple Peas, Tomatoes, Red Pepper, Raspberries & Blueberries. 
Parsnips too. 

The last of the sunny days for a while and perfect potato digging weather, leaving them to dry before storing in Hessian sacks.

Rain most of next week!

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

Last weekend of September and still harvesting lots!

I dug up the rest* of just one row of Cara potatoes, there is about 16lb (7.25kg) here. 
We have another 6 rows to dig up, so the estimated yield is around 170lb (77kg), not bad from a 6kg purchase. 
(*about 2/3 of the row) 

Can't get over the Borlotto beans, they have grown so much since last week. 
I think I did right planting them later, just lucky with the weather too. 
Love the mottled colour, the beans will be swelling soon.

On Saturday I filled a punnet with autumn Raspberries. 
My wife made a Bakewell Tart with allotment raspberry jam filling and topped with some of these, lovely with a dollop of clotted cream or vanilla ice cream.

Sunday's Harvest:
More Raspberries!
Sweetcorn, 
Runner Beans, 
Green & Purple Beans, 
Tomatoes 
& a Pepper.

On Saturday I cut the grass path with my petrol strimmer, probably the last time I'll do it this year, looks a lot better for it too. 
We have been very lucky with the weather, sunny and warmer later in the day.

I do love this time of year, harvesting and clearing up ready for winter. 
There are still lots of lovely flowers and the Bees are busy collecting nectar. 

Thanks for reading/Returning. Ian  

Just a quick visit to harvest today

Purple peas are podding, just in time as weather is turning colder. 
We planted these late after the summer peas had finished.

Last week I showed you the Borlotto beans, well a week later and the pods are getting bigger and you can clearly see the mottled colour of the pods too.

The purple Kale, (Borecale) is still looking strong, we harvest a lot of this for our Chickens, they love it!

Not a bad harvest: 
Courgette, Peppers, Tomatoes, Apples, Green & Purple Beans, Sweetcorn, Raspberries & Sweet peas. Just out of shot we also dug up some Cara spuds & picked the Runner Beans. 
We will eat well tonight.

Our Chickens enjoying the Sweetcorn left overs.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian 

Sunny September day

Super day today, so I got some more planting, weeding and harvesting done, read on.

We've dug up more Charlotte spuds from this patch so in the space I planted more Kale (under netting). 

If you remember back a few months, I planted a test patch of Carrots for a university student who was doing research on using resistant crops to thwart carrot root fly, but sadly I still got quite alot of damaged carrots. So out of 4 mtrs of Danvers carrots & 4 mtrs as a border of Flyaway, this is all I got undamaged.  

Here is the Borlotto Beans wig-wam and finally we have beans forming, see below.

If you look close (click the image to enlarge) you can just see the mottled colour of the pods forming and the beans are mottled white/red too. 

Sadly as the weather has been still quite warm the Brocolli I planted under this netting tunnel has bolted and in flower, so we will have to replant this patch, only a small hic-cup.

Harvest this weekend:
Beans: Runner, Green Purple & yellow. 
Kale 
Raspberries 
Blueberries & Sweet Peas.







So as I said a sunny September day, forecast for the next few days are windy & wet, so might affect the outside Tomatoes.

We will see.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

Great day for weeding, planting & harvesting

In this patch where we still have some 1st & 2nd early Potatoes, I have planted out yet more Kale, in spaces where spuds have been dug up & under bird proof netting! I have left some Calendula flowers too for the bees.

These dark skinned Peppers are doing well in the greenhouse, the Tomatoes are still ripening & we are still harvesting both Moneymaker & Black Russian.

Can't wait to pick the Cox's Orange Pippin apples, won't be long now. 

Today's Harvest:
 Beetroot, Parsnips, Green/Yellow/Purple Beans, Runner Beans, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Raspberries, Blueberries & Flowers.

In this bag there is about 5lb of Beetroot, I plan to make wine from, I tried last year and it was a success so why not try again.

So a good day indeed for weeding, planting & harvesting. I certainly needed my truck to transport it all home.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian