In the Garden

[eggyg]

Ah still the same family - cucurbita, so they share the same flower design, I just thought of things I was likely to grow in the garden here - with my experience of courgettes, I would hesitate to allow pumpkins onto the plot - the heaviest courgette I grew was almost 7lb....but it hid itself away very successfully along with one about 5lb which I found on the same day - they became marrow and ginger jam.

In 2019 we went away for six weeks in September/Oct. Came back to a gigantic courgette/marrow, we hadn’t spotted it before we left. I put it in the compost, too bitter once they get to that size. When my girls were young, we always grew one deliberately that big for their school harvest festival. Made a nice display.

 

[Drummer]

Our courgettes are doing well, I’m picking them when they’re about 5/6 inches long. We’re having a family BBQ on Sunday and I’m going to experiment BBQing them. Anyone done that? Think I might coat them in something, breadcrumbs maybe, brush with oil? Won’t take long I don’t suppose, or I may just grate them and put them in a cold pasta salad.

Mine would never see breadcrumbs, but I slice them fairly thick and then place them in a tray, add butter and fry them very gently, turning them over at half time and doing a bit of basting towards the end. They should be soft but only just so. Often mushrooms and sweet peppers join them on the plate, done separately as they don't need so long a time and so low a temperature,

 

[NotPink]

Courgettes do not agree with me so I can't help sorry. Enjoy what ever you do with them.

 

[NotPink]

At last our veg is starting to grow. The courgettes are going wild as usual, French beans have shot up more than a foot in this last week. Onions doing well, need a bit longer as not quite big enough but I used one the other day anyways. We’ve had a handful of new potatoes, Arran Pilots, and they are still small but very tasty. Carrot, parsnips and turnips are coming on. Lettuce forever more, like the courgettes! Leeks need thinned out this week, and a first for us, a sweet pepper under the cloche, a friend gave us it, hopefully we may get one or two. It was touch and go a few weeks ago but a couple of weeks of warm weather and some sunshine has done the trick. Oh and we have a water lily at last, two years after we put the ponds in. It’s not exactly Monet’s gardens in Giverny but we’re happy.

wow what a display well done 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

I used to do mixed skewers on the BBQ with whole button mushrooms, chunks of courgette and sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes and chunks of onion. Brushed with oil and balsamic. Absolutely ages since I had a BBQ!

 

[Ditto]

Well, it's certainly the weather for a BBQ! 🙂

 

[eggyg]

Following on from my post about picking courgettes when they were small. Oops! Look what’s happened when my back was turned. Still loads more on the way too.
Also the pepper my friend gave me had produced two fruit, we have it under a cloche, pretty chuffed with them.
Our favourite flower is spreading nicely, masterwort. These have self seeded from a plant that was in another border when we moved in 35 years ago.
And finally, I thought the garden looked very summery and welcoming this morning. Feel free to pop in for a cuppa, and maybe a slice of courgette cake! 😉

 

[Robin]

Following on from my post about picking courgettes when they were small. Oops! Look what’s happened when my back was turned. Still loads more on the way too.
Also the pepper my friend gave me had produced two fruit, we have it under a cloche, pretty chuffed with them.
Our favourite flower is spreading nicely, masterwort. These have self seeded from a plant that was in another border when we moved in 35 years ago.
And finally, I thought the garden looked very summery and welcoming this morning. Feel free to pop in for a cuppa, and maybe a slice of courgette cake! 😉

Aaargh! Courgette cake! And Ratatouille! Had them coming out of our ears last year. This year, we haven’t had a single courgette we could pick yet. We were away for a week recently, and some formed just before we went, but nothing got watered, of course, and they didn’t develop. Now we are here to chuck the contents of the water butt on them every evening, they have nevertheless gone into a sulk in the hot weather.
Is Masterwort the same as Astrantia? It looks gorgeous. It looks similar, we’ve got a white one that came with the house, and does well, and a red that I bought as a tiny cutting for 20p at a school fete, (and the kids left school years ago) and it has finally formed a decent clump.

 

[eggyg]

Aaargh! Courgette cake! And Ratatouille! Had them coming out of our ears last year. This year, we haven’t had a single courgette we could pick yet. We were away for a week recently, and some formed just before we went, but nothing got watered, of course, and they didn’t develop. Now we are here to chuck the contents of the water butt on them every evening, they have nevertheless gone into a sulk in the hot weather.
Is Masterwort the same as Astrantia? It looks gorgeous. It looks similar, we’ve got a white one that came with the house, and does well, and a red that I bought as a tiny cutting for 20p at a school fete, (and the kids left school years ago) and it has finally formed a decent clump.

