66 days ago
The white flowers on bindweed are stunning but the plant is a pest. I do not know about where you are but in these parts it has been a bumper year for bindweed. It is everywhere. I try to control it, pulling it down as it strangles what I have planted and tossing it on a growing bonfire for November. But it is a losing battle.
85 days ago
The raspberries, largly golden, are the gift from the garden that just keeps on giving. It took me just a quarter on an hour to clean the bushes yet again and the bowl that I brought in was enough for Joshua to grab a few, for me to make another litre of ice cream and to have enough left over to flash freee a tray, as you can se below.
102 days ago
Some plums went to my neighbour the rest will be turned into ice cream llater this afternoon. While Joshua is sometimes reluctant to garden there is never any objection to making ice cream. The raspberries will be turned into ice cream tomorrow. Its a treat a day for the kids here at the Welsh Hovel.
150 days ago
Okay the bread and sugar was bought in but the raspberries, blackcurrants and strawberries were all home grown. With my weight now down three stone this year at just 14 stones, I broke my rigid diet and had a small portion with a bit of cream. It was delicious and the family demands that I make another pudding this weekend. We might be a tad short of raspberries so for pudding two I have bought some blackberries from Tesco to add to the mix
152 days ago
The strawberries keep on coming but as you can see below we now have blackcurrants aplenty and the first raspberries, golden and red. It is almost time for summer pudding. Meanwhile I have been active in the top field where one day I hope to keep goats.
156 days ago
The freezer is starting to bulge. The strawberry patches have now been bearing fruit for almost two weeks and there seems no end. Each evening a new basket arrives in the house: a snack box for Joshua, strawberries for my porridge at breakfast, snacking strawberries to help give the Mrs 5 a day. Then some will go into ice cream, the freezer now holds six litres ofthe stuff. The rest go on trays to freeze and then into bags which are also piling up in the freezer. the good news is that raspberries (golden and red), dessert gooseberries and blackcurrants are also now ripe so this weekend I shall be serving up, but not eating myself, the first summer pudding of the year.
165 days ago
I rather wish I had not bothered watering my vegetables today as God has just watered them with a vengeance. Wales really has been wet this summer which, like the drought of a couple of years ago, will be cited by the GroupThink as definitive proof of global warming.
514 days ago
With all home grown: cherries, black currants, red currants, raspberries, blackberries (okay foraged and frozen), dessert gooseberries and strawberries this was a triumph. Okay the juice missed a bit at the bottom but the sliced bread held and allowed me to turn it out almost perfectly. With lashings of cream it was excellent. The first half was last night, we will polish it off tonight. Yum, yum!
515 days ago
The only cheat is the blackberries which Joshua and I picked last September and froze. Everything else I just picked in the garden this lunchtime: strawberries, three of four very early raspberries (red and golden), dessert gooseberries, red currants and black currants. I shall cook this evening and serve tomorrow night with lashings of cream. Photos will follow. Summer is well and truly here.
853 days ago
I hear that there was a near biblical deluge yesterday and it looks like there is plenty of rain ahead back at the Welsh hovel. And I have a couple of assistants going in to water both the garden and the big lawn so I hope I shall return to something in good shape. As long promised, here is what I have turned the jungle into. The project is far from finished but its no longer a jungle.
1156 days ago
The birds have reduced the yield on most of the fruit bushes to almost zero this year. Note to self: netting! But the raspberries have escaped. Maybe birds don’t like them. The bushes I planted here are both red and golden so what I collected last night looks splendid and tasted great as well. There should be more next week. It seems odd eating them almost in October but there are no complaints here.
1382 days ago
At the back of the area once known as the jungle, there is a wooden fence along which I planted a row of fruit bushes last year. Starting with raspberries at the top, there are also gooseberries, blueberries and blackcurrants. With the exception of one raspberry, all have survived the winter so far and are thriving as you can see below. The plan?
