Some late colour and another Gift

Just taking this opportunity to write a post. It’s Granddaughters day, so after printing on t’shirts this morning and helping to lop some wayward branches off the Medlar, Mr Malc has taken the girls to the allotment to get them off their screens !

So with a little peace and quiet I thought I would show a few more pictures of the garden.

The Apricot has started to bear fruit. After a very good start with the blossom, then the June drop, I have ended up with about  a dozen apricots. I am quite pleased with this, they are large, looking ripe but not quite.

After our trip to N’ Wales and our stop off at Crug Farm Plants we arrived home and I couldn’t wait to find homes for some of my treasures. This one being Roscoea purpurea f. rubra Gurkha RedStem, I don’t think I have ever seen a red Roscoea before and it is going to be quite a strong plant.

These are the fattening buds of Bomarea boliviensis , this is a non climbing bomarea with pink and green trumpets. I will post a picture as soon as they open properly. Crug Farm Plants.

Gladiolous Papilio ‘Ruby’. Bought in 2012 from Elizabeth MacGregor, when planted it immediately broke into lots of small bulbs, so this is the first time they have been mature enough to flower. Boy what a stunner, it was worth the wait. Several stems and still lots of immature bulbs.

Now I’ve always had a liking for Thalictrum and when in flower whatever the type I can never pot enough up to sell. This is a new one for me, it being a very large flower, Thalictrum delavayi BWJ7770. Grown from seed collected by Bleddyn Wynn – Jones in 2000 from Yunnan China. Crug Farm Plants.

This is one plant I would love to see seed around.

This is another Thalictrum from Crug 2013. A very tiny flower short well branched deep purple stems, looking very stiff compared to any other I have. Thalictrum BSWJ4946.

Last Sunday I had a walk with Mr Malc to the allotment, I was really pleased I did, nearly every plot that was cultivated had some kind of flower or flowers growing on it.

A very colourful walk.

Mr Malc’s sunflowers ‘Black Magic’ doing very well thank you, I’m growing these at home and they are about as thick as a garden cane… 😦

Some extra tomato plants were put into the pepper house and are doing really well, Marmande. We have been cropping tomato from the other greenhouse for a month or more.

The peppers are also doing well, we just need a bit more sun to ripen them.

Cabbages, Kale and Brussels sprouts are looking the best we have seen for a few years now, no sign of club root.

And the sweet corn ! That’s a crop we are really looking forward to.

Now at home I grow a few measly Cosmos, but here we have ten, yes ten plants. I have had bunches and bunches bought home for me for at least six to eight weeks now. So I won’t bother growing them at home anymore.

This is my little plot that I put some bi-annuals in earlier in the year. These were all grown from seed this spring so  no -way was I expecting any of these to flower before I lifted them for next year, but here we have Delphinium, Hollyhock and Lupins. So do you think they are worth lifting next year or do you think I am wasting my time and they won’t flower again ? Who knows….

Now this is our gift. Our neighbour has a friend who was clearing his parents house out. Apparently they were bigger hoarders than me, so when asked, would we like one of three benches that they had found in a shed, we said ‘mmm let us think’…no we didn’t, we said yes please and after a quick clean and a rub down, a spot of black paint on the rivets and legs we have a very nice bench. Thank you Mr T’s friend.

Here’s hoping for a bit more sun to ripen all of our fruit and veg and whatever you are doing in your gardens at this time of year, please take time out to sit on your bench and take in all the beautiful sights and smells….. Sue

Muck and Magic

Today I had a walk down to Mr Malc’s allotment. He’d had a load of manure delivered and had been busy digging the plot over in readiness for this, so I thought it would be good to see how it all looks.

Since taking early retirement 10 years ago Mr M has taken on the care and management of our plot, and I have to say he does a fantastic job. We are practically self sufficient in most of our vegetables and quite a lot of fruit.

This picture was taken a few weeks ago and this produce has nearly come to an end, now we are getting some lovely carrots and parsnips, the storeroom has all the onions strung up and several bags of potatoes. Two different sorts of kale are ready to use and we have been eating some lovely beetroot for the last few weeks.

The allotment earlier in the year before the onion and sweetcorn were ready.

I try to use as much of produce as I can, I hate waste, so preserving, pickling and baking are some of the things I look forward to doing. I also get a lot of pleasure from sharing the rewards.

Spicy plum sauce made from the plums in the picture above. This morning I started off a batch of raspberry jelly using raspberries from last year out of the freezer well I do need the space for more goodies….. Thank you Mr Malc…x