At this time of year when everything in the garden is quiet, thoughts turn to deciding what to grow next year. I’ve increased the space in the tunnel dedicated to strawberries which means there won’t be as much space for beans but it will be easier to separate them. There will still be space for…… Continue reading 2023 Gardening Decisions
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Another Squirrel Bites the Dust
I’ve written about my battles with the squirrels before. At the moment they are concentrating on collecting and burying acorns around the garden. It doesn’t really matter as most of the vegetables and fruit are picked and either eaten or stored for later. The only things that are left are carrots and lettuces. However, concentrating…… Continue reading Another Squirrel Bites the Dust
Magpies vandalising our Lawn
Our lawn is in a bad state. The shading of the trees and the dry summer has encouraged the moss to grow. There’s not a lot we can do about it. But this year the magpies have had a real go pulling up the moss. I assume they’re after cranefly larva (leatherjackets). But it could…… Continue reading Magpies vandalising our Lawn
Tomatoes starting to finish – 2022
Ok, so the tomatoes are still producing a reasonable quantity (2.5 kg today) but it’s obvious that it won’t be going on for much longer. Unusually it’s the beefsteak that are turning off first. Today we picked the last of the Aunt Rubies German Green and Black Krim. It’s a few weeks sooner than other…… Continue reading Tomatoes starting to finish – 2022
Apple Harvest 2022
Todays Apple HArvest Dehydrating Discovery Eater OK, I’ve complained long and hard about the squirrels and magpies eating our apples and wondering what to do about it. I’ve even tried netting the trees and just succeeded in trapping birds. Well, they’ve started cropping now and I don’t know what to do with them all. The…… Continue reading Apple Harvest 2022
Tasty & Healthy Simple Vegetarian Lentil Loaf Recipe
This lentil loaf is something that we have reasonably frequently but only now have I decided to add it to the recipes on this website. The reason for doing this is that it today we made it using sieved juice from home grown tomatoes, rather than bought tomato juice. It seems to have worked well.…… Continue reading Tasty & Healthy Simple Vegetarian Lentil Loaf Recipe
Tomatoes Ripening Early (2022)
The hot spell we had a few weeks ago seems to have brought everything earlier than other years. This is possibly good or bad. We are about 6kg of tomatoes ahead of what we would have expected to pick by this time in an average year and it seems to be mainly down to the…… Continue reading Tomatoes Ripening Early (2022)
Tomatoes & Carrot Thinnings for Soup
I keep on going on about how to try and deal with the glut of tomatoes, mainly freezing as tomatoes or sauce but this tomato soup recipe has two advantages. Firstly it uses a good quantity of fresh tomatoes and it also uses carrot thinnings to produce an excellent lunch. Regardless of how careful I…… Continue reading Tomatoes & Carrot Thinnings for Soup
Recipe: Simple, Tasty Tomato Sauce
The tomato glut that you get through August and September can’t be dealt with just by eating. On average from our plants we get around 40kg of tomatoes (more if its a good year). There’s a balance to be made between cherry tomatoes which can be eaten with salads and larger tomatoes which are good…… Continue reading Recipe: Simple, Tasty Tomato Sauce
Today’s Harvest (August 2022)
The family have been here for the past week so it’s been difficult to know exactly how things are going. We had a heavy thunderstorm which broke the hot dry weather and, hopefully, will mean that some of the beans and courgettes will set and grow. It doesn’t affect the tomatoes because I have been…… Continue reading Today’s Harvest (August 2022)