The September Garden Helps The Purse

 After cutting and giving away the six marrows that had appeared while I was away on holiday last month the courgette plants recovered and I've had 5 more altogether and the sweetcorn are finally giving me some small cobs. Also here is very last tomato from the greenhouse, no green ones to bring in this year - a really poor year. These all came into the kitchen last Thursday.

I harvested a few more beetroot from BiL's garden and took home a handful of windfall cooking apples that one of the Keep Moving Group had brought in.

A week or two ago I bought British Coxes Apples from Aldi and wished  I hadn't, they were nowhere near ready to eat and horrible sour. Picked far too early. So I tried the first of my Falstaff from the garden and they are delicious. Won't need to buy any  apples for at least 3 weeks.

Falstaff Apples from the garden

And finally I've been picking a bowl of raspberries every 2 or 3 days for a couple of weeks  from the late fruiting canes and one last runner bean!

It's handy that the weather is cooperating so far this month, we've had better weather than many parts of the country - lots of sunshine. The raspberries have almost finished and it will soon be the end of them if we get much rain. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Rounding Up

No exercise group this week as the village hall is having work done but as there were two lovely days on Monday and Tuesday, I got lots more clearing done in the garden and once again the garden waste bin is almost full just two days after being emptied.

I cleared the Passion flower right back to ground level as it was spreading everywhere and took the insect protection off the Purple Sprouting Broccoli, which promptly all fell over - they are too tall and leaning away from the fence. Might get something edible off them eventually.

It's been a week of endings in the garden

The last of............

..............the beetroot, as there weren't many I've only been eating now and again to spread the enjoyment.

..............the courgettes, one plant has lasted far longer than normal and I took 5 more courgettes off before pulling it up and adding to my compost bin.

.........the autumn raspberries, such a surprise at how many I've had considering there are only a few canes.

.........the tiny plum tomatoes, the very dead plants are now in the council garden waste bin and a bowl of tomatoes in the fridge.

.........the parsley plants, divided from a pot bought in the spring from Aldi, the section I put outside was eaten by slugs(?) and the two in the greenhouse had come to an end. Need to buy another pot to divide and over winter.

My church visits 'happened' to take me close to  Bridge Farm Barns, a cafe/gift shop/vintage shop place to look at what lovely things they have in for Christmas - very pricey though and I bought nothing except a coffee and cheese scone ( it would have been rude not to and I went without breakfast specially!)

When I got home I got my Christmas list book out of the drawer ready to start noting down presents including what I already have for the Christmas Hampers for my sister and sister in law. Checked what cards I have -  seem to have bought rather a lot half price in the January sales - plenty for this year for sure. The problem with having several family birthdays all within a few weeks in October and November is that it's difficult to think about Christmas presents when I've only just asked what they would like for birthdays.

Thursday was wet and as I drove to Diss for shopping I couldn't remember the last time I'd driven in rain as it's been another dry summer and early Autumn for us in Suffolk but the weather has become much more autumnal in the last couple of days.

This week I've been grateful for

• Fine warm weather for garden clearing and to save on heating oil
• Living in a quiet part of the world
• The food from my garden

I'll be back Monday - Hope you have a good weekend

Sue

Now it's Low Spend September

 I'm now doing a very low spend September as there's plenty in the freezer and in the cupboards and no big expenses due this month.

I treated the family to the sunflower maze visit but after that its tight purse-strings! 

Sadly there are a chunk of expenses that can't be avoided and happen without me even leaving the house  - Council tax, charity, phone and broadband direct debits and electric at the end of the month and if I didn't leave the house I wouldn't need diesel for the car but I do have to drive so can't avoid it. There might be a couple of unavoidable small expenses and there's a birthday later in the month but otherwise I'm hoping for minimum spend.........although I'm getting back to the swimming pool now the children are back at school so that will be £3 a week and exercise group is £1.50 each week.

Some September savings so far...........

Three of the huge sweet pointy peppers on the one remaining pepper plant turned red so they've been chopped and gone into the freezer - there are 3 left . I put loads of green peppers in earlier before they were ruined by the slugs(?) plus the £1's worth of red sweet peppers from the market stall and as soon as the other three are red they'll go in the freezer and there will be enough to last almost to pepper season next year.

I'm planning to use my one and only butternut squash in a vegetable curry to portion up for the freezer and yesterday I got lots of the huge tomatoes skinned and into the freezer in case I want some for chutney later. I've frozen them first individually on a tray then if they are not needed for chutney they'll be usable one or two at a time for cooking instead.

