- allotment
- allotment supper
- asparagus
- bees
- borage
- chard
- compost
- courgettes
- golden gooseberry jelly
- golden sweet mange tout
- gooseberries
- gooseberry jam
- greenhouse
- hanging basket
- lemon apple cucumber
- lemon verbena
- no-dig allotment
- onions
- purple basil
- quince
- radishes
- rose de roscoff onions
- shed
- snowdrops
- strawberries
- sweetcorn
- sweet peas
- tomatoes
- yellow raspberries
- zinnias
Author Archives: Ruth Paris
and sometimes disaster happens…
I was overtired. You can see for yourself the consequence of delusional thinking that strength would prevail, despite an excellent start entailing a newly harvested pink French onion (the triumphant very first), yellow and green baby courgettes and my friend … Continue reading
Posted in Allotment
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summer delights
Early morning at the allotment, picking whatever was beckoning to be made into lunch for friends later this morning. All to the accompaniment of a song thrush, invisible yet so present, hidden in the green depths of the background trees. … Continue reading
Posted in Allotment
Tagged alpine strawberries, BMW, chard, courgettes, raspberries, song thrush
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purple podded peas
purple podded peas growing with sweet peas, borage and calendula
ladybirds and box trimming
Awake early, I was at the huerto by 6am and breakfasted on my first cucumber and precious three hanging basket strawberries (Temptation, you manifest in my neighbour’s big juicy strawberry bed!). Delicious, but hardly sustaining. The task du jour was … Continue reading
aawwwwww
Oh dear – my fear was actualised; the branches broke under the massive weight of gooseberries!! What a dismal sight. I had to do some major prickly surgery and it still looks sadly lopsided. And now I have tons of … Continue reading
Posted in gooseberries
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roses and goosegogs
Suddenly there are roses in abundance. And bees. And an embarrassment of gooseberries, such that I fear the branches may break…
where are the bees?
Isn’t this an enchanting welcome to the Shepherd & Flock allotment site? The grassy path leads through cow parsley and ox-eye daisies, until you emerge into the 12 plot site. You’d think that the bees would be equally delighted and … Continue reading
blog tour
When my friend Gill How asked me if I would take the baton in a ‘blogging tour’, my immediate impulse was eek, no! Then I reflected on my habit of shying away from anything remotely public, and decided instead to be … Continue reading
Posted in blog tour
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grando violetto broad bean mystery
So three boxes of broad bean seeds were planted on the same day, and in the same way; heritage crimson flowered, witkiem manita and grando violetto (purple beans with a green pod). Then all placed in the cold frame to … Continue reading
forget-me-not blue shed
A new plot-holder adjacent to me not only erected an identical shed to mine, but then painted it the very same shade of deep blue (newly painted last year here). So as mine was looking dingy after the dark wet … Continue reading
digging, digging, digging…
It’s been hard work but now there’s only one final bed left to dig over – and that’s been covered all winter with black plastic, so should be fairly easy. There are lots of worms in the ground, even though … Continue reading
lavender, leeks and white sprouting broccoli
The lavender at the end of the rose bed had become very woody and overgrown. Time to dig it out. Which was surprisingly easy. And it gives the adjacent roses more light and space. So now I have the luxury … Continue reading
L’Oignon Rosé de Roscoff
For ages I’ve wanted to try growing the marvellous pink French onion ‘rosé de Roscoff’, aka Keravel; the sort Onion Johnnies used to bring to the UK on bikes and old Citroëns. I managed to find seed on a French … Continue reading
now with snowdrops
A month of rain later, clumps of snowdrops lifted from my parents’ garden now grace the bare earth around the base of the fruit trees. ‘They’ say that you shouldn’t have anything competing with newly planted trees, but surely such … Continue reading
raspberry renewal
The raspberry cage had become horribly overgrown and last year’s summer fruiting crop was not great. Also, the farm manure, while very welcome, had imported a lot of persistent weeds that had tucked into the root system. Radical action was … Continue reading
tree planting
Back in action! Bean poles down and onions, garlic and shallots showing signs of growth. This week I bought a bare root morello cherry and a damson tree to complete the mixed row of fruit trees bordering the path from … Continue reading
felled by fennel
Here is the culprit in happier days (July I think). Some months later, two Fridays ago to be precise, I was clearing this bed and making good progress on the sweetcorn. I then had a go at the fennel and, … Continue reading
underground treasures
Just in time, which means just before the rain arrived in earnest, I got the onions safely into the shed, the red ones strung rather inexpertly along the shelf. Note also the very useful Spanish hand tool bought in the … Continue reading
summer’s lease hath all too short a date
The last allotment flowers of summer 2013… the scent of roses is gorgeous!
Posted in Allotment
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