Apple Harvest

Autumn winds have been bringing down the apples on an almost daily basis - so it was out to pick the remainder today.

Not a bad harvest - some were even a fairly decent size. I foresee lots of peeling and chopping in my future, although will try and get some at least to 'keep' for a while.

Apple Time

Lots of apples on the trees this year, unfortunately they were mostly rather small and a fair few were quite manky . . .



The harvest looked fairly impressive mind you:


Chopped up the mealier specimens, and stuck them in a demijohn with a couple of bottles of brandy and vodka, and some cinnamon sticks.


Will add sugar syrup in due course - hoping that a couple of the months down the line we'll have a nice Christmassy Apple Liqueur!

Zero Food Miles

Finally harvested our own apples the other day - a few more than last year - some of the 'eaters' are still a little tart - and conversely the 'cookers' seem quite sweet - wondering if we got them mixed up somewhere along the line!

At least it all comes with zero food miles - unless you count the 3 minute walk from the bottom of the garden ;-)

Mixed Success . . .

Past time for a garden update . . .

Starting with the greenhouses - the large greenhouse is doing ok - we've even harvested our first cucumber.  Some of the tomato plants have gone a bit funny (stunted with curled leaves), but most are doing ok and promising to crop well.

The small greenhouse has turned into something of a jungle (compared with the last update) - probably need to thin it out a bit - there are cherry tomatoes growing but unfortunately they are remaining stubbornly green.

The 'onion' plot is doing ok, but on balance think I'll get 'sets' next year rather than growing from seed.  We had a few spare sets given us and they've done so much better.  

We'll probably go with red onions next year as well (ordinary onions are really so cheap you end up wondering if growing-your-own is worth it!).

The real success story is the courgette plants which have come on leaps and bounds and are promising to bury us in courgettes.

The fruit cage is almost done now, but we have the promise of apples in due course - this is the third year since we put in the apple trees, and both the eater and the cooker should do quite well this year.

Little Green Apples

Harvested our first crop of apples this month - 12 eaters and 9 cookers - the eaters (Jonagold) were surprisingly much greener than the cookers (lost the label and can't remember the variety!).  Not sure whether the eaters were quite ready - most were a good size, but they were a bit 'tart' still.


The cookers were bigger and rosier - we stewed up the bruised / bird-pecked examples - and have some set aside for future apple pie!

Fruits of Our Labours

It's been a beautiful weekend - could have been June rather than April today. The garden is looking lovely, the daffodils have for the most part given way to tulips, and the magnolia is looking absolutely beautiful. Around the lawn there are lots of cowslips and violets as well, and any day now the azaleas will start coming in to bloom.


We were intending to put in another veg plot this weekend, having decided that we wouldn't be doing anything major with the fruit plot (as we thought we'd left it all a bit late to get hold of some raspberry canes.) However, Martin's folks turned up on Saturday with 10 raspberry plants, and sorting out the fruit plot became a matter of urgency.

Martin built the frame for the plot that afternoon, while I moved one of last year's raised beds to make more room. Today we finished de-turfing, levelling, and planting it up - the raspberry canes on one side, and two blackcurrants, two gooseberries, and a blueberry on the other. The 'fruits of our labours' are pictured below, and hopefully in due course we will see some real fruits, although probably not that much this year . . .

We're still in the process of finishing the central path area - this is being filled (gradually) with stones taken out of the various vegetable / fruit plots. Also planning to move the strawberry plants into this plot from their current raised bed. Need to add some stakes for the raspberries as well.

Last year we actually had two apple trees in this area; we moved these a few weeks ago and have started the process of espaliering them. They seem to be coming along ok - at any rate they're about to come into bloom, so hopefully we'll see an apple or two. Bought a desert cherry tree as well, although that's nowhere near flowering just yet.

To end on a flowery note, here's some apple blossom . . .