Echinacea

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

A surprising recovery.

We haven't visited the plot much this week so our harvest hasn't been as abundant.

On Monday we picked some of our Egremont Russet and Fiesta apples. Some were beginning to fall from the tree and so we guessed that the time was right.

4 September

We picked our first ripe sweet red pepper from the plot greenhouse.

The blueberries have just about been picked over now but they have done very well this year. Since the first week in July, there have been ripe berries to pick on every plot visit.

Having read up on the Rolet squash it sounded as though they were worth the effort of preparing and so we picked a couple more.

Another first was a sweetcorn cob. 

This was a tester for ripeness. It passed the test with flying colours

Earlier we had expected our sweetcorn would fail completely. As soon as the young plants had been planted, gale force winds battered them and laid them flat and in some cases broken.

Such is the wonder of nature and the will to survive that to our amazement and delight the plants rallied and grew into strong specimens.

The lavender bed that we planted up last year has been flowering since July and is still going strong.

I reckoned that the bees wouldn't begrudge me a small posy.

Last Wednesday, Martyn made a quick visit to the plot to make sure the greenhouse tomatoes were watered.

6 September

Whilst he was there he picked more fruit. 

This included more Marjories Seedling plums. The plum trees are still a wasp free zone but I'm not sure whether this is due to the waspinators or a general lack of wasps this year. Have you been troubled by wasps?

Martyn also brought home one of the boxes of onions which are stored in the shed. They started drying off under the greengage trees.  They had dried well despite being subjected to showers but when more persistent rain was forecast I decided to box them up and pop them into the shed. On each plot visit the boxes were taken out and placed in a sunny spot. Soon all the boxes will be brought home to be stored over winter in the summerhouse.

We have also harvested a few things from the garden. The pot grown fig has produced more fruit than usual although only small amounts have ripened at a a time.

Another first of the season, the Himrod grapes growing in the garden greenhouse are now ripe. These are small, seedless and very sweet.

The watercress growing in the pond is still going strong as are the Mini Munch cucumbers.

Each day fresh tomatoes are picked for our lunchtime sandwiches but they don't always pose for a photo.

Another first in last week's harvest was the Snackbite sweet pepper. The pepper isn't undersized as the plant is meant to produce sweet tasting baby peppers which are crispy and delicious eaten raw.

You may remember that we grew a small number of tubers from six potato varieties that we were testing this year. Martyn has put together a video of our initial findings after lifting the crop. The potatoes still have to undergo the taste test but some are possible contenders for next year's main list, whereas others? Well, you'll have to watch the video.

Our total harvest for September so far is listed here

As usual I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Adolescent Robin

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett