Mid Autumn Bits and Bobs 2017.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Oh dear Primrose that looks a bit of a challenge to clean but I'm sure it will taste good.

[Primrose]

I emailed the photo to a gardening friend. Loved her comment. “Good luck peeling that one !”

[peter]

Echoing PlumPuddings comment my dog woke me at 08:30 by sticking his nose in my face and nudging me gently. Wanted his breakfast, never happy at weekends if we sleep beyond half nine, as weekdays he's fed by me at six am before I leave for work and he retires for second sleep.

[Westi]

Hi Primrose!
Mine are a bit like that so far but you're right nothing wasted and some of the longer legs are just right for mini parsnip for roasting. I got rid of any stones as well and back filled with sieved compost, but I expect with the wetter weather the stones may have made their way back up to the surface.

[Primrose]

Westi, I think you May be right about the stones having an effect. Our soil is particularly bad in that respect but in previous years I,ve done as you,ve done, trying to remove the worst offenders and have had some good shaped crops. I would normally peel parsnips but I think this one will be too fiddly and the tentacles will just get a good scrub instead.

[PLUMPUDDING]

We've had our first frost this morning. The grass and rooves were white but the birds'water wasn't frozen.

I've been enjoying lots of late fruits this week. The Chilean guava, Ugni Molinae is covered in lovely fragrant pinkish red berries this year. They taste of pineapples and are the size of blueberries. I bought one plant two years ago and took a few cuttings that all rooted and are also fruiting this year. I'm also still picking raspberries, alpine strawberries and the Toscana late flowering strawberries and have over 40 small kiwi fruits off the self fertile variety Jenny.

[tigerburnie]

Frost here too, car frozen and the day looks like being a beauty.

[Monika]

Last (?) mowing of the lawns and strimming of the grass paths on the allotment today.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've had the first ever ripe fig from my outdoor plant - Brown Turkey. It's been next to a sheltered wall for at least ten years and has had lots of fruits but none have ripened before. It tasted ok but not a patch on my indoor one - Bourjasotte Grise which has had three ripe ones this week. All in all an interesting week for fruit salad. Figs, alpine and perpetual strawberries, raspberries, kiwi fruits, Chilean pineapple guavas and of course apples.

[robo]

We have a fig tree behind our place in Spain it's on a small field nobody works ,every year it is laden with fruit that goes untouched that is until I came along ,only problem is you need a scaffold to get at them they are that far off the ground and it's a big rambling tree I normally stand on the seat of our quad which you have to use to get through the six feet high weeds to get to it

[Westi]

PP Jealous!

I have never had a ripe fruit on my 'contained' fig but there is one on the way to the beach that is plonked in the front of some flats that despite being hacked back by some 'tree surgeons' a couple of years ago always has ripe fruit hanging over the fence - some which accidentally fall into my mouth obviously!

[PLUMPUDDING]

I think there's a bit better chance of figs ripening outdoors in Dorset and Spain than at 560 ft in Yorkshire. One ripe fig is a nice surprise though.

[Geoff]

You might have seen the Countryfile forecast discussed sunshine figures saying they were way down for October. Well doing my month end figures my solar generation for October is 68% of last year. I've only had the panels for three Octobers; the figures are 2015 235kWh, 2016 279kWh and 2017 190kWh. November has started grey too.

[Monika]

We spent a very enjoyable long morning on the allotment today for a grand autumn cleanup: cleared the frosted dahlias, nasturtiums and cosmos, weeded the celeriac, leeks and brassicas, took any yellow leaves off the brassicas, edged the grass paths (most likely the last time this year) and dug two more large beds.

When we made our way home about 2pm, my OH commented that we are not doing badly for two oldies in their 80s!

[Primrose]

Sounds as if you’re in good shape for autum and winter Monika . Amazing how a sunny autumn day can motivate you to slog away and get some of those chores done. My nasturtiums and Dallas are still awaiting the first frost. i’m hanging on to their colour in the garden the last moment. Apart from my patio tubs, it will look very bare of co,our once they’ve been cut down.