Hill Close Gardens

I've been on a little excursion today, to Hill Close Gardens in Warwick. I have been meaning to go for ages now, and am really glad I have finally got around to it. It is a restored Victorian 'allotment' site, where local business owners (who lived above their premises and didn't have gardens) could go and garden. Each plot is a small private space, all similar in shape and size but all different in the way they are laid out and designed. Below is one with a stumpery, and above, a view across the garden to the 'shed' - I say shed but they are actually solid, and very attractive brick structures.

They are not just vegetable patches either, although most of them had a pretty impressive veg patch. The ornamental borders were gorgeous and most of them had at least one very mature apple tree.

How about this for a garden shed (cold frame in front) - covered in brushwood, and through the french windows at the front you could see the internal walls had been decorated with hundreds of oyster shells.

Or, how about the interior of this octaganal 'summer house', with open fire, leaded light windows and carpet on the floor?

Well worth a visit, but check opening times first, they are quite restricted, and only open between April and October. There is an 'apple day' in October apparently.

Squash and French Beans

Things at the allotment have slowed right down lately. The only thing that is really happening is that the french beans have gone beserk, and the pumpkin is starting to turn orange. That's it really. I may get one or two sweetcorn cobs, if I'm lucky, but they're not looking too promising. I wonder if it's a bit late to start watering them regularly?

The early carrots are all gone and the late ones aren't ready yet. The runners have started to produce a few beans but they're not doing very well. There's not much I can harvest, apart from french beans, french beans or french beans. I'm getting a bit tired of french beans.

Despite the recent rain showers, it is still very very dry, so there are very few weeds, and everything else just seems to have stopped growing (apart from the french beans).

I may have some time to spend up there this week, and I'm thinking about making a start on my new allotment. Apparently the old chap is pretty much incapacitated now, and has said that I can start on it any time. He is still having produce collected for him, so I can't make any major changes, but I could start clearing weeds.

Extraordinary Aubergines

The big one weighs 1lb 4oz. Hopefully some of the many remaining flowers will now also produce fruit.

At the Allotment

I picked the first of the french beans today, looks like there will be a bumper crop.



I'm getting a steady stream of courgettes now, but so far only from two of the plants. The one you can see at the back there has yet to produce anything but male flowers.

Here's the first pumpkin swelling nicely...

...and I think this is a Potimarron squash.

I planted out these leeks (foreground) a few days ago, the ones behind had a few weeks' head start.

And finally the first runner beans are beginning to show.

I had a good weed and tidy up this morning. I'm going to have to lift the red onions and shallots soon, I don't think they are going to grow much more, the foliage is all dying back now.

The outdoor tomatoes are not doing so great, the first trusses formed fruit, but the next few just shrivelled and dropped off. There are lots more coming though, so I've given them a feed and a comfrey mulch and will just have to keep a close eye on them.

I've got masses of aubergine flowers forming now, but I don't know how many fruits each plant can realistically support - I've never successfully grown them before, so I don't know whether to remove some of them. If anyone knows, do please let me know!

More on tomatoes

I can't get over how long these tomato trusses are. I wonder if the actual tomatoes will be quite small as a result. They look like it at this stage, but the truss still has some developing to do yet.



On the down side, there are greenfly and whitefly all over my chillies, and the cucumbers are covered with mildew. I am trying to keep this under control by spraying regularly with a solution of bicarbonate of soda, but it doesn't seem to be working that well. At first I used a solution of milk and water, which seemed to work well, but left a pretty awful smell. I have been growing some new cucumber plants, but they have already been affected by the mildew as well.

Tomatoes on the turn

Almost read to pick now! I have been buying a few tomatoes from the supermarket, but very reluctantly. None this week though, we should soon be eating our own.

I think this is a flower on the aubergine - there are two plants, with one flower each! Not the most productive plants, but it will be an achievement if they produce fruit, I've never had success with aubergines before.

There are lots of flower buds on my pepper plants, and this one is the first to start developing into a fruit.

Not sure what to do with my chillies, they are now touching the greenhouse ceiling, but there are lots of flower buds on the very tops so I don't want to cut them off...

Tomatoes and carrots

I can't remember if I mentioned, some time ago, that I had experimented with rooting tomato sideshoots as cuttings. Anyway, these are the results of that experiment. I don't think they're ever going to amount to much - they are not nearly as vigorous as the parent plants, but they are growing, and they have got little flowers and fruit forming. They look as if they're going to be very small fruit though. Anyway it was interesting to try, if only to satisfy my curiosity.

And this is my first carrot harvest of the year. I'm pretty chuffed with these! I do like the ones that twirl around each other!