There are a few beetroot left, runner beans are doing well and the sweetcorn cobs are just about  to be ready and there are plenty of leeks too. In the greenhouse the one remaining cucumber plant made a miraculous recovery with the cooler weather before this week and is looking hopeful. Plenty of tomatoes still coming and even one courgette plant has started producing again.

 I saved some fuel yesterday by not going to look at the last of 2023's Domestic and Rural Bygones Sale  at Campsea Ashe Auctions. After looking online and finding this sale was mainly 'leftovers' from an antique dealer and nothing very interesting it wasn't worth the journey although  I liked the description - 

To include from the estate of antiques dealers Richard & Miranda Goodbrey 'A Collection of Chattles from their Home, Workshops & Storerooms'

We don't use that word chattles very often nowadays. In Suffolk (maybe elsewhere too) we have a word for food left on the plate by children - 'chates' which surely must come from the same root.

I'm saving more diesel (and parking fees) today by not going to Ipswich to visit any of the buildings open especially for National Heritage Open Days. Not because I don't want to, as there are several I'd like to see inside, but walking round town in predicted temps of 29℃ doesn't really appeal. There's always next year - God willing!

On Thursday it was good to have a visit from Essex friends who I've not seen for 4 years. Before Colin died we visited them or they came to us several times a year and camped on the campsite in several summers. They are about to become Grandparents for the first time so I was able to pass on some of the baby toys that all my lot have grown out of. 

They kindly brought me some huge onions and a jar of A's proper home made marmalade and went home with some leeks as well as the toys.

So that was week one of Low Spend September.

Did anybody watch the Cycling Tour of Britain passing through my part of Suffolk on TV on Thursday? It was quite interesting to see the roads and  places I know so well from the air.

 I've gone to watch them speeding by twice in past years, when they've had a stage in Suffolk, once in Friston near the smallholding and more recently through Eye just up the road from here  so didn't bother this year. They are always gone by in a flash anyway!

I'm looking forward to World Cup Rugby Union matches on TV for the next few weeks. Is it really 20 years since England won? They have no hope this year!

Back Monday.

Sue

I Must Stop Finding Nice Greetings Cards + The Job List.

 I'm sure there are now more than enough cards in the card box for this years birthdays. But when I spot someone is selling nice greetings cards for pence it's difficult to resist looking through what they have.

These were the most recent find - all from one person who originally, when I asked "How Much", said "they might be £1 each....... depending! "  I said if they were going to be £1 each I would be putting them back! So he sold me all 5 for £1 instead - very odd.

The owl one unfolds to make a 3D card and has a £3.95 label on the back - bargain.

At the same boot sale I got a couple of things for Middle Grandson as I'm going to be looking after him on Mondays now and again during the rest of the school term.

I think he probably has something similar already as he is the most fanatical and knowledgeable 3 year old dinosaur fan I have ever known, but they will be new for here. £2.50 for these 2 things.

There were several garden jobs that needed doing this week, - at the beginning of the week I wrote a list to spur me on

Raise the net frame that's over the beetroot

Take the net frame off the early leeks

Sow more beetroot seeds

Prick out  the second lot of leek plants

Plant out squash plants

Sow the sweetcorn

Plant out the Climbing French bean plants

Cut back the perennial geranium over hanging the front path

Give a really good watering to all the new things I've planted in the last month

Weeding

Weeding the patio

and more weeding

Lots got done..........except the weeding!

I keep hearing about the lovely weather in the west of the country - here in the east we've had sun but lots of cloud rolling in from the north and bringing with it a chilly north and north east wind. It's so Not Fair!....stamps feet!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

All About Beetroot

First of all must say a big Thank you to new followers who have clicked the follower button -even though it's just as I'm starting to write a bit less often.  Have to say it's quite strange not writing a post every day although it certainly leaves a bit more time for other things.

Now the main subject......................

 Despite my beetroot being far too closely sown and not thining them, I've being pulling a bunch like this every week. I don't want them too big as they take too long to cook.

 

Thought I'd look in that new little vegetable book to find the history of these roots vegetables that we always called Red Beet to differentiate from  'Beet' grown in so many fields when I was young when Suffolk had two Sugar Beet factories.

From the illustration, dating from the mid C19, seems there were different colours even then - but traditional colour is my choice. 

