Down on the Allotment

Matron grows vegetables and fruit in a Hampshire garden. I've been growing veggies since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Some traditional varieties and old favourites as well as new ideas. I share my garden with my allotment assistant Daisy the Labrador. On Twitter as @MatronsVeggies

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Ripening Colours

Fruit and vegetables seem to be just hanging around waiting for some sunshine to ripen them at the moment. It seems to have been dull cloud, rain showers and brief flashes of sunshine for weeks now. These crabapples however, have decided to start ripening. I love this early flash of pale pink. These will ripen to dark red.
My Bishop's Kiss chillis are mostly green and still slow to ripen, this one is heading the field. Others will follow when the sun comes out.
These lovely yellow tomatoes are Ildi. Large bunches of grape sized fruit ripen to bright yellow. A lovely taste too. Heavy yields make this a regular in Matron's garden.
Apples have done well this year, particularly since I thinned out the small apples to single fruit. These Egremont Russet apples are huge and perfect.
My experiment growing sugar cane has been a great success! I sawed up a length of sugar cane into 7 inch sections and lay them on their side in a warm, sandy compost. They have done so well this year that I have just transferred them into a black dustbin for the rest of the Summer. Not completely hardy but I can probably find a way to protect them over Winter.

11 Comments:

At 9:33 AM, Blogger coco said...

your apple looks great

 
At 10:05 AM, Blogger Sue Garrett said...

Our fruit has been great this year but tomatoes are very slow to ripen. The crab apples though seem to have been ripe for weeks. They are now dropping off the tree.

 
At 10:32 AM, Blogger Robert Brenchley said...

My Egremont Russett are tiny this year, but I didn't thin them. Obviously, I should have, but the tree's a bit big!

 
At 2:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful plants...the crabapples are spectacular!

 
At 3:08 PM, Blogger LindaG said...

Looks wonderful, Matron.
Good luck with keeping the sugar cane going.
In Louisiana, they plant it every year and don't overwinter, but if you have a shed or covered porch it might work in there.
Look forward to finding out how it goes. :)

 
At 4:04 PM, Blogger Dawn said...

Wow, sugar cane! Your garden exploits never cease to amaze me. Always so very impressive. Now I want to try that too.

 
At 4:13 PM, Blogger Peggy said...

Hi matron, I have been catching up on your blog posts!It has been a very funny year for us and certainly not as productive as other years.I put out leeks recently and apart from the rabbits eating them they have hardly changed in size in a couple of weeks!Pumpkins are not looking as good as yours either.

 
At 4:56 PM, Blogger Kelli said...

Your apple and tomato photos are amazing - I've never seen so much fruit growing on one section! Very inspirational.

 
At 9:02 PM, Blogger Rob said...

I don't know about sunshine it feels to me like autumn is here already. Those russet apples look good, I bet the flavour is amazing.

 
At 12:02 PM, Blogger miss m said...

Oooh, cool pepper ! I've grown Ildi 2 years in a row now and haven't had a full ripe cluster yet. They sure are long to ripen ... in these parts, anyway.

 
At 10:03 PM, Blogger melsanford said...

These are looking fab! I can't believe how many tomatoes you've got! The chilli and sugar cane look fab :-) Love 'n' hugs, Mel xx

 

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