How Does Your Garden Grow - The garden's swan song


The last week has been BIG on pumpkins in the garden and the allotment.   Harvesting on the allotment; mostly potatoes, pumpkins, onions and beetroot.  There is spinach that will continue all through the winter, some leeks and onions, but, then that's it.



There was a surprise on the allotment.  I've no idea what this flower is, or where it has come from, it is in the scruff at the edge of the allotment.  Does anyone know what it is?


I have so enjoyed this linky, really, it is my favourite, and although I've not contributed every week I have read it every week.  So, a big "THANKS" to Mammasaurus for hosting, her beautiful photos, and my particular favourite 'Grandad's' beautiful veggie garden and all the other regulars whose gardens I have been inquisitively nosing around, "Thanks for sharing".  I am saying this as, with the weather proper cold this morning on the school run, I know there will be less and less to photograph in my garden and on the allotment.

Mammasaurus - How Does Your Garden Grow?


We've been tidying and putting the garden to bed, cutting back our vine and roses.  Little Louis Fox took this shot of a rose on the weekend as we took the final blooms inside.















There are a few little flowers, like these cyclamen, still poking through in the slightly more sheltered areas of the garden.  I need to tidy my plants in pots into these sheltered corners, if they are going to survive the winter.


I really don't want to sound melancholy as I actually love the autumn.  The last foraging of blackberries.  Autumn walks with the dogs and children chasing leaves.  The colours of autumn.  Little Una Fox's veg art, that we are not allowed to move until she has taken 100 pictures.


One thing I really enjoy is preserving the last of the bounty from the garden. We make chutney, jam, pontack sauce, sloe and damson gin, freeze apples, blackberries, black currents and damsons, my kitchen is even more of a permanent mess than usual:


The last tomatoes ripening on the window sill, waiting to be turned into green tomato chutney.  The last, too far gone, blemished skinned, red tomatoes I roast with peppers, olive oil and chillis and make into my spicy passata.   I use it in chilli which we eat with corn muffins.  A friend with family in the US buys me Jiffy corn muffin mix.  It's the cheapest stuff going, probably not very wholesome, but I got a taste for it when I lived in the states.  It's great with really spicy slow cooked chilli.  And on that note I have made myself so hungry I have to go eat.


18 comments

  1. Ahh Autumn, my chilly friend! That's quite the bounty you have there- there's nothing as tasty as home grown spuds (unless of course you count gin...)
    Such a pretty rose and the same goes for the mystery purple flower which naturally, being a total plant noob I have no idea what it actually is.
    So lovely that you get to make chutneys and jams with your homegrown produce. I was saying to White Feather's and so Much More...earlier that I've never made my own jam and how that makes me a bit sad as it's one of my memories from my own childhood. I am determined to make some soon (I will have to buy the fruit though!)

    Thanks for sharing and joining in - my words and yours ;) x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow you have so much home produce, I bet it tastes amazing being your own! The pumpkins are fantastic, I hope you can jazz a couple up for Halloween! I've no idea what that flower is I'm afraid, my gardening knowledge is fairly dire - I just love photographing flowers! I love the rose, that's a fabulous shot :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have left the biggest pumpkin on the allotment and will be carving it for Halloween. It's in the half term hols again so we are having a party.

      Delete
  3. Jealous of the cornbread mix! What a fantastic Harvest!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are pleased with the pumpkins this year. Next year I am going to try and get them to grow up and trail over my studio at the back of the garden.

      Delete
  4. Wow that's a great harvest you have there, love all the pumpkins! Haven't heard of pontack sauce before so will have to google that! So satisfying making all the goodies to store and eat over the coming months x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, your right, I love to be still eating from the garden in January and February.

      Delete
  5. All of the colors of the pumpkins are great!

    The cornbread mix made me laugh because yes, it is so cheap here in the states and so easy that I constantly buy it against my own and my husband's southern upbringing to bake cornbread from real cornmeal in a skillet. And there is nothing like it with chili, beans and rice, or any other hearty meal!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kathleen, and I admit the JIFFY corn muffin mix is a little... shall we say 'tacky', but I love the stuff. I used to live in Oakland CA and my roommate was from Louisiana he used to make amazing chilli with JIFFY cornbread. I also love the packaging that looks like it's not been changed since the 50's.

      Delete
  6. wow! you have quite the autumn harvest going on over there. i do not know what that purple flower is but i love garden surprises like that

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like that type of surprise too, it's a pretty little flower, barely peeping through the weeds and long grass.

      Delete
  7. Your kitchen may be a permanent mess but at least you have lots of tasty things to show for it :) I'm not an expert but your mystery purple flower looks very similar to a saffron crocus or regular crocus. Hope you find out what it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Gemma, I was thinking I should do a post of pictures of my kitchen, weird things juxtaposed; a Tinkerbell doll sitting on a grater next to a bowl of pumpkins and a packet of cough drops for example. And thanks for the flower suggestion, I thought it looked like a crocus but wasn't sure this was the right time of year.

      Delete
  8. I love autumn but always wish we had planted more in the garden to harvest now. I'm a little envious of your corn bread mix - I loved the stuff when I spent a year in the states many years ago and have yet to find a recipe for it. Lovely post - found you via Annie :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I look at the other allotments and always feel a little rubbish that I don't do enough veg to over winter. But, we find it more difficult to work on the allotment with the kids as the weather gets less friendly so our allotment will now go to sleep for the winter months.

      Delete
  9. Such a bounty! Those pumpkins are superb! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I love squash and pumpkins so have decided to be even more experimental with them next year.

      Delete

Back to Top