According to the book apparently the place and date of origin of Beetroot is not definite but they possible came from the Nile region around 2,000 BCE. There was a wild beet growing in Mediterranian coastal regions which may have derived from Chard (or vice-versa). Greeks ate the leaves and the Romans cultivated the root which is maybe why in Tudor England it was called 'Romaine beete'.

Beetroot is rich in iron,calcium,carotene,magnesium, phosphorus, vitamim A and B complex. So very Good For You!

Mangolds, Mangle or mangle-wurzels used for cattle feed are a hybrid of beetroot and chard.

Over the last 40 years I've tried many different ways to preserve them for winter but they always seem too vinegary for my taste. Someone once suggested bottling them in a jelly made using vinegar instead of water - that didn't work either. Years ago we kept them for many months in a box of sand but I don't really have anywhere suitable to do that now - or the sand. So now I just eat them through the months they are available fresh. 

Back in a while

Sue

Food Production in Early July

 Things are coming along OK - although we need rain. I filled up the big water butt from the mains a couple of weeks ago and now it's empty again.

Had the first picking of French Climbing Beans yesterday. I discovered one of the plants absolutely covered with Black Fly - never had that on this sort of beans before. I filled a spray bottle with water and washing up liquid and tried that - hope it works as I don't want to lose the plants so soon and also don't want to use anything nasty.

 

Sweetcorn plants - too close ( a common theme) , behind them is the space where I shall put the Kale and Brussels Sprout plants when they arrive. I've got the wire netting frames BiL made for me and enviromesh to put round and over them.

 

Beetroot - too close with a couple of rows of leeks squashed in behind them and 4 courgette plants - Two too many!

 

Onions in front - which I won't bother with again ( don't know why I grew them this year as I'd decided not to grow them again a few years ago - cheap to buy and too dry is the reason). There are 3 squash plants - with room to trail - just about! and empty canes for the runner beans on the right some have been sown here and some in a small tray and the French Climbing on the left.

In the greenhouse are too many tomato plants, 3 cucumber plants at the end, one aubergine standing on the water butt and one more on the ground. I moved one tomato plant to outside a few weeks ago but could really have moved two more out before they got too big to move.

Four pepper plants, the basil and two more aubergines standing up on the staging

 

Pointy peppers beginning to get pointy

 

Some of the aubergines flowers have set but others just fell off. There will be enough to a big batch of make my favourite aubergine/tomato pasta sauce

Nice to get back to growing food again after my enforced year off last year. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

What I'm Not Growing and Why

 The things I'm growing are all coming along slowly. First there wasn't much rain and then there were some really chilly days. Hopefully the sun and warmth on 3 days of this week will help. 

Everything is squeezed in far closer than any recommendation!  I have a few rows of  beetroot, several sweetcorn plants, some leeks, Climbing beans, onions, shallots, some clumps of chard, 4 courgettes and 3 butternut squash with tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and peppers in the greenhouse . Coming later I've got saved runner bean seeds to sow and - the only things that are bought in ready grown -  some Brussels Sprouts and Kale plants arriving in July.

May 24th

12 days later on June 5th not a lot of warmth so not much growth

The shallots and strawberry plants on the patio 5th June
 

 In the greenhouse on 5th June

Compared to smallholding days this is hardly anything and even at Clay Cottage there was room for more than what I can do now.

So that leaves a lot of veg that I'm not growing here, I thought some people might be interested to know how and why I chose what I do grow and if you're not interested then click away now!

Potatoes :- Much as I love Charlotte new potatoes fresh from the garden, I just don't have room and don't eat enough to bother.

Carrots:- These are cheap to buy. Bought carrots keep for weeks in the salad drawer of the fridge if wrapped in a tea-towel. 

Lettuce:- Living alone I don't eat much lettuce and have found one iceberg lettuce lasts for ages in the fridge, without much waste.

Radishes:- I like them but can manage quite well without.

Pumpkin:- Only need 1 for Halloween, costing less than a packet of seeds

Peas:- Need lots of space to grow enough to make it a worthwhile harvest. I grew Mange-tout for freezing for stir-fries at Clay Cottage. May do those next year.

Parsnip:- Love them roast but don't love them enough to grow something thats in the ground for a year

Brassicas :- (apart from the Kale and Brussel sprouts mentioned above) A Cabbage,Cauliflower or a head of Calabrese (Broccoli) lasts me several days and when growing them they always tend to all appear at the same time so it's better for me to buy now and again.

