Apple harvest

This beautiful apple tree stand on our allotment plot ... and apple season is upon us!
We are not quite sure what variety of apple it is, but we like it.
It can be eaten raw (although it is not terribly sweet), but it also great for cooking and baking. And it stores pretty well too.

This week I climbed into the apple tree to try and get the best fruit.

The unblemished apples are in the shed for storage and should keep until the new year or so.

The others are turned into apple puree and apple rings.
Here is the handy dehydrator which my clever husband built. It runs on two light bulbs and a computer fan.

Allotment update

This year has been a tough year for gardeners is the UK. We have had an exceptionally cold and wet summer (the wettest in 100 years!) ... and it has shown on our allotment.

Everything has ripened (if it grew at all in the first place!) a month later than last year.

Much of the plot was waterlogged for several weeks.
It is much to my husband's credit that he continued plodding on, despite the set-backs and the bad weather.

Finally, in August, the weather improved.
We even managed a couple of cook-outs, cooking courgettes and sweetcorn freshly picked on the fire pit.


In the end, all turned out well.
We had a bumper harvest of strawberries (the first time that we had enough to make into jam!); the runner beans and French beans did very well, as did the broad beans; although the courgettes were disappointing, the summer squashes have been amazing; the brassicas are looking well and the beetroot (hubby's favourite) are great too.

Overall we have grown fruit and veg, which would have cost us over £600 in the supermarket. So all in all, not a bad return - especially for a poor growing season.

Just one final problem: what to do with all the squashes??

Back on the allotment

After a long winter break, I went with my husband to our allotment today.
Thanks to his hard work during the winter months everything is looking quite tidy and ready for the next season.

   This is the new cloche for the carrots. The cloche covering will help them stay warm, even if the weather is still quite wintery. So hopefully we will have some young tender carrots in a few weeks time!

This is our new water collection system.
Okay, it's a fancy term for a couple of pipes hung from the roof of the old dilapidated shed, leading into two old water tanks.

Last summer was very dry and there is no running water on the allotment, so we want to be prepared!

The new rhubarb is beginning to come through the ground. It won;t be too long before we can enjoy the first stems.
I am hoping to get enough of our three rhubarb plants to make some jam and - if possible - some wine.

We are quite excited about the new growing season.
We have doubled our plot in size since last year, so we are hoping for plenty of fruit and veg this year!

Are you ready for the Big Garden Birdwatch?

Goldfinch

Here in the UK, members of the public are asked once a year to spend an hour counting the birds in their garden (or park or any other place) and submit the figures to help map the population of birds in Britain.
The Big Garden Birdwatch is on this weekend (28th and 29th January 2012)!

Here is what the website says:

"For over 30 years, we've been asking you to count the birds in your garden – and you've been brilliant at it.

Every year, even more of you join in with the count, and 2011 turned out to be one of our best yet. Thank you.

With results from so many gardens, we are able to create a 'snapshot' of bird numbers in each region. This is important because we've been able to see that some of our birds are disappearing in scary numbers.

We've lost more than half our house sparrows and some three-quarters of our starlings. And your results have helped highlight these dramatic declines.

However, it isn't all doom and gloom - these surveys help us spot problems, but more importantly, they are also the first step in putting things right.

We look forward to finding out what you've seen."

You can register here and download your bird sheet.
Give it a go!

Frosty day

This morning I got out early to catch the frost before the sun put an end to it.

The snapdragons in the garden are trying to hold out in the frost. They should have gone long ago, but with the mild winter so far they are still in flower.

The rosemary is also frosted over, although this plant is hardy and won't mind the cold weather. 

The teasel in the field is slowing thawing and showing its 'sunny side'.

And the sheep don't seem to mind the cold weather as long as grass is still in good supply. That's what those woolly coats are good for!

FROGS!

Finally I did what had to be done - I released the tadpoles and froglets into the garden pond.

As soon as I had done that, I spotted this adult frog. I am just hoping that big frogs don't eat little frogs ... Hhmmm

Here is one of the froglets, enjoying the big outdoors.
They have been outside a week now, and I still spot them once in a while.


Hopefully at least a few will thrive and will be back in the spring.

Spot the frog! (Click to see the full size picture)

The Sparrowhawk

In the back of our garden we have a vegetable patch, which at the moment is covered with a netting to keep the cats away.

Yesterday evening my husband called for me to help him, because a sparrow had managed to trap himself under the netting.

Just as we both walked up to the bed to lift the netting off, a sparrowhawk swooped down from nowhere, aiming for the helpless sparrow. Luckily the netting which had trapped the sparrow, now turned out to be a protection for the little sparrow - because the sparrowhawk could not reach him. Instead the netting was pushed down, leaving a gap at the side through which the lucky sparrow escaped.

All this happened in the blink of an eye, no more than a meter away from us!

It was a real "WOAH!" moment.

Sowing seeds

Today I sowed some seeds to start off in the cold frame - runner beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes.

I have tried to use recycled material, such as newspaper, toilet roll inserts and egg boxes.

The last one is a picture of another plant container, which homes several strawberry plants. It was originally a chutney barrel, which we found behind the local curry house.

In the garden

At last spring seems to have arrived, and it is time to do some gardening.

The trench for the runner beans was already dug a few weeks back and is filling up with kitchen waste (apparently runner beans like it that way!).

Here is what's happening in the garden so far:

The chives are starting to grow again.

The winter lettuce has survived very well in the cold frame, despite the long and cold winter.

The swiss chard has also survived.

Although I am expecting the plants to bolt soon, the leaves are still good for eating now, and a great replacement for spinach in recipes.

I split the rhubarb in January. Now the new leaves are emerging.