I do appreciate a beautiful cabbage, especially now when little else is available from the allotment. A light dusting of frost adds to the beauty don't you think? It almost breaks my heart to harvest them. To me, cabbages are the jewels of the winter allotment. Apart from the usual green savoy I also grow… Continue reading Jewels of the Winter Allotment
Tag: vegetable garden
How To Hand Pollinate Pumpkins and Squash
The pumpkin patch vines are producing plenty of big buttery-yellow flowers now which are so pretty. Bees and other insects do a fantastic job of pollinating, but sometimes I hand pollinate my pumpkins and squash to be sure of success or to save seed from a particular variety. Hand pollination is really simple but first… Continue reading How To Hand Pollinate Pumpkins and Squash
Peter Rabbit Cabbages
The Golden Acre cabbages are looking beautiful again, they remind me of the cabbages lined up neatly in Mr McGregor's garden and I can understand why Peter Rabbit risked being pie supper to nibble upon the leafy beauties. I have enjoyed regular little pickings of outer leaves and now the cabbages are starting to heart… Continue reading Peter Rabbit Cabbages
Planting Sunflowers Beneath a Grey Sky
The sunflowers were released from their pot prisons at the weekend, roughly a month later than I would normally plant sunflowers out but hey, they're in now and I can look forward to watching them grow and bloom. I planted a good mix of single yellow giants and multi-branching types in shades of dark purple,… Continue reading Planting Sunflowers Beneath a Grey Sky
More Harvests
Last week was hot and Friday in particular reached a ridiculous temperature. Sadly, I lost one of my chickens to heat stress despite my best efforts. The weekend was all change, much cooler with heavy rain, and even though it tipped down for most of Saturday the ground is still quite dry. The lush potato… Continue reading More Harvests
Pests and Positives
A lovely weekend on the allotment, a bit windy at times but sunny and dry. It has been a couple of days since my last post regarding bean seed fly maggots eating the beans, the weather has warmed up again and it appears some of the Greek Gigantes beans are doing ok.... Greek Gigantes seedlings… Continue reading Pests and Positives