I’ve just Googled it and yes, one and the same. We’ve always just known them as masterwort. Every day’s a school day.

 

[Drummer]

My courgettes had to wait until the greenhouse was set up for them - the weather has been very rough up here on the top of the ridge, and there were near frosts very late. Ice on the water buts is rare even in mid winter.
Today I opened the door to water and found that they have really taken off, a wall of leaves and flowers in abundance. Protection from the wind seems to be the key to courgette production on hilltops.

 

[Leadinglights]

Friendly trees or extreme companion planting???
Noticed a eclectic mix on our walk today. In one 6 ft space, a horse chestnut, a elderberry, a hawthorn, blackberries and nettles.
The plants are breathing a sigh of relief today as it is much cooler.

 

[eggyg]

I made a courgette loaf today. It is surprisingly very nice. I’m going to try a chocolate courgette cake tomorrow.

In an effort to get rid of some courgettes I put some into bags ( 2 in each) and in a box, with a sign to take them, on my front wall. One bag out of four has gone! I can’t even give them away for nowt! 🙄

 

[Leadinglights]

I made a courgette loaf today. It is surprisingly very nice. I’m going to try a chocolate courgette cake tomorrow.

In an effort to get rid of some courgettes I put some into bags ( 2 in each) and in a box, with a sign to take them, on my front wall. One bag out of four has gone! I can’t even give them away for nowt! 🙄

Make some courgette and brie soup, stick it in the freezer for a rainy day.

 

[eggyg]

Friendly trees or extreme companion planting???
Noticed a eclectic mix on our walk today. In one 6 ft space, a horse chestnut, a elderberry, a hawthorn, blackberries and nettles.
The plants are breathing a sigh of relief today as it is much cooler.

That sounds like you’ve been in our back garden! The hedge between us and our neighbours consists of very similar except for the bramble with an added sycamore and holly bush! It’s Mr Eggy’s memesis!

 

[rebrascora]

Picked my first apricots yesterday and ate one today when my BG levels dropped to 4.2. I put it down as 10g carbs but could have been more. They are huge and sweet but also tart and very juicy which is unusual for apricots and they tend to be quite dry. Unfortunately the juiciness means that they don't keep well compared to the small shop bought ones and I can't eat too many. Might stew them and then perhaps make a low carb crumble. There are only 13 fruits on the main tree because the frost and rain hit us at the wrong time and then I have another 7 on my other younger tree but they are a different variety and smaller and not as nice.
I have also picked and eaten my gooseberries with my breakfast the last week or so. Again, not a great crop but very enjoyable whilst they lasted and just starting to have raspberries from the garden with my morning yoghurt and the odd blueberry, but they are getting old and need replacing and I don't have a fruit cage so I have to share with the birds and they get the lions share!!

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

just starting to have raspberries from the garden with my morning yoghurt and the odd blueberry, but they are getting old and need replacing and I don't have a fruit cage so I have to share with the birds and they get the lions share!!

We had the same problem with our blueberries, so we got a pop-up fruit cage (got it from Garden Organic, who don't have it any more, but it looks something like this ). It comes with spikes to anchor it to the ground so wouldn't be any use on a patio, and we've also found it tends to pop itself inwards when it's very windy unless we put some bamboo canes inside in the corners, but other than that it's very useful, we now get to eat all our blueberries and after they've finished fruiting we remove the cage and fold it up and put it in the garage so we don't have to look at it all year.

 

[Northerner]

I gave this fuchsia a savage pruning with the hedge clippers (as recommended by @eggyg 😱 ) as it had grown far too large over the previous year. I wondered if I might have killed it - but now it's even bigger than before! 😱 🙂

Before:



Now! 😱

 

[grovesy]

It looks lovely though.

 

[eggyg]

I gave this fuchsia a savage pruning with the hedge clippers (as recommended by @eggyg 😱 ) as it had grown far too large over the previous year. I wondered in I might have killed it - but now it's even bigger than before! 😱 🙂

Before:

View attachment 18303

Now! 😱

View attachment 18304

Fab Alan. I thought I’d killed ours this year but no, it was a bit late because of the cold spell we had. Phew!

 

[Northerner]

Has anyone grown any of these? A neighbour puts a box of excess stuff they have grown out to help yourself, and I picked up one of these yesterday as I was so intrigued by them! 🙂 Will have to look for a recipe! 🙂