Garden Diary – Grey days cheered up with Apple turnover
What a lot of grey days we had last week. It makes it so much harder to get up in the morning, but luckily the thought of breakfast usually does the trick!
We still have plenty of cake made from garden produce, sliced and frozen to make it easy to get out. But this week a new treat, suggested to me by an acquaintance. An apple turnover.
It’s been an amazing year for apples, as I’m sure quite a few of you know. Even if you don’t grow your own, everybody seems to be offering you a bag of apples. I’ve even seen a few boxes outside people’s houses, with signs saying, ‘help yourself’.
And so I visited yet another house offering me apples. I said thanks, but I’d already got plenty, and unfortunately not having an oven at the moment, just an air-fryer, I can’t make our favourite apple crumble. That’s when he suggested, Apple turnover!
Apple turnover
I called and bought some puff pastry and a lemon, peeled and chopped my apples, tossing them in the lemon juice. Popped them in a pan with a pinch of mixed spice & ground cloves to stew in their juices for 10 minutes and left them to cool.
I unrolled the pastry, cut it into squares, placed a generous helping of apples on one side, pasted the edges with milk, then folded it over and squeezed it together. A quick knife hole in the top to release the steam and into the air-fryer for 20 minutes.
The next morning, despite the darkness from yet another grey start to the day, I was up and downstairs to flick the coffee machine on and give the turnover a quick 5 minute heat up to crisp up that flaky pastry. That’s what I call a good start to the day!
Unfortunately, something I’d posted the week before last about planting my tulips, had a late response which was about to spoil my day!
The lady asked if I knew that some bulbs are treated with pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, which can be harmful to bees. I did not, but immediately set about finding more information. I was secretly hoping that it was fake news, but no such luck!
All the joy I’d had the week before when planting mainly tulips was gone. Now I was worrying that the flowers I looked forward to seeing covered in pollinators, was in fact going to harm them.
I spread the news on my socials which of course caused distress to many others gardeners that knew nothing of this.
Feeling deflated with no way of discovering whether my bulbs were harmful or not. I decided that I couldn’t change what was already done, but to feel satisfied that my new found knowledge would help me make better choices from now on.
Apart from a few specs of yellow, the garden has turned once again mostly pink, with sedums, dahlias, salvias, & bergenia. Together with the purple verbena which pops up everywhere as it seeds itself around the garden. They certainly help brighten up the continuing greyness.
The Ferns are looking surprisingly good considering the lack of water and the foliage on the fatsia japonica is now being set off by its late flowers.
I finally got into the garden on Friday to get some jobs done, and to cheer me up the sun made its first appearance of the week. As if that wasn’t good enough a huge bumble bee nearly flew into me, making me think of how full of wildlife the garden is and to stop worrying about next year’s bulbs, and just enjoy right now!
Monday 13th October 2025
My garden swings through the year between domination of pink then yellow. We’re definitely in a pink phase again now! Bergenia or Elephant’s Ears💕, are heading up the sedums💕 & salvias💕 with the ferns giving a good lime green background. 💚💕💚
#MagentaMonday #pinkflowers
Tuesday 14th October 2025
Verbena bonariensis, is more like a weed in our sandy garden seeding itself everywhere. I constantly dig up seedlings & re-locate them 🌿💜🌿💜🌿💜🌿💜🌿
#tuesdayblue #selfseeders
Wednesday 15th October 2025
Looking back at June roses at the church where so many of our family occasions have taken place. Like most churches it holds both happy & sad memories 🌿🤍🌿
#RoseWednesday #church #roses #whiteroses #BloomScrolling
Thursday 16th October 2025
I give you 🥁 my first ever apple turnover 🍎🍏🍎🍏
I have no idea why I’ve not made one before as I really love puff pastry & of course I love apples.
It was just a suggestion from someone else with a lot of homegrown apples. Yum, yum, yum 😋
#homemade #AppleTurnover #gyo
So shocked to have just checked this out after learning it off someone on Bluesky.
Conventionally grown flowering bulbs can be toxic to bees because they are often treated with pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, which are present in the bulb and released into the plant’s sap ☹️
I’ve been asked if the neonicotinoids reduce. Below is some more depressing news.
So, to try & be more positive, here are some sights that have bee friendly bulbs 🐝🌷🪻
Friday 17th October 2025
Dahlia ‘Honka pink’ bringing some brightness to what has been a really grey (but dry) week 🩶💕💛💕
#flowersonfriday #pinkfriday #pinkflowers #bloomscrolling
#FoliageFriday
Looking a little brighter today after such greyness 🩶🩶🩶
Actual gardening going to get done this morning 🤗👩🌾🌿
#gardening #foliageplants #ferns
Saturday 18th October 2025
The Fatsia japonica is starting to flower, at a time in the garden when most other plants are starting to fade 🌿🤍🌿
#shrubs #gardening #foliage
Sunday 19th October 2025
What’s yellow in the garden this week 💛
Helianthus (from a friend) 🥰, Rocket flowers (the bees love) 🐝, Chilli ‘yellow blaze’ 🌶️🔥& Chrysanthemum (from a proper old gardener) 👨🌾🌼 #SundayYellow #YellowSunday
Happy gardening.
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