IN & OUT August 2020

 

Multiple crops are laid out drying on the floor in the kitchen this month. Here you can see the lentils, spuds, onion, garlic and mooli. I have been busy in the kitchen using the crops - here we see a use for garlic onion zucchini and tomato that were home grown - in a home made vegan lasagne.

Taking a look at this kettle - I have no idea how old it was. My father had owned it before I inherited it, so I knew it was at least 11 years old. I was sure that it was starting to leak, though, so it was time for a new one.

At first, I thought I had been messy filling it - or filled it too full...but when I was extra careful and it still leaked - as in the photo below depicting when I dried it, slightly filled it and boiled it, and that there was sill a small leakage - I knew I needed a new kettle.

Liz agreed, so on my next visit to Sainsburys I hunted down all kettles under £100 that were not made in China. This is the one I selected. I am quite pleased with it so far.

That was not my only in-home purchase this month. I decided to buy an iron and board again. I had not owned one or needed one since moving back to England in 2009, or used the one I had owned when living in Australia that much since my son stopped wearing a school uniform in 1999. However, I now have a linen tunic as uniform for the care agency I work for so thought it about time to invest.

I successfully found a great ironing board - made in the UK rather than China too! I was not so pleased with the iron, as they ONLY had Chinese products, and I prefer NOT to buy 'made in China' items. You can also see the fat balls and a door hook I bought - and a couple of books Liz picked up for our stash, along with a jar of chutney I was given.

To end today's update, another picture of the kitchen to poly tunnel stretch. It shows the nasturtiums that I brought home from the allotment plot have taken as i had hoped. I want them to intermingle with the hedgerow behind the plants on the border so I have less of them down the plot and more space for veg.

IN & OUT July/August 2020

 

Here is a selection of late July crops - including green squash, mooli, blackcurrants, peas and onion. While outside my kitchen window, the multiple flowering plants include lychnis, geranium, nasturtium and Betty-blue.

 

 

Further along, you can see iris and marigold and rose joining in the colors.

 

 

Looking backwards, towards the kitchen, you can still see the lychnis crowning the display.

 

 

Changing the topic - here are a selection of my bramleys. Liz and Edna have been given some, and I have had 3-4 crop-grabs so far, resulting in apple pie, apple tart and Liz's apple crumbles.

 

 

Here comes another selection of crops from late July/early August. As you can see, it's been a really good year for cabbages in 2020.

 

 

The slugs have not been very adventurous and have as yet failed to locate the cabbage patch as it has been so dry this summer so far. This is the second large sized cabbage I plucked.

 

 

My haul of mooli and spuds was luckily brought home by Liz in her car, as it might have been an arm-tug to carry by hand. One more glance out of the window to show how August colors still dominate the border below the window.

 

 

IN & OUT July 2020 continued

Down the front of the plot I have popped a zucchini, a squash, a carrot, some mooli, brassicae, and filled the spaces with strawberries taken from the first of my three raised beds. Beyond one of my twin strawberry planters you can see what is left of the raised bed after I took the fruit out and Liz dismantled the side panels and dug out the weeds. My old weed bin and slug hotel are also in the shot.

Turning the corner, you can see my stash of 7 pallettes awaiting transferral from pallette to strawberry planter or weed bin. The idea is to make 6 new strawberry planters to line up with the two I was given last year in two rows with a small path between. They will go where the raised beds were/are and cover the plot space where the ground is gravel and weed.

Going clockwise around the plot from the last photo, the raised bed yet to be emptied and pulled to pieces that contains strawberries and nasturtiums is clearly visible. Beyond are the beds with cabbage, mooli, pea, garlic, tomato, lentil, corn, leek, pea, bean and brassicae. The larger compost bin is central at the moment and Liz has piled some covered weeds next to it as the weed bin was overflowing.

Turning the corner, we reach the end of the plot where the smaller compost bin resides. Around it is a potato patch, beyond which are more brassicae and tomatoes. Behind/inside, are stretches of raspberry, and further along my gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes reside.

Turning the next corner, in which the massive rhubarb is regrowing ready for a final crop before the end of its long season, we find the 4 blueberry bushes, a row of leeks, and a row of carrots. These are backed by more raspberry canes - of which I have far too many.

Going along the final stretch, we pass the onion bed, empty soil where a half dozen potatoes were recently excavated, and a few strays - onion, garlic, tomato, brassicae. My final shot for today cuts across the plot from part way down this stretch. It shows the third raised bed which I intend to keep a little longer as it is still in tact, if weedy, and a patch of assorted vegetation. It includes strawberry, eggplant, and brassicae.

