The horticultural show

We have a horticultural show in our town every year. You know the sort of thing, people exhibit things in a variety of classes, like fruit, veg and flowers. I'm ashamed to say that although we have lived in the town for 29 years we have never visited this show before.  My daughter decided that this was the year to go.  She wanted to enter some of our allotment vegetables, but we weren't sure what sort of standards were expected.  So we looked at the list of classes to enter and decided to just enter our chutneys this year and see what might be expected in the veg and fruit stuff so we can prepare ourselves for next year.  Mine was apple and cranberry and hers was beetroot.  I did wonder if my chutney was a bit old as I'd made it last November, but it was still tasting good, in fact I thought it had improved with keeping.  I had one jar left.

We arrived early in the morning to leave our chutneys before the judging took place.  There were two other chutneys there, we wondered if any more would arrive.  We went back in the afternoon after the judging to see how we had done. Sadly neither of our chutneys got placed, but we didn't mind, we wandered round looking at the other exhibits.  There were cakes and biscuits, we thought we could do that next year. I think my shortbread is worthy enough to be entered.  There were a lot of handicrafts on display, but we thought we would have liked to see more fruit and vegetable classes.

We admired this wonderful cabbage and onions.

There were some important people there too.

Now we know how it all works we'll be well prepared for next year's show.

Mellow

I tend to wake up quite early in the morning these days, my aching joints won't allow me to lie in bed for long. I have to get up and start moving about. I enjoy these light early mornings when I sit at the dining room window with a cup of tea and look out at the garden.

There's a lovely mellow look to the borders now which is especially so early in the morning. For a while during August  the borders seemed to lack colour--it's that gap when the early summer flowers have faded and the late summer ones haven't yet come into flower. But looking around the garden now I can see that colour seems to have come back to the garden. It's a lovely  mix  of dark pinks, yellow, bronze which combined with the faded seed heads of the earlier flowers gives the garden that autumnal look.

There's a clump of pink/lilac phlox in the top border with a white one behind called 'David'. The scent is lovely and does remind me of summer.  I rarely remember the names of plants but my son-in-law and my brother are both called David.  Last year I gave these plants a 'Chelsea chop' in May and they didn't do at all well, so I didn't bother this year and I'm pleased with the results. The sedums are in flower too now, adding to the pink theme.

In another border the rudbekias and heleniums are looking good but I think the star of the garden at the moment is the lovely bright yellow grass--Hakonechloa Aureola (I had to look that up, that's a name I definitely can't remember).

Building work in the den

Back from our holiday and the allotment was in need of some work.  We took the grandchildren, so of course I didn't get any allotment work done.  Instead we built a den and a bug house, well it was good fun.
We started the woodland den a few weeks ago and the children have some great plans for it.  The 9 year old had sorted herself out early on with her own little space.

But the seven year old needed some help so we gathered together some long twiggy branches and built a tepee under his climbing tree which Granddad has made easier to climb by fixing some wooden blocks onto the trunk.

Next we put the finishing touches to the bug hotel which we started a few weeks ago, it may need some refurbishment from time to time.

My new chalk marker pen proved a great success with the children and after selecting a few pieces of slate from our store of many things we had found on the plot, they set to work making some signs. There was the 'welcome to our den' , the health and safety notice, 'beware of the tree you cud fall out', and the invitation for insects to stay awhile in the newly built 'bug hotel, the place to bee'

Allotment flowers

We've been doing our bit for the bees at the allotment. Earlier this year my two granddaughters sowed some flowers seeds in front of the polytunnel. It was a flower mix to attract bees and butterflies.  I think we overdid the sowing or we should have thinned the seedlings out, but they grew, fighting for space. There's a lot of yellow and blue and it looks really good.  We sowed nasturtium along the edge of the rhubarb bed, calendula next to the comfrey and sunflowers along the fence.

Then there are the pots of sweet peas, the trough with osteospurnum, the lavender and the bed behind the polytunnel where I planted hardy geraniums, veronica and borage. The result has been lots of bees, they just love the flowers.  The butterflies are all cabbage white at the moment and we are trying hard to keep them off the cabbages.  They are welcome on the flowers, but not on the brassicas.

Not just green

I love to see rows of leafy green veg at the allotment, but I like to see a bit of contrasting colour too.  So this year we have been growing some different coloured vegetables.

Like purple podded peas

The peas are green inside.

Purple kale

Purple french beans

These go green once cooked.

Red salad leaves

Lollo rosso lettuce

And a splash of red from the chard stems

Are you growing any different coloured vegetables on your vegetable plot?

The great garden adventure

When the school summer holidays are here and we are looking after the grandchildren we start to think of activities which we can all enjoy together and which don't cost too much money. My thoughts always turn to RHS Harlow Carr and when I suggest a visit, the children always say YES! I'm  surprised because to me Harlow Carr is a garden and if I was to suggest going to visit a garden they would probably not want to go. But to them Harlow Carr is fun.  There are always childrens' activities during the school holidays and there are the usual fun things in the woods. Our 7 year old grandson wanted to see the new Log Ness Monster. So with a picnic, our RHS members card and our kids go free vouchers we set off.

The 'Great garden adventure' is the theme for this year's summer activities for kids at Harlow Carr, with lots of garden related activities to keep them interested.  We followed the 'Great garden explorer trail'. We had to go to different points around the garden and find out about things which were important for the planet. As always on our visits here we  went to the woodland area where the children played in the log maze and the tree house.  The giant musical instruments are good fun and we also found some willow teepee structures.  Finally we found the Log Ness Monster. It was quite a friendly monster.

Well  the day wasn't just for the kids, there were things for us to enjoy too. I love the kitchen garden, this is where I like to get ideas for our allotment. We tried to get the children interested although they just enjoyed running around most of the time.  We did manage to find some runner beans with white flowers just like our grandson is growing on the allotment, and we did a bit of squash spotting in the big squash and pumpkin bed.

At this time of year I love the big herbaceous borders, they are just amazing for their drifts of colour and if you're wondering where the country's bee population has disappeared to then I think they were all there on the flowers. The borders were buzzing. The children were impressed with the massive allium seed heads, but what they probably loved most was rolling down the grassy hill.

 

I loved the big containers in the 'gardens through time' area planted up with amaranthus.  The children were fascinated by the huge red tassel like flowers.

 I was also pleased to see quite a lot of areas planted up with annual meadow flowers to attract the bees and butterflies.

Those are some of the highlights of our visit, not forgetting  the warm sunshine, a picnic in a quiet corner of the garden and an ice cream from Betty's tea house.

Fruity

It must be a good year for fruit. I have never seen so much fruit in my garden.  Well I only grow strawberries and raspberries, but there are loads of them.  I keep thinking this will be the last good picking I have of them.  Then a day or two later I go up to the top of the garden and there they are again, waiting to be picked. Then there's the allotment-- gooseberries, blackcurrants and rhubarb.

In the kitchen there are bowls of strawberries in the fridge waiting to be eaten, trays of raspberries and blackcurrants in the freezer, and more fruit already bagged up. I'm considering buying another freezer for allotment produce.  I think though that I really need to get into jam making, that is the answer I'm sure.