Early Autumn

Well hello my lovely gardening friend, it has been a while since I did an update on how things are growing down the allotment.  Click to enlarge photo’s and hover your mouse over the smaller ones to see text. 

Summer started off well, but here in England, August has not been so good, with cooler weather with lots of windy days, one which saw it bring down one of my hanging baskets of flowers on the side of our home, and blow over several pots of flowers on the patio.  So between the Sunshine and the heavy Showers we have been enjoying days out  with family and getting to grips with keeping the allotment tidy. 

Dahlias and in front are the leeks

My Dahlias, have been extra magnificent this year, giving us lots of cut flowers that have been shared between family and neighbours, who have really appreciated their blooms. They now stand to the height of my shoulder when I am in amongst them, as does the sweet corn. My hubby is now starting to collect the cobs and so far he has cleaned and frozen 34 large cobs.. And there are still plenty more that have to ripen. So it has been a very good crop this year.

Sweetcorn and Butternut Squash in middle and peas in front of those

Autumn is showing its signs early this year, and while we have picked lots of Raspberries and Blackberries we have also lost a lot of Raspberries to the wet conditions and not getting to pick them soon enough.. So the birds are making the most of them.. The blueberries the birds got too before I did, as the netting I put over them had a gap in it and so they had a feast.. But I was not concerned as I got to them first last year.

Here you can see Raspberries at all stages, some ripe, some to ripen and some gone past their sell by date 😉

These have been a good crop, and lots of Apple and Blackberry pie made with the apples from my tree, I got 15 apples from it.

The pumpkins are also swelling out nicely, we planted four seeds from last years pumpkin at Halloween, and are growing these for our granddaughter as she loves to scoop out the middles and help sculpt them into faces for Halloween.

Pumpkins which are the size of a large Melon right now.

I have also had lots and LOTS of sweetpeas, these are the Old Fashioned variety, I always grow these, and these are from the saved seeds from last year, and they smell gorgeous, and I have several small vases now scatted around my home bringing fragrance to each room..

Abundance of Sweetpeas The more you pick them the more that come. I will let them form seed pods for next year later in the Autumn .

Remember the Gladioli when I diligently weeded through them all, to expose their small shoots? I took a gamble last year and left them in the ground, I was lucky as we had a mild winter, or I may have lost them.. This year after flowering I will lift them and store the bulbs for next year.. Here is what they look like now.. I have had lots of blooms off of these. And have some within my hearth right now.

This was taken in May.

You now see how well these have grown giving lots of Blooms

Gladioli

Runner Kidney Beans

 

 

The Kidney Runner Beans have been doing well also, and again many neighbours have been enjoying these along with us. These are from seeds taken from allowing last years end of crop beans dry out in the pods and then saving them. 

 

 

Yellow Cherry Tomatoes

 We just love tomatoes, and have two green houses full, one at home and one on the allotments.

I love tomato soup and if anyone wants a good recipe to follow, then this is so simple to make I put the recipe on my recipe pages and it can be found HERE. These are some cherry yellow tomatoes we have.

More about the health benefits of Yellow and Red Tomatoes can be found here on  The Worlds Healthiest Foods site 

 

Well that is about all for this time.. Next time I hope to show you what has been happening in the Home Garden.

Happy Gardening

~Sue~