October Update

Nothing much to report, except the Manure arrived from the farm. 

 

This was a large trailer of Manure delivered from the farm.. Unfortunately it overspilled right over the leeks.

 

Get your back into it girl, 🙂 ~ Hubby did All of the heavy work..  

This is the raspberry and Blueberry patch, which was in need of weeding.

While Hubby moved some of the Muck I got stuck into weeding and pruning the Raspberry and Blueberries. The above is the before photo and below is the after one. Sorry to say those lovely webs were no longer visible.. But the spiders sure came out to protest.. I did say a huge sorry for taking away their homes.. but I am sure they crawled away to make new ones. 

 

After weeding this patch I went along two more rows and cleared out the debris

Hubby walking in the distance, the frame is an old garden swing, which had the runner beans on . We hoe through about once a week to ensure the new weeds do not get a chance to take hold.. 

Saved Runner Beans pods for seeds

Runner beans were left to dry on the plants and are saved for seeds.. we had been using saved seeds which were 5 yrs old, so it was time for new stock

Thankfully we got the pruning done and some Muck spread before the rain set in.. So today I made more tomato soup, recipe on my pages  and a Ginger slab cake..This recipe is on my main blog, but both recipes  are tried and tested and delicious. 

Hubby did the hard work of spreading it here.. Lucky its rained after we did this, so it will get dug in really soon, We plan to put the new strawberry shoots in a bed once it’s been dug in. The new shoots from the Strawberries you can just see in the greenhouse.. 

This afternoon I got out my Knitting needles again, as I bought some Aran Yarn that was a bargain the other day, I so wanted to knit another waistcoat in the same pattern as this. I made the other year. But the Wool is not as chunky as the original pattern. So I had to figure out how I needed to alter the stitches and needle sizes accordingly.. I had several false starts.. And had to unravel my efforts.. Hubby said he didn’t know how I could knit something to unravel it after doing several rows.. ( Practice and Patience ) 🙂 .. 

Anything is Possible if we put our minds to it. 

Happy Gardening..

And enjoy your Harvests and Craft time.

See you All Soon!

 

Green Tomato Chutney

I now have 3 trays such as this ripening in the greenhouse. These tomatoes were grown outdoors among the veggies, and as its going colder would not finish ripening without help .. Looks like chutney is on the menu 🙂

I don’t know about any of you gardener’s out there but the Tomatoes have taken a while to ripen here in the UK at least.. Due to it not being a very warm Summer. The tomatoes which grew in the ground in the allotments were gathered up and I used some to make chutney with 

An Ideal job on a rainy day, to spend it in the kitchen .

So I thought I would share a very simple recipe with you all. 

The ingredients you will need all chopped and prepared

You will need. 

3lb-1-5kg of Green Firm Tomatoes- ( do not use damaged or soft ones ) 

1lb-450g of Cooking Apples 

1lb-450g Red Onions, peeled and chopped

1 head of celery chopped. ( discard the small leaves or save for soups or salads ) 

1 green jalapeño chilly pepper, de-seeded and chopped

2-3 large cloves of garlic peeled and chopped

1 and Half pounds -700g of Demerara Sugar 

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds, lightly pounded

1 quarter of a pint- 150ml of water

1pint-600ml of Malt Vinegar 

4 tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar

11 ounces-300g Raisins. 

Method

Rinse and chop the tomatoes, put into a preserving pan. Peel and core the apples, chop them and add to the pan along with the chopped red onions and garlic. 

Trim the celery, discarding leaves, and add to the pan with the chopped chilli ( I didn’t have any green jalapeño chilly pepper, so I omitted it. But I did have some chilli flakes so I added these to the coriander seeds which should be placed in a small muslin bag tied tight with string, which is then secured to the pan handle. ) 

Stir in the Sugar, add the water, place over a gentle heat and cook until the tomatoes and apples have collapsed. The recipe said for about 30 minutes it depends I guess on how the heat is… I cooked for 40 minutes before they softened.. ( Remember to Stir at regular intervals to stop it sticking)

Tie the Coriander in muslin to the pan handle

After the 30 minutes or so then add both lots of vinegars and the raisins.. return to the boil, remembering to stir, and reduce heat again and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes until the chutney consistency is reached.  (Don’t forget to stir during this simmer time, I left mine a little longer between stirring and just got to it in time as the raisins started to stick, another couple of minutes and they would have burned! ) .

