My Tiny Plot

Call me old-fashioned but I do like a nice Tricolore. Especially, when the Tomatoes ‘and’ the Basil come straight from the garden. There’s nothing like a nice slice of Mozzarella coupled with Tomatoes and Basil and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Très healthy too.

I also like Black Forest Gateaux and Arctic Roll!

Here is your next photo mission. We’re looking for the first signs of Autumn in your garden. That could be some swelling Pumpkins like the one above.

Some Autumn fruit like Apples, Grapes, Raspberries or late Blueberries that are still on the plant or in your harvest basket.

Or some seeds that you’ve saved for next year’s sowings. Whatever it is that catches your eye, take a photo of it, send it to me over at gill[at]carsonified.com. I will then choose a winner and compile the best photos for publishing here.

And…the best thing about this particular photo mission is that there is a neat prize for the winner. The lovely people over at The Handpicked Collection have given this set of three gorgeous wicker cloches as the prize. How very generous! Not only that but they have agreed to ship the prize anywhere in the world so the competition is open to all readers, everywhere.

What are you waiting for? Go go go!

Plants have a one-track mind. All they want to do is reproduce. Sometimes we forget this. But sometimes it’s so blatantly obvious that we can’t avoid it.

Take my Blueberries for instance. These two plants are the same variety (Chandler), the same size, planted at the same time in the same sized pots, into the same ericaceous compost. One of them, however, has ripened all its berries and had them picked. After which it has promptly gone into Autumn mode in a bid to conserve energy for next year’s bee fest. The other one still has berries to ripen and is still looking all lovely and luscious.

Blueberries eh? Whodathought it?

So I have to admit our neighbours were fantastic at freezing our Raspberries for us while we were away. Full marks for that. They weren’t, however, quite so good at watering plants - infact I’m forced to give a ‘nil point’ Eurovision style, since one of my plants actually died from lack of water. Which one? Only my beloved Turk’s Turban Pumpkin!

Okay, okay so it only actually had one Pumpkin growing on it. And admittedly that one was very small. But still, the Pumpkin! When I saw its withered frame and tiny, vulnerable, perfectly formed Pumpkin, cruelly stopped in its tracked… well, I was sad. Especially, since last year’s were so massive.

Someone, however, was over the moon when he saw it. A mini Pumpkin, just for me? You really shouldn’t have. What a perfect size for little fingers. Clearly, it’s mine and will forever be so.

What’s a mum to do? I guess I’ll just wait until he’s gone to bed and then hide it away for my Autumn table display. Shuush… he’ll never know.

I’m back! And look what was waiting for me in the garden. Heaven! We had a long drive home and I stopped off at M & S (as you do) to get some essentials since we had no food at home. I nearly bought some Lettuce (and some Tomatoes - I’ve no faith) but I didn’t, I held out. I’m soooo glad I did. We came home to a bumper crop, including tons of Tomatoes, Lettuce, Cucumber, Apples, Grapes!, Blueberries and Raspberries. Even Marks and Spencer can’t top that.

I have to say (and this is a bit embarrassing given my paranoia) our neighbours were really sweet. They picked my Raspberries and put them in a box in my freezer! They are my new best friends.

Well, I’m glad to be back (with some new interesting, foreign seeds in my seed basket) and I will be going through the comments you’ve all made today. Happy Gardening everyone - onwards and upwards!

Yes mtp has a Grape vine. I’m extremely lucky in that when we moved into our house the garden had not one but two established Grape vines. One of them was growing on a pergola that was in the middle of the garden so when we had our garden landscaped, unfortunately, it had to go.

The other one was conveniently situated on my south-facing wall, so that one got to stay. It was terribly overgrown. It was so big that it had grown under the roof tiles on our out-house. I had to cut it back quite severely and to be honest I had no idea what I was doing with a vine and so consequently we didn’t get any Grapes from it last year.

This is what I started with back in March this year - a fairly ragged, unpruned vine. I’m estimating that the main trunk of the vine is about 14 years old. I’m assuming it was planted when the garden was landscaped by the previous owners in 1995.

I decided to train the vine using the Guyot system of training. This relies on the fruiting branches growing from two main ‘arms’ which are replaced each year.

By May I had started to see some growth on the arms and was busy tying in new shoots as they formed. So far so good!

By July the vine had reached the top of the wall and had formed at least five or six good sized bunches of Grapes. Now, they are ripening and turning purple. Yes, it turns out that my vine is a black Grape not green. I never thought I would be eating Grapes this year!

While I was on a pruning course a few weeks ago I met a very interesting guy called Bill Whitehead. He knew tons and tons about Potatoes and their history in the UK. He showed me an example of the oldest known variety of Potato still grown in the UK - The Yam. It dates from 1771.

He also gave me two Potatoes to save and plant next year. They were a black variety called Congo and a red variety called Highland Burgundy Red. I’ve always understood that it’s risky to save your own Potato seed because you risk building up disease and that it’s better to buy disease-free seed from a merchant - which I normally do. However, since I’ve been given these interesting varieties I thought I would have a go at saving them for next year.

It seems you need to keep a few things in mind:

Put them in the light first to let them go a bit green (to encourage dormancy)
Store them in a dark, frost-free place
Ensure that air can circulate around them (storing in egg boxes is a good idea)

There is quite a nice post about saving Potato seed here.

So I’m going to give it a go. If I’m drowing in a sea of Blight come this time next year, I give you full permission to say, ‘I told you so!’.

I get quite a lot of questions about my photography so I thought I would answer some of them here so that those who are interested can benefit too.

It’s quite an odd pass-time; taking photos of vegetables, but I love it. I just love the shapes and the colours and the light at different times of year.

One of my favourite things to do is to look at all my photos as thumbnails and you can almost see the changing seasons, as you can see from the photo above.

Here are some answers:

What type is my camera?
Canon 350D - it’s getting quite old now. Time for an upgrade?

What lenses and equipment do I use?
I’ve got a Sigma macro lens which I use for the extreme close-ups

What’s my computer and which photo editing software do I use?
I’m a Mac (not a PC) and I use iPhoto. I have a MacBook Air - very light and nice to look at.

Can I suggest any books to read on photography?
Yes! Please read 35mm by Michael Langford. It was written pre-digital cameras but is still as relevant today as it was back then.

Do I edit my photos?
Sometimes I crop them and ramp up the contrast if they’re a bit dull. But other than that not much. I have no idea how to use Photoshop.

Which are my favourite photos?
My favourite shot is the last one I took. I’m that fickle!

Can I teach you how to take photos?
Hmmm…it’s really difficult to teach someone how to ‘have an eye’ for a good photo. I’m not saying that I get it right all of the time but it’s one of those things that comes easier to some people than others. I would say learn how to use your camera first, then look at some great photography and copy some of the compositions. I do that all the time!

Interesting angles are best, don’t always go for the obvious shot. Light is very important. Sunny days are seldom ideal as the shadows cast can be very harsh. A bright overcast day is much better for photography. Also early morning and sundown are interesting times to take shots. You can get some great shots when the sunlight is coming in horizontally.