August

Pattypan

Peas

First tomato turning red.

We grow quite a few flowers to encourage beas & to for cutting : Sweet peas, Gladioli, Nasturtium, Sweet Williams, Heartsease & Lavender.

The long grass you can see in the photos is on the outside of our rabbit fence, we keep it long as apparently rabbits prefer short grass, they don't like to get wet tummies! Being a field we see a lot of rabbits but they do keep away from our veg plot so it's obviously working.

Gladioli

Sweetcorn

Tomatilloes in the polytunnel.

Aubergines at long last in the polytunnel. We've been trying to grow these for 3 years & have had flowers, which eventually just fell off.

Habanero chilli

Jalapeno chilli

Cayenne.

Last year the Cayennes were so successful that we thought we try some other chillies this year & opted for Jalapeno & Habanero.

Sweet Pepper

Main crop

June & July

Everything is a bit slow growing here this year but things are slowly starting to pick up.

In the polytunnel we've been picking cucumbers, Basil, coriander & salad leaves. There's now plenty of flowers on the Tomatoes, Aubergines, Chillies & Jalapeno's.

Lots of green tomatoes but no sign of red ones yet.

We've dug up the first earlies & were pleased with the results 30lb 9oz, I think I paid £2.39 for the seed potatoes.

We're eating a lot of Turnips, Kale, Chard and Broad beans and the red Pak choi is just about ready.

But the peas & runner beans are slow I've only picked a handful of peas & have only just got flowers on the runner beans.

The Courgettes, Pumpkins & Marrows have flowers but no sign of any fruit yet but the Pattypans are now showing.

April and May 2011

Whoops first blog of the year! In March/April I sowed the seeds at home.

We bought a small polytunnel.

Early May saw lots of flowers on the strawberries and we planted the sweetcorn

doubly protected from the pheasants with upended plant pots and netting.

I had sweet peppers, & 3 types of chilli (Cayenne, Jalapeno & Habanero) growing everywhere

!st and 2nd Earlies doing well and the ground was so dry.

In the polytunnel there was an invasion of cucumber plants.

At the end of the month we started picking strawberries and the first cucumber was formed.

This year we are growing:

*French beans (purple queen & golden butter) *Broad beans *Runner beans

*Peas *Kohlrabi *Pak Choi (white & red) *Kale (curly & Cavolo de Nero) *Carrot *Parsnip *Turnip *Swede *Potatoes (1st earlies, 2nd earlies, maincrop) *Swiss Chard *Shallots (Golden Gourmet & Red Sun) *Red onions *Garlic *Purple sprouting brocolli * Brussel Sprouts *Cabbage *Cauliflower *Sweetcorn *Baby corn *Cucumber *Courgette *Pumpkin *Marrow *Pattypan *Butternut squash *Tomato *Cherry tomato *Tomatillo *Beetroot *Leeks *Sweet Pepper *Chillies (Cayenne, Habanero, Jalapeno) *Cape Goosebery *Aubergine *Salad leaves, lettuce, rocket, mustard. *Basil *Coriander

*Strawberry *Raspberry *Redcurrant *Blackcurrant *Red gooseberry *Blueberry *Rhubarb

We also have Lavender, Sweet Williams, Gladioli Sweet Peas, Nasturtiums, Sunflowers and Marigolds to encourage bees and to cut of course.

Autumn harvest

All the pumpkins, marrows & butternut squash have now been picked also lots of chillies although my chilli plants are still producing. We had an early heavy frost this year on the 19th of October, which killed off my potatoes but luckily that was all.

The first parsnips that I've ever managed to grow, hopefully we'll be picking these up to Christmas.

I've picked some of the red cabbages & pickled them.

Marrow & date chutney, chilli jam.

This year I decided that it was a waste to just carve a pumpkin for Halloween especially when it was home grown. All this from one small pumpkin - spiced tea bread, pumpkin bread & pumpkin soup all delicious and made many times since. You can find the recipes here.