Almost done!. see from the sides of the pan how its reduced 

Cool slightly and discard the coriander seeds. Then pot into sterilised Jars and label as normal..

All finished and these will make a lovely stocking filler for Christmas along with any Jam you have made

Enjoy! 

Happy Cooking! 

 

Tuesday Flowers

Today I want to share the Autumn colours still in my garden.. this post is part of  #flowersoverflowers , to bring colour and nature  to our lives 

Here the blueberry bush with Mint in the background ..

Autumn Wild Colour Poppies and marigolds this is corner I left wild in the allotments. for insects 

This red leaf is that of the Blueberry bush.. Its now this lovely deep red

Spiders web among the raspberries and Blueberries in autumn colours

Physalis alkekengi ( Chinese Lantern) Which sits in our Fairy Garden at home,  the  fairy house you can just see which I made with the help of my Granddaughter earlier this year. For those wishing to see the fairy garden the link is  Here 

Here are the lanterns with the flowering shamrock in its second flush of flowers this year

Wishing everyone a beautiful week..

Enjoy your harvests and 

Happy Gardening!

Love ~Sue~ 

Propagating Begonia’s

Here you can see how large some can grow, this one is two foot tall #flowersoverflowers This Begonia is one we have had for several years and is grown from a tuba which we let go back and keep dry and frost free over winter.

Today’s post is going to cover two topics, the above flower I want to connect to #flowersoverflowers  as I am a day late for the Flower Tuesday post..

I have been busy taking some Begonia cuttings from the lovely ones that have graced my front garden all summer long

Begonias and Geraniums

Some Begonia’s we have from Tubas’s but some are grown from either leaf cuttings or stem cuttings.. The above 4 were bought from a Garden Nursery, and so will die back over winter. So I thought I would take some cuttings. 

Take a cutting near a leaf joint

 First take a new sprouting leaf section and find the leaf joint and cut it on the leaf joint .  Next place them in some water if you have more to cut before dipping into a rooting agent  and pot in compost. 

Place begonia cuttings in water before dipping in rooting agent

Close up of cutting

 

Begonia cuttings placed in their own prorogation ( Freezer bags) Easy, Now all we have to do is keep free from frost and in about a months time the roots will begin to form.. And take care not to over water or they may rot off. 

Happy Gardening Everyone. 

~Sue~

Clearing and Creating

As promised I will tell you what I have been up to this will take the form of Two posts over the next couple of days,  and I will let the pictures tell their own story. 

The flag stones were dug up from near the shed and moved to form the base.

We were lucky enough to buy a second hand greenhouse recently, it had a few panes of glass missing.. but it was a great bargain not to be missed.

Both Hubby and I erected the frame.. The sides are up!

Roof now on and some panes of glass are in on the roof

Hooks placed between flag stones to help secure frame

I now have 3 trays such as this ripening in the greenhouse. These tomatoes were grown outdoors among the veggies, and as its going colder would not finish ripening without help .. Looks like chutney is on the menu 🙂

The Greenhouse complete the roof window in, with glass and sheets of hard plastic which hubby cut to size to fill in the 5 panes which were missing. Also we added a water barrel.. Tomatoes are ripening in trays at the bottom. These were just grown in the allotment and there will be lots for Chutney I think 🙂  You can see Hubby put a fence panel up behind the greenhouse.. This is because the  shared path has an almost 1 and a Half foot drop onto our allotment side and if you were to slip!!? So Health and Safety first!.. 

Long view of the allotments looking back on my hoeing weeds all morning.. The greenhouse can now be seen a third of the way down on the right .

The Dwarf beans the seeds are drying out for next years planting on these that are left over Also Red Cabbage

The allotments are looking bare, in the foreground are my wallflowers which are for my home garden. I just hoed through this.. Isn’t it weed free!  🙂

 

The last of sweetpeas I saved a lot of the seeds, before dismantling and composting

 

Happy Gardening to you All 

Have a wonderful Week 

~Sue~