Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

I know it's only September, but I want you all to start preparing for Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog. I want blog readers to send me a photo taken a week or so before Christmas, of a fruit or veggie that will be growing on their plot - or being eaten - on Christmas Day. I will be posting the best of the pictures in the week before Christmas. Go on! give it a go! Why go hungry? Get planting now so that you can send me a photo just before Christmas - and all my Aussie bloggers down under have absolutely no excuse at all !

Join Matron's Worldwide Veggie Show!

I am asking fellow bloggers to submit entries into Matron's Worldwide Veggie Show 2009. You might not have the time or the inclination to submit a plate of your best fruit or veggies to your local county show, but can you spare a few minutes to send me a photo of your best harvest?

Take a picture of 6 items which should be of uniform shape, size and colour. Display them on a plate or line them up on a bench and take a photo for me! Please let me know which variety they are! Email your entries to me. As this is a worldwide show, I would particularly welcome entries from far-flung and exotic places! but if you are in USA, OZ, India, Suffolk or Yorkshire... I am looking forward to your entries too!

I will be posting them along with a link to your blog, and judging them by 14th July, the winner will be the contribution which makes me salivate the most! Matron's decision is final!

More Autumn Colours

I love watching how plants react to the seasons! Plants are so sensitive to day length, strength of sunlight and temperature and they respond in colourful ways sometimes. These are some Scotch Bonnet chillis that I grew from seed saved from a chilli bought in a West Indian market stall. You can see that they are responding to the shortening day length and cooler nights by turning colour.

Just in a couple of days these two orange coloured ones went from green to orange, then will go to red. This is the same process involved in tree leaves turning colour in Autumn when they respond to the seasons.

This one above you can just see starting to change, in only a day or so it will turn colour. These are fairly small plants and I might bring one indoors as a beautiful houseplant on a bright windowsill.

This little chap is a 'Bishops Kiss' chilli. I look forward to saving seed this year and growing more next year.

If you grow pumpkins or courgettes then this powdery mildew will be a familiar sight at this time of year. It happens every year, it looks horrible but it just seems to be inevitable that the plant will get this at the end of the season.

I have heard of people using various home concoctions sprayed onto the leaves, but it only delays the inevitable. It usually happens in dry conditions, but I just try to keep my plants well fed and watered for as long as possible.

Elsewhere, I am enjoying watching my Christmas Dinner growing on the plant. This is the first time I have grown Brussels Sprouts, and this variety Bosworth seemed like a good one to me.

These Crab Apples are looking glorious at the moment. I am always torn between leaving them on the tree for some lovely Winter colour in the garden, and to feed the hungry birds in the garden - or pick them all and make crab apple jelly. I can't decide!

Finally, just another reminder to email me a picture of your faithful canine garden companions for Matron's 2010 Dogblog. Send me a picture before September 29th and please include your blog address if you want me to put a link in. This old lady is my ex-dog Emma. We rescued her from Battersea Dogs Home in the 1970s and she was a fun and loyal companion for many years. I just found this photo, she had just been playing snowballs with me in the garden!

Turmeric and Turnips!

I am just so pleased at how this Turmeric has grown for me. Dim Sum Gardener kindly sent me a few pieces of fresh turmeric root this Spring after a seed swap. I kept it warm and damp in the greenhouse all Summer and it has exceeded my expectations. I will try to keep it warm and cool on a windowsill during Winter and see what happens. A close relative of ginger, the underground tubers are a vibrant yellow colour, used in Asian cooking and in Ayurvedic medicine.
I am giving this a go in the hope that I might have a few Golden Ball Turnips ready for my Christmas veggie blog. I am asking bloggers to send me a photo of something that will be ready to eat at Christmas. Get thinking or planting now and I will be asking for photos in mid December.
I'm giving these Kohl Rabi a try too. I've never grown them before but just a few little golf balls will be lovely.
Just like these Kohl Rabi I saw at RHS Wisley last week. Let's see what happens.
Finally, I lifted a few of these Bedfordshire Champion onions. I sowed the seed on Boxing Day last year, Just leaving them outside to dry in this lovely warm weather. It is set to swelter this week in England. About time!

Welcome to Matron's Squashblog!

Welcome to Matron's Squashblog. Many thanks to all of you who contributed, I have posted them below with a link to your blog. I hope you enjoyed my contribution above, he's got a face only a Mother could love, hasn't he?

The origins of Hallowe'en date back over 2000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). This festival, which means the end of Summer, celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of the Celtic new year on November 1st. All Saints' Day is said to fall on this day when souls walked the Earth. In early Christian tradition souls were released from purgatory for 48 hours on All Hallow's Eve. Spooky!

Here is a contribution from Hels Blogspot quite an amazing feat when you consider that she has only a small window box and a balcony in her flat. What a gal ! Here you can see she has attempted yet again, to spell out her name in pumpkins.... better luck next time Hel !

Here is a row of little soldiers from Petunias-garden in Western Washington, what a wonderful example of the variety in size shape and colour.

I can't claim credit for this picture! It was taken by DaVikka at Mogblog. There was a pumpkin and squash exhibition at Kew Gardens last year. Missed it. Incidentally, I have found a great website for interesting seeds, and a particularly good selection of pumpkins and squashes at Seeds of Italy so give it a look!

Thanks to Stan, my blog-mentor at Naive Zebra, for this contribution. I was given an answer when I asked the question, "What happened to the other eyebrow?" - can you guess what the answer was?