I've probably forgotten lots of other things but ran out of time

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Feeding Myself From the Garden - The up to date list

I've been keeping a note of what's been produced from the garden this year. Surprised myself at just how much there is when it's written in a long list like this!

So  this is the  up to date list of what one 'not quite old woman' can produce from a garden..................

All these are finished now

• Lettuces (I tried to get some more going but they just ran to seed - too hot I think)
• Rocket and small beetroot leaves as salad leaves
• A few asparagus spears
• lots of rhubarb
• A surprising amount of strawberries from 6 new plants and a few from the old bed.
• 3lb of gooseberries
• Lots of raspberries and 3lb put in the freezer
• 2lb Redcurrants
• Few mange-tout peas  - put in the freezer
• Green beans  - some put in the freezer
• 2 small Calabrese heads.
• 2 small cauliflowers 
• Figs 
• Courgettes
• Aubergines
• Cucumbers
• Plums
• Runner beans - my late sowing seed experiment  worked until the wind blew them over a week ago. I salvaged some to eat last weekend and this week but that will be it for this year
  

• 

  I can see lots of weeding to do sometime!
  

  
  

  Still eating
  

• Last of the tomatoes from greenhouse
• Almost the last of the potatoes
• Beetroot
• Onions 
• Cooking Apples (Lots have gone into freezer)
• A few Eating Apples
  
• Few peppers left in the greenhouse (lots in the freezer)
  
• Pears
  

 Still to come

• 4 Cabbages - If they've survived the butterflies
• Brussels sprouts ditto
• A few Leeks
  

I could do better - there are things that can be sown regularly - like lettuce and I meant to say weeks ago that my trial of growing new tomato plants from the side shoots didn't work. Each potted-up side shoot grew - at a great rate - until they were about two  or three feet tall, very spindly and no sign of any flower trusses! So I chucked them out.

Now it's almost time to decide what to grow next year. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

(Almost) End of July Home Produced Round Up

I've been keeping a list of food from the garden this year, with great plans to weigh things for a running total to work out it's worth BUT of course I haven't weighed or counted. I know I've given away beans, tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers and eaten lots of everything.


An update of what I've had from the garden so far this year..........

• Lettuces
• Rocket and small beetroot leaves as salad leaves
• Lots of Cucumbers - and even more given away
• a few asparagus spears
• lots of rhubarb
• A surprising amount of strawberries from 6 new plants and a few from the old bed.
• 3lb of gooseberries
• Lots of raspberries and 3lb put in the freezer
• Several courgettes.
• New potatoes 
• Lots of tomatoes from greenhouse
• 2lb Redcurrants
• Several aubergines and more given away

New for July

• Beetroot
• Few mange-tout peas  - put in the freezer
• Green beans  - some put in the freezer
• 2 small Calabrese heads.
• Onions

I might as well have not bothered with squash or pumpkins in big pots - the plants grew, there are lots of flowers but Not One Single Squash on any of the 5 plants so far and the two pumpkin plants have produced one each - no bigger than a cricket ball and then the plants promptly keeled over and died. Back to putting squash in the garden next year and not growing pumpkins at all I think - I was only growing them to give away to the grandchildren anyway!

The 4 plants of  4 different brassica varieties are squeezed into too small a space so they might not do well - it seemed a good idea at the time to grow winter greens again after not doing so for a while but keeping the cabbage white butterflies off is a hard task,  I'll probably not bother next year.

I've no idea how the late sowing Runner Beans plan will go. The 1st June sowing are up the canes and flowering and the 1st July sowing are still only about 18 inches tall but as the French climbing beans are still very prolific there's no hurry. I've been trying to persuade Sis in Law that French climbing are a Much better idea than Dwarf French beans - they take up less space, don't get rain-splashed and you don't have to bend down so far to pick them. Maybe I'll pop some saved seed into the Christmas Hamper.

It's been lovely to see SiL and BiL enjoying vegetable gardening for the first time in many many years. Sil's job involves her travelling around the country, much responsibility and many hours but 4 months at home shielding BiL means that Board Meetings etc are now all online and that's given them both time to clear what was a patch of brambles and wildness into a very productive patch. Their greenhouse took her days to empty, tidy and clean but that too is now full of donated tomato plants - including a Black variety - which I didn't fancy eating at all - a bit too reminiscent of a Deadly Nightshade type thing!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Nearly Normal Times? A Saturday Round Up.