 

 

IN & OUT in July 2020

 

We start today's post with a view of the side border, updated to late June. The lychnis has yet to flower, which it does early in July, and the flowering onion still stands proud - which it no longer does as July arrives. It arove. The clematis was in full flower, despite Liz & I cutting it back severely earlier in the year.

 

In the back yard, the near-kitchen border is looking colorful - with lychnis, marigold, nasturtium, roses.... Down the plot, I have been removing strawberry plants from the first raised bed and planting them all over the plot. I also removed some straw for the compost and grass to the weed tubs. Soon I will finish this and dismantle the raised bed.

Onions, carrot, broad beans, peas...that is just one July day of crops from the plot. The next day, blueberries, blackcurrants, raspberries, peas and a baby zucchini came home with me. July is definitely a month for cropping. In fact, May thru August, I have something to bring home everytime I pop to the plot to water.

In fact, my kitchen is a bit of a mess from June thru September as varying crops reside on papered floors and windowsills, drying out, ready to eat or store. Potatoes need to dry their soil before wrapping and placing in a cool dark spot. Garlic, onions and shallots need to dry ready for storage, etc, etc.

Another day, another crop... here come more blueberries and blackcurrants, along with carrots, peas, broad beans, baby zucchini, garlic, cauliflower and a mooli. These are only the plot crops - I also have a poly tunnel!

There will be more news about the allotment plot in my next posting.

IN & OUT JUNE 2020

Continuing to view the poly tunnel interior, we see my giant salad tub, along with lentil and tomato and leek seedlings. Next, the table at the rear of the tunnel displaying lettuce, carrot, lentil, rocket, mustard, lemongrass, even a clematis cutting I am hoping to grow for Liz.

Next, another shot of the side border - showing the geraniums I planted outdoors from inside, the flowering onion, roses and ferns...and a longer view of the same.

The kitchen is starting to fill with crops that I am drying ready to store and eat - here is the first onion of the year and my shallots drying out. My windowsill is as always filled with drying garlic....

 

The crops begin to flow fruitfully - quite literally - in May and June - here we see a sample day's harvest - strawberries, raspberries, nasturtium, gooseberry, pea and broad bean.

Finally for today, a one-person sized red lettuce from the poly tunnel for lunch!

IN & OUT MAY to JUNE 2020

You can see our onions, cabbages and potatoes in front of the raspberry canes in the first photo from my allotment plot today. In front of the raspberries and gooseberry bush, beside the blackcurrant bush and rhubarb - is my blueberry patch - with a row of parsnips that never surfaced in front.

The empty looking soil near the compost 'dalek' contains about 20 chitted red desiree spuds from a sackfull my neighbor from over the back gave me. I have also since planted tomatoes near the garlic/onions. Liz gave me some spare plants...

...which I have since planted at home in the stretch of back yard that runs from the kitchen window to the pond. You can see that it already contains Lychnis and bluebell, fern, rose, primrose, flowering onion, yew....

...and that at least one rose is flowering.

Next, are a couple of shots of the poly tunnel - the first one shows the left hand side, with potato, sweet potato, cauliflower, and my soil station. The next shows mostly spuds with a few other potted items - parsnip and chili for example.

IN & OUT April to May 2020

In today's first shot, we see the corner where my fruit mostly is. The rhubarb in the end corner, with blueberries and a couple of cauliflowers in front, the gooseberry and blackcurrants round the side, and raspberries surrounding it all.

Back home to the back garden now - and here we see a broken ceramic farm duck sticking its head out of the borer of hawthorn, rose, yew, jasmine, lemon balm, primrose, bluebell...

This shot shows from the last down to the kitchen windows - planted with rose, primrose, lychnis, yew, bulbs, violet, cyclamen, wild strawberry, etc. My next photo is of the area sited on the other side of the garden - where the smaller apple tree used to live til I chopped it down. You can see the old stump and some of the sawn off logs from the trunk. You should also be able to make out the yellow pom-pom bush Liz gave me and a few other plants.

Next, we move into May 2020, and I share shot of the front stretch again - with all the mushroom com post I could spare scattered as mulch on top the well dug and replanted stretch from kitchen window towards poly tunnel.

Back to the allotment and you can see all the hard work Liz has put in to get rid of the weeds, while I focus on watering and picking/planting the crops. The marigold was a bush of a plant, so I split it this past week and it is now in 3 new locations as well as down the plot. The onions and garlic are being pulled and the shallots are gone.

Here, you can see how neat and tidy the plot looks now Liz is helping me with it. you can see my strawberry beds, onions, lentils...