Friday 1 August 2014

A peek at the garden

Hello All !
 And a warm English welcome to Dolly Sarrio from Hibiscus House and Gaynor Hodson on Blog Lovin.

We continue to be busy with he gardens and the bees. We took a super of honey off hive No 7  last night,   it yielded 24 lb of honey...not bad for a hive that was a small swarm in late April of this year. So far we have 97 lb f honey and three more hives to go. We have sold a few jars this week which has given us enough money to go to the "Bee Shop" for a gross of new jars with lids.
 Even though it is only August I am thinking of winter as I start to put stores away. Buckets of honey and frozen processed tomatoes are the start, We are hopeful of the potatoes and I will soon be making jam and chutney with the misshapen or overgrown marrows, windfalls, tomatoes and onions.
I thought you might like to see a few of the corners of our garden and some of the veg we are growing this year.
Indoor Tomatoes - that is not a huge slug at the top, it is my finger!
 Chillis - several plants dotted amongst other veg around the greenhouses and gardens
 This doesn't actually show too many veg,  just a peek at some beans, potatoes and courgettes but does highlight my favourite Dahlia -- Bishop of Landaff
 Onions, leeks, parsnips, corn salad, courgettes and herbs
 The Pumpkin patch
 Some winter Brassicas - January King cabbage, Black Kale and Cauliflower
 Sunburst squash, Florence fennel, herbs, with Moonlight Runner beans at the back
 Hops - Fuggle, an old English hop
 Sweet Corn, Lark with Butternut squash running underneath Outdoor Girl Tomatoes at the back and Castandel French Beans to the fore (out if shot!)

  I will post some more next time. If nothing else these pictures will give heart to those who think their gardens are untidy! We grow some fine weeds here and I used to worry about them as I saw the wonderful tidy gardens on the TV or in books. But we don't have half a dozen gardeners helping and we are also pushing 70 and have to decide what to beat ourselves up about.

  The next three days will be a bit of  social whirl for us. Friday sees our granddaughter's actual 9th birthday. Unusually for us we are heading for the city of Derby to meet her and a few friends at a Grill no-less. We will call in at the local beekeeping shop for the new jars and lids while we are at the Great metropolis that is Derby!
  On Saturday we go to a wedding for much of the day, though we will have to run home half way through to put the chickens to bed as our YD is away  for the day and can't step in for us. We will then go to pick up our grandson from his job as bartender in a small Derbyshire village. I suppose we will be forced to stay for a drink before we come home!. On Sunday we have the said Grandson's birthday meal at the pub he works in. This will be for close family, last year when he was 21 he had to work so he was determined to celebrate his 22 birthday this year. Everyone but me seems to have chosen steak. I will be having Homity pie.
I am trying to feel positive about this weekend, but I'm not too keen on eating out in restaurants !

  Back Soon dear Frugellers.
Gillx


17 comments:

  1. Your tomatoes are so organised, mine have become unruly as I didn't whip the tips off, lesson learnt for next year. I think my sweetcorn looks about the same height, which I'm pleased with as it's my first year growing anything.

    What a busy weekend you have planned, I need a Granny nap just reading about it x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My outdoor tomatoes are nowhere near as organised as they don't get the attention that has to be given to greenhouses. The sweetcorn is a little behind as we had pigeon problems early on and had to start again, but there is still plenty of time for them to pick up and finish. Good Luck with yours, with more warm weather on the way you should do well.

      Delete
  2. I know what you mean about eating out, I always find it dissapointing and the prices they charge.......well. I think you garden is wonderful, super toms mine not gone red yet. think I was a bit late planting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Grill we went to last night had foods from around the world and it was an "As much as you can eat" place. You would have liked it Phyllis, there was some good veggie stuff.
      My outdoor tomatoes aren't ripening yet.

      Delete
  3. Like Julee Gray, my Toms have got out of hand. The plants are carrying so much weight that they have all collapsed. Time to start bottling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My outdoor toms are a mess and nowhere near ripe. Heavy crop though. Do you bottle whole tomatoes or as passata ? Our American friend called bottling canning don't they?

      Delete
    2. Mostly Courgettes in Tomato sauce, but I also do Ratatouille, and just plain Tomato sauce. I started yesterday. I do 500gm bottles, which I find the most useful.

      Delete
  4. Oh Frugal - unlike you, I love eating out in my chosen restaurants - I get very tired of my own cooking and am getting lazy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In truth the meal last night was really good and it was lovely to be with our eldest daughter and her family.
      What I do like doing is eating out at friend's houses.

      Delete
  5. We are over run with weeds in some places, when we've had time to sort them it's been to hot - that's my excuse!
    We've just started to get enough runners to sell, but the success of the year are the climbing green beans Cobra and something else that I can't remember.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our runners aren't setting this year and are pretty disastrous. We grew cobra last year as a change from blue lake, but had no seeds left for this year (I was determined to use up our seed this year and start afresh next)
      It has certainly been too hot to weed recently!

      Delete
  6. Your tomatoes look smashing x It sounds like you're going to have a lovely family orientated weekend x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks. We started early with the greenhouse ones.
    Yes, we will be seeing quite a few family members this weekend. We are so lucky.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Not sure I'll be getting many tomatoes this year, only got fruit on the 2 'Tumbler' plants in a pair of wellies! These will have to be moved to a higher place, the hens love tomatoes! My beans are finally flowering, some have set, now have micro beans!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've not even got micro-beans at the mo. Thought it was the weather, but noticxed a flock of sparrows on them yesterday so they could be the culprit!

    ReplyDelete
  10. We are still patiently waiting for most of the tomatoes to ripen other than Sungold which is producing well - do you use the hops?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Non of our outdoor ones have ripened yet. The first of the indoor ones were started off in january tho'.
    When the hops are very fresh I use them in the bunches of flowers sold from the door. I then dry them and use them for herb pillows with lavender. I have also sold some dried in 100g packs to beer makers. I am hoping to grow enough this year to offer to a micro-brewery that is being set up for a single special brew. (fingers crossed)

    ReplyDelete