A busier week  compared to the last 15, lunch at Son and Dil's, a shopping trip, a visit from the youngest two grandchildren - I also went to see Youngest Daughter and oldest Granddaughter - luckily I remembered the way to the coast after all these weeks!
Another job done was a batch of Lemon and Grapefruit Marmalade using a tin of prepared Lemon Home Cook Marmalade and a tin of grapefruit in juice. This makes a really tangy marmalade - I think it's my favourite.
Plus at last the front and side hedges are finished. I don't do the bit right at the end of the garden, it's more trees than hedge (and the extension lead won't reach that far) and I certainly can't do the huge hedge between me and the field. For one thing its just too high and for another it's where all the hedge sparrows live- it's a much thicker and denser Hawthorn hedge - than all the rest. It also doesn't have loads of brambles sticking out so I can get close enough to mow along the bottom.


 Added to the food produced list this week were the first beetroot  - small but perfectly formed.

and a couple of pound of redcurrants - these went in the freezer - waiting for apples and I'll make redcurrant and apple jelly for me and for the Christmas Hampers. I made Redcurrant and Rosemary Jelly last year so want to do something different.

 

 I also picked the first mange-tout peas which went into a stir-fry and then more to put in the freezer after a quick blanche. There won't be many to freeze but a few is better than nothing.

Now the question of the day  -Shall I go and look round the first car-boot sale tomorrow? It's the local small one rather than the Huge Needham Market boot sale which has been cancelled for the rest of the year.  I've read the website about strict arrival times for sellers and buyers and how they will have spaced the cars and put tapes up to make a one-way route for people buying - that's all fine but I have a feeling it will be crazy busy.

The updated food from home list (produced since March)

• 9 small lettuces (I now have a gap because the next sowing took ages to get going)
• Rocket and small beetroot leaves
• 6 Cucumbers - and 8 more given away
• a few asparagus spears
• lots of rhubarb
• A surprising amount of strawberries from 6 new plants.
• 3lb of gooseberries
• Lots of raspberries and 3lb put in the freezer
• Several courgettes.
• Few new potatoes 
• First tomatoes from greenhouse
• First Aubergines
• 2lb Redcurrants 
• Beetroot
• Few mange-tout peas

This week I'm grateful for

1. A visit from Eldest Daughter and Eldest Grandson has been arranged
2. More delicious raspberries
3. Rain for the garden
4. More good books

Have a good weekend - enjoy your first pub visit since March - if that's your thing!
Back Monday
Sue 

1 Week Eating Local Part 4

 I looked at the BBC on line weather forecast yesterday and what it looked like reminded me of Craig Revel-Horwood on Strictly describing a poor dancer.....................DULL, DULL, DULL. Every day is a 'light cloud and gentle breeze' and the only bit of sun peeping out is Tuesday morning. I shall need to work hard at not getting depressed and gloomy myself!

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday. Jayne mentioned the way supermarkets operate a just-in-time way of ordering and how little it would take for the system to implode.  I think that's the way all manufacturers work now.
It's one of the reasons we tried to be very self-sufficient for all the years at the smallholding and now
I like to keep plenty of food in my cupboards, especially living up the end of a lane, on back roads without a 4 wheel drive.

Apologies for not commenting on everyone's blogs. I start the day with good intentions but then time slips by.

Anyway, back to the Eating local.....................I cooked the last of my  beetroot from the garden.

And had a scrambled egg sandwich with beetroot for lunch and forgot to take a photo AGAIN........seems I'm not very good at this sort-of challenge!

This, in case you don't know is a cauliflower!

It's from the local farm shop but not grown there, it just about qualifies as local as it's grown in the Fens on the Norfolk/Lincs border.

Vegetables are grown commercially in parts of Suffolk. On the light sandy soil close to where we lived in Knodishall they frequently grew huge fields of carrots and onions, but they aren't sold locally. They go off to big packing warehouses and then to supermarkets, which could be almost anywhere.

It's difficult to find real local vegetables unless you grow them yourself............Oh how I miss the smallholding years!

I used part of the cauliflower for a curry
The curry started with the last of my onions, one of the local apples bought at boot sale and the smallest of my two remaining butternut squash. Thickened with the local flour and then of course curry powder NOT local! then add hot water. Added some home grown potatoes and some of the cauliflower plus a spoonful of my homemade chutney, pepper and small teaspoon of sugar. I meant to go outside to fetch in some chard but forgot.

