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Archive for October, 2009

Happy Hallowe’en!

Posted in Allotments, Harvesting, tagged on October 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

It’s just before the witching hour so I thought you might like to see what became of those pumpkins I was so proud of…. This is the biggest one – face drawn by the kids and cut out by me. I think he looks quite cheerful in a vampirish sort of way. Was there ever [...]

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Rogues’ gallery: Slugs

Posted in Rogues' Gallery, tagged , , , on October 27, 2009 | 3 Comments »

I was rootling about in the garden the other day and turned over a plank of wood – and look what I found. Sorry if you’re eating while reading this: but you knew it wasn’t going to be long before the slimy things turned up. This has to be the most hated creature in the [...]

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All tucked up

Posted in Container veg growing, Greenhouse growing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 23, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Winter must be on the way. Last week saw me running around frantically with armfuls of bubble wrap. This is an annual ritual which occurs only on the first day the words “frost” and “south of England” are mentioned in the same sentence on the BBC’s redoubtable and occasionally reliable weather forecast. The timing is [...]

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The new season starts here

Posted in Allotments, sowing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 20, 2009 | 3 Comments »

I’ve barely got the remains of this year’s spent crops cleared off the veg beds and I’m up and off again. October feels like the sort of month you should be packing up the tools, propping the wheelbarrow against the fence for the last time, locking the shed and waving a nostalgic goodbye before going home and curling up on the [...]

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Pick of the month: October

Posted in Pick of the month, tagged on October 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Pumpkin ‘Jack o’ Lantern’ I do wish I could bring you a picture of a nice big bright orange pumpkin, but you’ll have to use your imagination. I planted these a bit late, and the first orange tinge is only just showing through the sultry dark green. In fact Hallowe’en is looking decidedly dicey: I wonder if the girls [...]

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So farewell then….

Posted in Allotments, Harvesting, tagged , , , , , on October 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »

…courgette plants. It was a lovely relationship, and you were generous to a fault, but I think our season in the sun is over. The first frost struck last night: a very light one, to be sure, and I got away with it entirely in my garden, where it’s pretty sheltered. But I arrived up at [...]

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Recipe of the month: October

Posted in Harvesting, Recipe of the month, tagged , , , on October 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Courgette cake When you’ve eaten courgettes every day for months, your friends have stopped inviting you round in case you give them yet another jar of chutney, and your freezer is groaning under the weight of courgette soup…. it’s time to celebrate by baking courgette cake, the moistest, stickiest, most melt-in-the-mouth, most undeniably green* cake you will ever eat. 200g butter [...]

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Global warming in action

Posted in Allotments, Fruit, Harvesting, tagged , , , on October 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Ah – that’s better! The rain has come again. All around me are grumbling happily like the good Brits they are, and I’m splashing about in the puddles with a silly grin on my face and a wet sock (one of my wellies has a hole in it at the moment). It’s a weight off my mind [...]

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Knowing your onions #2

Posted in Unusual veg, tagged , , on October 3, 2009 | 3 Comments »

A friend of mine gave me some very odd onions the other day. I was admiring them in her garden: she’s got a big clump and they’re about a metre tall with these clusters of little bulbs about halfway up. My friend says they’re a bit fiddly to prepare (a bit like very, very small onions) but [...]

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