It’s the Harvest Festival at school this week. One of my favourite school events. Partly because the school troops down to the church to celebrate, which is a much better venue than the school hall. They’ve asked for non-perishable contributions this year for a local newly formed food bank. Just another reminder to count blessings.
I took a wander around the garden, this morning. With all the rain and lack of sun, it has been easy to write off this year, but I’m not so sure. OK, my salad beds were a literal wash out, but the greenhouse has stepped up to the mark and produced lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.
This year, I planted mini sweet peppers and this year is the first time I’ve had more than one pepper turn red.
The fruit trees have suffered, which is highly unusual. Not a lot of fruit to harvest this year, but I still have plenty from last year in the freezer. The kitchen garden is providing us with plenty of runner beans, sweetcorn and cabbages. The brussel sprouts will be ready for Christmas and I’m going to have plenty of autumn squashes and leeks. The herb garden has given us armfulls of rosemary, lemon balm, lavender and mint. The hens have kept us well stocked in eggs.
So, I’m not writing this garden year off, anymore. It’s not so bad, just different. Maybe not so plentiful, but that’s how it goes. There’s still plenty of blessings to be counted.
(Mini Apple Pie recipe next time. I hope)
Our Harvest Festival is this week too, in the church, and also for the local food bank…are we in the same village? 🙂 I agree too – just as I think we have produced nothing this year, suddenly we have harvests of forgotten about crops. Happy days 🙂 x
Ha! No, we’re in Somerset, but wouldn’t it be funny if we turned out to be just down the road!
I hadn’t appreciated how much we plug the hungry gap in the earlier part of the year with lots of fast growing salad. Alas this year our salad beds were a wash out. Left the impression that nothing was growing. Somehow the rest of the kitchen garden has survived and has started to supply now. Phew! I do love fresh from the garden.
Wow…you sure do grow your garden well… Love the photographs!!!
My poor neglected kitchen garden. It has survived months of minimal attention. At one point I wasn’t sure if the weeds would win the race!
Your garden looks very lush, and the photos are beautiful as always. And speaking of photos, I was so sad to read that people had stolen from you. What a world.
We have had so much rain. Everything is very green and big! The slugs and snails are having a field day.
it certainly has been a strange year for gardening, but things do keep growing nonetheless.
you captured it’s beauty perfectly in your photos.
It’s been good to look back and realise that the garden has produced. Always far tastier.