I really hoped that someone would send me a photo of one of these! Thanks to Judith at everything in the gardens rosie for her contribution! I think this is an Italian squash Tromba de Albegna - it is supposed to taste supberb. Has anyone tried it? It looks like you might be able to break into a car with it !

What a stunning display from Magic Cochin at purple podded peas. I marvel at the amazing variety of pumpkins and squashes we can grow here. I wonder which one tastes the best? Which one is Humpty Dumpty, I wonder...

Here's a scarey offering from Jim at plot48. I wonder if this method could be used as a sort of night time scarecrow to keep the cats and pigeons off my patch. Hmmm

Here is an interesting shaped offering from Billie Jean at bjs allotment. Always a good idea to give them a comfortable layer underneath, to prevent damage as they grow. Otherwise they might end up just like Matron's pumpkin!

Here is a wonderful coloured pumpkin from Anita at ein-stueck-garten . These are such a rich amber colour, makes the mouth water.

Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

Just another reminder of how to enter Matron's Christmas Veggie blog. I will be asking bloggers to send me a photo of any veggie from their own plot that will be ready to eat on Christmas Day. I will be asking you to send me a photo via email at the beginning of December, and I will be publishing the blog in the week before Christmas. Come on! let's see what you can do!

Join in with Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

So now is your chance to show us what you've got! Send me a photo of something edible that you have grown on your plot that will be ready to eat on Christmas Day. Whether you have grown your full Christmas dinner, or whether you have some mushrooms in your airing cupboard or even some alfalfa sprouts in a jar on your windowsill - don't be shy! Share with us what you have grown and email me a picture, email address is on my profile page. I will be posting this special blog on Sunday 20th December so you have a couple of weeks to go take a picture.

Christmas Veggies

I managed to get some specially prepared potatoes into a bag in the greenhouse this week. These Christmas potatoes have been kept in special conditions to fool them into thinking it is Spring. I am growing these to eat on Christmas Day! These will form part of Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog. I am asking bloggers to plant something now, and send me a photo of something that is ready to eat at Christmas. I will be posting it together on a blog in the days coming up to Christmas. So get planting now! A few Winter lettuce perhaps? or a row of little turnips, or a pot of small carrots? Or even a row of radishes or spring onions? give it a go.

Broad Beanz

My Broad Beans are just coming to full production at the moment. This year I planted Bunyards Exhibition, a variety I have not tried before. They appear to be smaller pods but slightly more prolific than Aquadulce Claudia that I usually grow. I think they have also taken longer to mature. Perhaps I will try a mixture of the two varieties next year.

Just another reminder please that I would love you to send me a photo of any trugful of beautiful veggies from your plot and I will feature them in my forthcoming Matron's TRUGBLOG which I hope to post at the end of the month (or whenever my first ripe tomato is ready!) Please email me your pictures

Thought I would also share some unusual wispy clouds hovering over Hillingdon last weekend.

If my memory serves me correctly... are these cirrus? clouds? I'm sure someone will put me straight!

Dog Beans

Well, here are my first crop of 'Dog Beans'. When I first read about these I just had to have some, and very kindly Gintoino at Jardim com Gatos was able to oblige with a few precious seeds this Spring. Fairly ordinary looking flat, dwarf (bush) bean with white flowers, quite prolific and a lovely taste.

Looking forward to a larger crop next year. Just another reminder to send me a photo of your canine gardening companions for my forthcoming Matron's Dogblog. Please email them to me by September 28th and I will include them in my post.

P.S. seem to have overcome the posting photos problem this morning, I had to tick a terms and agreement box for some reason...

Purple Hyacinth Beans

I've picked my purple hyacinth beans. I think they probably need a longer growing season than I can provide here in Southern England, but I am pleased that I have grown them at all. I have brought them inside to dry off and to collect seeds for next year.

Just one more reminder to send me a photo of your best, most unusual pumpkin or squash for Matron's Squashblog. I will be posting on 30th October, so just time to take some pics and send them to Ahhmatron@aol.com. I will post them with a link to your blog.

Get Trugging!

Don't forget this weekend to send me a picture of your fruit and veg to Matron's TRUGBLOG! Send a picture of your bucket,tray, basket, bowl or trug full of fresh grown stuff to my email I will post a special blog on Monday 30th June. Fantastic, colourful photo entries already received, thank you.

Ted junior and Ted Senior send you their best wishes!

Now that's what I call a trug!

Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

Just a reminder that I will be posting a special Christmas Veggie Blog in the week before Christmas. I will be asking bloggers to send me a photo in the first weeks of December of something edible that you are growing in your allotment or garden that will be ready to eat on Christmas Day. Think of something to send Matron. More to follow.

Food Yards!

I dug the first of my other new potatoes International Kidney this morning. If I happened to be lucky enough to live on Jersey I would be allowed to call them Jersey Royal new potatoes.. some silly EEC regulation means that because I grow them elsewhere I have to call them International Kidney. That aside, I steamed them and ate them for lunch - just the most sensational waxy new potato you could imagine. This is the first time I have grown them, and in my mind they will be hard to beat. A definite for next year!

P.S. Don't forget to send me a photo of what's in your trug for my forthcoming Matron's TRUGBLOG .

Speaking of food yards (not food miles) I walked down the end of the garden this morning and as well as digging potatoes, I picked some more broad beans. Shelled them, put the pods on the compost heap and steamed the beans. Not a plastic wrapper or a car journey in sight.