Blackberry Fly and eating apple

Hello again, I know I've been a while since posting an update, but that is because I have been out of the country for a bit.

I've not got that many pictures to upload today, I'll get some more tomorrow, as the outside tomato plants are going great guns and I want to photograph them, but for now I have a short update about two different fruits that are now being harvested.

First of all, I risked life, limb and skin-integrity picking more blackberries from around the garden the other day. While doing so I saw a dead fly attached to a blackberry, as if still eating it.

 While going on collecting I saw a few more of these; I can only presume that the fly ate until it expired.

I've just got back from a lovely walk and camp in the lake district and, while packing lunch for the walk, I finally got round to picking an apple off the tree.

The apple, pre-bite.

This was eaten sat on Walla Crag, above Keswick, and it was SO SO tasty!

I munched every little bit that I could, enjoying every mouthful.

Right, I'm done. There will be tomato related bloggage shortly.

Laters

A general status update

Once again I have been out in the garden today, it being the first day there's been any sun at all.

I cut the grass, took the little greenhouse things down for the year (they will probably next be used when I leave the country!) and cleared around generally.

So, without any further ado, here is my update.

The main potato bed. I have not harvested any yet. This looks like a massive failure to be fair. I will try and dig these out tomorrow and photograph it if possible.

The potatoes in the tyres are possibly slightly better, I'll be getting them out tomorrow too if possible.

Some rotten Shallots. These pulled out by accident and they look like they're rotting in the ground slightly; probably not that surprising considering how much rain we've had.

The Stuttgarter Giant Onions are still looking healthy though.

Sweetcorn growing well! I've been meaning to take photographs of this for a while. This is looking pretty good I'd have said.

Cabbage patch :) Some of these are improving quite well, some have been eaten completely by slugs

The apples on the little apple tree are amazing now. A couple have been lost to dropping off, but I am going to be picking and eating these over the next week or so.

The second batch of lettuce, coming through very well indeed. I can't wait to eat these.

I MAY have another blog later as I had plans to have Fajitas tonight with my beautiful lady, using onions, chillis and lettuce grown by myself, but the electrics in my kitchen have blown so we may have to put that off for another time.  I really hope the sparky can come and fix it today so we can do this though!

Anyway, enjoy, I'll be back soon (I have SO many chillis on their way, but no more tomatoes, in case you were wondering.)

Artificial Insemination (of chillis)

I have been told many times that I will need to artificially inseminate my chilli plants with a little cotton wool bud so I decided, having looked at the flowers for a long time, to get round to it finally. These are the only four flowers that I have so far, though I have loads and LOADS of buds just waiting to turn into flowers.

The flowers are in there somewhere, honest.

The aim is to rub the cotton bud inside each flower and spread the love between the flowers

Don't be shy getting the tip right in there.

Hopefully now I'll have some nice chillis developing. I will continue to do this as more flowers show themselves.

Here's to really hot food, with my own chillis.

I know I said I'd not put pictures on here just for the sake of it, but the following photo of an apple on the tree is gorgeous (if I say so my self) and shows just how well they are doing, on this first year planted tree.

Did some weeding, took some pictures

Today the weather has been much much nicer.

I woke at about 6am needing the toilet and just caught the sun coming up out the front of the house.

The view from out of my bedroom window this morning

I have then taken advantage of the weather to go into the front garden, around the pond, and clear some of the nastier weeds (I don't want to destroy the wilderness feel, but these purple flowered things are a real pain in the arse around the garden; they get EVERYWHERE).

I filled three wheelbarrows with weeds, pulled up by the roots but sadly leaving a lot of matting behind.

This is a picture of the complex root system of this particular weed; it is so multi-coloured and the fine filaments spread everywhere and, without removing all the stones, it is really hard to eradicate.

After spending about 45 minutes clearing, I decided to take the new camera around the garden, and the following pictures are the outcome.

Arty farty shot looking across the pond to the bench.

A brightly coloured leaf that caught my eye.

An old rabbit cage at the front corner of the property; the smell from all the pine needles that have collected in this area is delightful.

The external tomato conglomeration.

Yellowed old growth on one of the external tomato plants

Slightly battered looking, but still thriving; an external Chilli plant.

Chive Flowers

The apple tree, very fruitful...

Detail of one apple.

(click to see this in close up... you'll be pleased you did!) a spiders web with a fly caught in it, on the apple tree.

Seed pods on the Shallots arching over the grass, and some more of the interesting purple flowers.

Shrubbery growing across in front of the long shed.

Looking back a bit further towards the house.

A seed pod, very like a dandelion head, but not a dandelion.

A fern type thing growing out of a crack in a tree in the front garden.

I have no idea what this is, but isn't it pretty.

Another very pretty cloud of flowers on a bush along the front of the front garden, on the road side. The smell from all the flowers as you walk past this section of the garden is incredible.

Another of these really pretty flowers.

A beautiful spread of cornflowers(?) by the front gate - I can't shut the gate now obviously.

What are these? I feel I should know this...

The dead cedar tree in the front garden (taken with my lying totally flat on my back)

The excretions of some insect or other, foamed onto a plant branch.

Seed pods ready to burst and spread their burden.

An insect on a flower, having a nice long drink.

Close up of external tomato plant flowers, with a casing of some sort attached to the leaf in the foreground. Question: should I remove these casings? Are they caterpillars, and when they hatch will they eat all my plants?

This picture is taken with a zoom, standing in the patio doors.

Just before I took this picture, a robin was perched eating the berries. It flew off and didn't return all afternoon :(

The cabbage patch, taken with the zoom again, standing in the patio doors.

I have one other picture to upload from this set (ANOTHER, I hear you cry?! Haven't you put enough on this post) but I have run out of space on this blog! Apparently you only get 1GB of storage on Picassa for free. So while I wait for my upgrade to come through (all of $2.99 a month) I will be unable to put any more pictures on here.

A small post with a progress update

This is just a quick update with some pictures and things about the progress I am seeing:

We are seeing the start of the second leaves from the tomato plants (pictured) and the remaining chili plants. Two of them have now died sadly :(

The apple tree is looking awesome now!

I also went round and weeded every bed; it took me about 45 mins in total to do it in detail with bare hands and by the end of it I had a very small volume of weeds, but now I know there are none of the little blighters waiting to take over the space and crowd out my crops.

Finally, I counted my potato plants and I have 17 plants coming through in the main bed,and five growing in the old car tire. Pretty excited by that.

I have planted some mint in a plant pot too, so we will see what happens with that over the next few days.

And I have been recommended to try and grow some sweetcorn so that will be my next crop to work out (thanks @andyfereday67 for the recommends)

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I do also want to thank everyone who reads this blog, and invite you all to comment and discuss and advise and criticise in any way you think would help me - I really am a beginner at this so all advice gratefully received.

Drunken gardening

So I went out last night for a few drinks and was told that there was going to be a heavy frost over night.

Obviously the major thing I was thinking about was "my apple blossom!!" so when I got home at about 12.30am I went straight into the garden and did this:

Yes. A black bin bag and some gaffa tape.

The lesson to learn here is; don't go into your garden after multiple beers.

Oh and of course there was no frost anyway :)