The curry was divided into 3 portions and two went in the freezer. Normally I'd eat curry with rice but we don't grow rice in Suffolk..............yet, although with climate change who knows what will happen,  then I thought about making the new-fangled idea of cauliflower rice but quite honestly the thought of it doesn't appeal at all - even if it is wonderfully healthy and ecologically such a good idea, it sounds awfully "windy"!
 Instead I baked one of my potatoes and served up the curry on top. It was delish.

.
Back Tomorrow
Sue

A Garden Tour

This was last Sunday - the day when there were a few hours of sun in between all the awful weather of Saturday and Monday.

 If this works it should be a tour of the garden round the house. I eventually (always have to re-remember how to do it!)  managed to load it to youtube and it was OK there so should be OK here.
Watching it back I noticed that I called the beetroot "red beet" that what we called it when I was small to differentiate from beet - which was the sugar-beet grown in the fields all around our house.

Sorry it's a bit wobbly, I need to learn how to hold the camera steady while walking.

Please ignore all the long grass and weeds around the edges. Col's brother should be coming over when he has some spare time to do some strimming for me. I can manage most of the work myself but not using a big strimmer. The raspberry cage that Colin built when he was still well enough is also a bit  of a white elephant. I do have all the netting to cover it but that's another thing impossible for one 5 foot 5 tall woman to do on her own! I can't take  the cage down either as it's so well bolted to a wooden frame.

Thank you for all the comments about the Olive Herb. Researching things for blog posts is one of the things I love doing.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Last Week and the Bank Holiday Weekend

After 4 years I've just about got used to being able to go out and about on Bank Holidays. 2015 was the last year we were at the smallholding with the campsite open for what was always the busiest weekend of the year.
I can remember one sunny year when tents just kept arriving - and we ended up putting some on the hay-field, there was even a yurt!

Actually I haven't yet decided what to do this weekend so not sure where my out and about will take me, it's all weather dependent. What I really should do is get the paint out to do all the bits that got damaged when the kitchen was fitted, the scratches and scrapes are beginning to annoy me.

Anyway before that there's a week to look back on..............

Monday morning started with no electric - bother. I discovered something had tripped the trip switch which is out in the garage so spent ages going round indoors, turning things off, going out to the garage and trying the trip again........all with no luck. Had a think and decided to turn off all the fuse things which are in a cupboard in the back porch and then try the trip, and it stayed on. So one by one I switched the fuses back on and found the one that made the trip flip off was the one that said 'Upstairs Sockets' .
So back upstairs and check round - Nothing switched on. Looked all round the house AGAIN - by which time I was getting a bit fed up - and found the fridge switch that I'd forgotten about because its under the kitchen worktop with just a little junction thingy with a light that shows the fridge is working on the wall above. Switched off that switch and Hey Presto! But WHY is the fridge plug on the upstairs socket circuit??  Just one more thing to sort..........was it the fridge or the plug on the wall? Answer = Sadly it's the plug on the wall. Electrician needed,  which will probably cost more than buying a new fridge and a darn sight more difficult to arrange although I was quite pleased that I'd found the cause and got everything back on and working again, even the fridge -  by using an extension lead. Another thing that in the past I would have left to Colin to sort, he would have found the problem in half the time!.

One morning this week I went to the surgery to pick up.............................2 bottles of wine! The week before I'd popped to a Friends of Mendlesham and Bacton Surgeries coffee morning. I had £1 worth of draw tickets and left my phone number and got a surprise when the phone rang later to say I'd won 2 prizes. I don't drink but there are plenty of family who do so they won't go to waste.

All the small plants that were in the greenhouse in my photos earlier this week are now planted out and protected from pheasants, ducks, pigeons, cat  and any strong winds that might come blowing across the fields.........it's a complicated business!
 The sweetcorn, chard and parsley are well protected

French climbing beans with a sacking wall around the bottom and a fleece tent pegged to the canes.
I'll take the fleece off when the plants get going.

Beetroot seedlings under wire frames, lifted on flower pots

The courgettes are under a fleece tunnel at the moment, just to stop the wind rocking them about until they get well rooted.  I think they'll be OK when I take it off, can't remember from last year  if any of the local pests eats them. I'll need to use the tunnel over the squash plants when I put them down the other half of the bed.

  I've been weeding too, mainly big stuff like cow-parsley that's around all the shrubs, I really need a strimmer but the battery ones wouldn't be man enough for cow-parsley and nettles and I'm not man enough for a great big machine. Colin's brother has been asked to come over with his big strimmer but I'm on a job waiting list!

