It’s been a very mixed week weatherwise. We have gone from summery and warm one day to rather wintery the day after. We have also had quite a bit of rain, in fact, we were rained off again when working at the allotment.
We’ve managed more clearing and digging over beds, although the rain has meant that the soil is fast approaching the too wet to dig stage. At the moment it is just on the very edge so we are trying to get as much done as possible. We’ve done well and I think we have actually managed to get more done than usual due to having an early start. There are only a handful of beds still to be tackled. The advantage of setting out separate beds means that you can target a specific bed and then feel that you have made progress.
As well as preparing beds for next year, I actually did a little planting. We had some small sweet William plants languishing in modules which we should really have planted out earlier.
The plan was to remove this year’s sweet William plants and replace them with new ones. This plan changed for a couple of reasons. Firstly this year’s plants seemed as though they would last for another year and secondly not enough seeds had germinated to produce enough plants to fill the bed.
We changed to plan B. I cleared the bed where annual flowers had died off and planted the sweet Williams around the edge. The space in the middle will be free for sowing next year’s annual flowers. That is of course unless we end up with a plan C.
At the beginning of the week, we harvested a few spring onions. 
At the end of the week we pulled up the rest before they become unusable. We also picked a few Invincible pears and a few dahlias. The dahlias may well be our last if we get a frost.
We also harvested a few tomatoes from the allotment greenhouse. The tomatoes have done well this year.
Our main harvest was more carrots from the second carrot bed. We usually only sow one bed of carrots but the first lot didn’t appear to be germinating. Anyway you can’t have too many carrots can you?
We have made a similar miscalculation with the garlic. We planted a row of cloves saved from this year’s crop which just didn’t appear to be making any effort despite the onions that were planted at the same time shooting well.
We decided to buy more bulbs to plant and – you’ve guessed it – no sooner had we planted the second lot of cloves, than the first lot sprouted.
The second planting produced shoots very quickly, Maybe the cloves were were just waiting for the time to be right. At least we should be well protected from vampires.
We had our usual walks around Temple Newsam and Nostell.
We wandered around the garden at Temple Newsam.
Martyn, popped into the greenhouse whilst I stayed outside with Ruby. Ruby was dying to follow Martyn for a look around. She loves exploring new places and finds doorways and gateways very tempting, but we had to explain to her that dogs were not allowed.
Martyn took some photos so Ruby and I could see what we had missed.
Outside in the parkland the green colouring is fading.
A video of our walk around Temple Newsam is posted here.
At Nostell, we only saw one adult swan. The lake flows into the garden so the other adult was probably there but I wonder whether the young birds have set off to join flocks of non breeding swans at another location. We couldn’t check out the garden as it is another area where Ruby isn’t allowed. It’s all rather puzzling as dogs are allowed in some NT garden areas but not others. It seems down to each individual property’s choice.
The black headed gulls have now flocked to the lake and squabble noisily.
As at Temple Newsam, the trees at Nostell are looking very autumnal
Finally, some of last week’s meals.
I made a bean bolognese that used some carrots, onion, garlic and parsley.
I also made a spicy chicken ‘cottage’ pie into which went, onion, peppers, spring onion and of course potato.
Another meal was a turkey stir fry that used spring onions, peppers and carrots.
That’s all for this week.
As always until next time stay safe and well.
Again I am joining Dave at the Harvest Monday post on his Our Happy Acres blog
A good harvest, especially the carrots. I’m only growing winter garlic and onion now, my spring crops are useless. Love that bean spag bol!
No harvesting since then, Dina
From Anna
It’s indeed most autumnal Sue especially after yesterday’s diabolical weather! Perhaps children should be kept on leads too – you certainly see some children causing absolute havoc and sometimes damage on garden visits. You can never have too much garlic in my book 😂
Sorry Anna your original commenr disappeared
As am ex- teacher it is really frustrating as I want to step in and make them behave but if I did I doubt it would be appreciated.
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Haha, I’ve made that mistake with garlic before – sneaky aren’t they! And all those carrots! You’ve got a lot of soup lunches! Those meals look tasty and colourful – very nice!
Not the worst mistake to make, Belinda
The spring onions and tomatoes look lovely, and I agree – you can’t have too many carrots!
Better too many than not enough, Dave.
So nice to walk through the seasons with you. Hoping the frost holds off so you can enjoy more dahlias.
I’m guessing that your seasons are very different, Sue
Very hungry now that I’ve seen all your lovely meals! I didn’t know that Sweet William would last more than one season, that’s interesting. I am rather over-foxgloved at the moment, after liberally shaking seeds out of last year’s flowers. I’ve sorted out the best seedlings, but I suspect there will be a few hundred more to follow. Amazing carrot crop, they should last you nicely until next year!
Plant one foxglove and you will never be without CJ. They pop up all over the allotment
I think your carrots and your garlic were playing silly games with you, weren’t they?
How puzzling over the dogs allowed rulings? I’m not a fan of places that don’t allow dogs. People who care enough to bring their dogs are the ones who care enough to look after them. And I’ve often found most dogs to be far better behaved than their owners.
We haven’t renewed memberships of English Heritage or the RHS, Debbie as we inly visit places where Ruby is allowed. I;ve written to lots of venues stating that many children behave worse than dogs. Climbing on the ruins and trees and running across flowerbeds but that I wouldn’t ever suggest banning them. We’d even pay a dog entry fee. The NT allow dogs at most prpertoes but vary in degrees of access. We once visited one place that advised tying your dog up outisde of the garden. No way – I can’t imagine what bright spark came up with that idea. They obviously didn’t do a risk assessmentor considered the stress to the dog or human for that matter. We once visited a graden that had a sign stating dogs were allowed with a well behaved owner.