The Chelsea Flower Show has been on TV all week, I'm not a huge fan of  TV gardening  programmes they make me feel inadequate.  But no one can expect to compete with the Chelsea show gardens, they are mostly so un-real, make it possible to watch without feeling hopeless. My sister and her husband are off to visit the show today and for a moment I was envious, then thought - no - all that walking about - all those crowds - better off watching on TV. (Like Wimbledon tennis!, which reminds me - The French Open starts on Sunday, it's on ITV 4 I'm pleased to say)

Swimming, shopping, visiting youngest and Florence, sitting in the sun and my week has gone by - alone - but still getting through.


This week I'm grateful for

• Solving a problem by myself
• Beautiful gardens on TV
• Fine days for gardening
• Juicy nectarines back in the shops for summer.......love them

Have a good weekend, hope the weather isn't too disappointing.

Back Monday
Sue

The Seed Catalogues

They've all arrived, so I went through the seed tin and wrote a list (always a list!). I don't need much but do like to pick the varieties.

D.T Brown are local to Suffolk, have some good choices and cheapest postage. I need beetroot,  tomato, cucumber, sweet red  'pointy' peppers, leeks, curly parsley, nasturtium and basil. Then maybe sweetcorn...... and here's a weird thing........... I could have sworn that sometime last year  I bought a packet of mini sweetcorn to grow to use for stir frying BUT the packet in the seed  tin are ordinary corn cobs. I even mentioned finding them at a car boot sale in a blog post. So why aren't they what I thought they were? ............No idea.

I'm ordering a big plum type Tomato that I've not tried before called Big Mama , a mini plum that I grew last year - Sungrape. and for something completely different a yellow grape variety called Ildi . I've just 2 cucumber Euphya seeds from last year so have ordered some Louisa, another variety I've grown in the past. Sweet Peppers will be Bullhorn Mix. I have a few very old leek seeds so I'll get some new and a new large pack of beetroot to add to the pack of Bolthardy left from last year. The rest  - parsley, nasturtium and basil I can get from anywhere and probably cheaper - as long as I remember to write them on a shopping list.  D.T Browns don't have a mini sweetcorn so I'll look elsewhere for them, my Essex friends love to grow lots of corncobs so I could pass the packet onto them because I don't want to grow the big cobs.

Apart from the above the other things I'm planning to grow are the same as last year...... French Climbing beans and Runner Beans - both from seed I saved from what I grew. Aubergines, chard, Mange tout peas, lettuces and courgettes.I also have  4 butternut squash seeds to hopefully grow better than last year when only 1 plant survived and produced just 1 squash!

Back Soon
Sue

Beetroot Chutney

Deciding not to make things for Christmas Hampers and then changing my mind in late October has left me with less time than usual for getting things done.
But I came up with an idea for using something that's still plentiful in the garden.....Beetroot.
Not sure if I've ever made Beetroot Chutney before but it's certainly not a regular so I searched through recipe books to find one that sounded good and didn't involve many extra ingredients.
The Best Kept Secrets of the WI Jams, Pickles and Chutneys book had this...................


BEETROOT AND GINGER CHUTNEY
Their recipe used 3lb of beetroot and quite a lot of raisins and  made 6lb+ of chutney, I didn't want that much so altered it a bit. I used red onions and red and white vinegar to keep the colour.

2lb Beetroot, cooked
1¼ lb  onions chopped small
1lb cooking apples, peeled cored and chopped
6oz Sultanas
Just under 1½ pints vinegar 568ml + 284ml =  852 ( I used a bottle of red wine vinegar and then made up the amount with white vinegar)
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
20 oz granulated sugar

Peel and cut the cooked beetroot into chunks.
Put the onion and a little of the vinegar into a large preserving pan and cook to soften.
Add the sultanas and the prepared apple and a little more vinegar and cook again until apple is soft.
Add the beetroot, ginger, salt and half the remaining vinegar, simmer gently until starting to thicken.
Add the sugar and remaining vinegar stirring until the sugar has dissolved and continue cooking until thick again. (Total cooking time about two hours).

It turned out looking like this and tastes good already so should be even better by Christmas.

When I used to make chutney to sell someone once asked me how it was that my  chutney was all different colours? I must have looked puzzled because they said that whatever ingredients they used their chutney always came out brown like Branston pickle.
But I use different types of vinegar and white or red onions depending what the other ingredients are. Simple really but a bit more expensive, but if most of the ingredients are home grown or free then it isn't so bad.

The cost to make this was
Beetroot - free
Apples    - free
Sultanas - about 38p
Onions about 40p
Red wine vinegar 80p
White vinegar  about 35p
Ginger and salt - pennies
Sugar about 36p

Total of £2.29 if I've added correctly

This made 6 various sized jars enough for hampers and some for me.

Thank you for all the comments yesterday and hello to a new follower or maybe two, I've lost count but I hope you enjoy reading

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The First of the Season

Colin sowed a whole bed of beetroot before he died in the hope we would have enough to store some for winter, what he didn't know was that we were going to have a drought and there is no way I can water the beetroot as well as the greenhouse crops and the beans - not forgetting all the patio pots.

Last weekend I pulled a few to cook  and these were the biggest I could find!

They may be small but a treat.

I'm still resting the blinkin' back, although it seems to be getting worse rather than better. I'm  alternating ice packs and hot water bottles plus pain killers. What a good thing I keep well stocked with food and milk in the freezer and cat food in the cupboard as I would have been worried about not being able to get out for shopping.
Since Tuesday I've read two books, watched tennis and football and looked at blogs I've never seen before but I'd rather be busy. I may have to resort to the doctor.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Lots of Gardening Done Before and Since

This post was started several weeks ago...........
Before the 11th
After the cold of April gardening got started in the first week of May and a few things were done in the week before Colin became more unwell............... he helped me put the wire-netting fence  around the cutting garden. That's foiled the ducks and pheasants from taking a short cut right across it!

Col had sown lots of beetroot seed several weeks ago and covered it with fleece but what with one thing and another we hadn't looked underneath to see what was happening and when we did look it seems the wind and rain on the fleece hadn't protected the beetroot seedlings but rather rubbed them all out of the ground.....well not All but lots. So the fleece was lifted onto wire hoops and I shall be re-sowing in the gaps when the remaining seedling get going.

Next job was to finish  putting compost on the pea/bean bed  and fork it in. I put up canes ready for the French climbing beans and hardened them off for a while.

Everything in the greenhouse is fine except there was a disaster  when  both my remaining cucumber plants collapsed.......not really sure why, as they were covered with fleece when we had those cold nights. Replacements were found from the car boot sale.

Since the 11th
I've thrown myself into gardening, keeps me busy, so I've cleared along one side of the greens bed leaving just the spring cabbage, which are so late, then compost  was added and courgettes planted.

Lots of grass cutting, I can work the ride-on mower, but I'm a bit dangerous with it. Col hardly ever let me have a go and even cut the grass with it the week before he died. I'm much safer with the small rechargeable mower, it might have been expensive to buy but it certainly is an easy machine to use, starts easily, light to push, easy to empty, easy to charge the battery..... I sound like the TV ad!

The two gooseberry bushes that I planted just after we moved here are covered in fruit, the old blackcurrant likewise. Not sure about the raspberry canes yet. Strawberries have flowers. I'm hopeful for several days of my own soft fruit this summer.

I'd love to know why the only place in the whole garden where there is bindweed is in the end of the bed where I planted the asparagus crowns last year?  I'm pulling and digging it out every time I see a new bit. I think I'm winning. Horrible tenacious stuff. 9 out of 10 asparagus crowns have survived the year. Next year I'll be able to cut one or two to eat. I found the cat rolling in the dry dirt around the asparagus crowns so put lots of prickly bits of hawthorn hedge on the bed to stop her.

10 maincrop potatoes planted.....very late. The early potatoes look OK except for a couple - must find out why -. Leek seedlings have been re-potted. I think they will be the only winter veg I'll bother with as it's such a faff trying to protect the brassica family from cabbage white butterflies/white fly/pigeons etc.

Mangetout peas are all planted  under a fleece cloche. Climbing French beans are planted out. The Tomatoes, Cucumber, Aubergines and Peppers have been moved into big pots around the greenhouse and then I ran out of compost. Spring onion, lettuce and radish seeds sown in the half barrels on the patio and I rescued the Bay tree from the nettles that were growing up around it.

Still to do.........Sow runner beans in pots, I'm late. Put up canes for them. Do hoeing and more grass cutting and loads of weeding in the two front flower beds. Colin edged them with tiles last year but because I can't work the big strimmer it's just a mess.

Finally lots of watering every day because now the garden really needs a good rain, we had a short shower yesterday afternoon but it didn't do much good.

Back Soon
Sue