This weeks weather has been much warmer with some nice sunny spells. Everything is now back on schedule after the hols. As in the previous post not much to do so a nice relaxing weekend just pottering. I got given a little shed so I put that together and tidied up the wood store and started putting together some kind of shelter for it all. Still picking beans, courgettes, potatoes, lettuce, chillies. Wednesday was a nice afternoon with the family. Stayed up til late waiting for the meteor showers but it was too cloudy. Had a nice time round the campfire with millie, kate and the kids.

Sweetcorn cobs are growing well. You can see the runner beans winding their way up the stalks. All the yellow onions have now been dug up and are drying in the sun, a good crop for this year but i need to make sure they are stored well for the next few months.

In the garden plot i still have two greenhouses. One with a grapevine in and the other with tomatoes and chillies. The grapes are black, small and juicy. This year i noticed quite a few ripe grape have been eaten and on furhter investigation i found earwigs have made the grapevine thier home! Not anymore, but i will have to watchout for them in future.

Tha tomatoes have done quite well with no sign of blight and a good mixture of varieties. The main ones are harbinger, subarctic and gardenpearl. The chilies have done especially well, they are 'cayenne' variety. Not sure how hot they are supposed to be but they pack quite a punch.

Flaming June

June continues to be an excellent growing month with warm sunshine and showers. Not had to water the palnts too much this week with heavy showers on Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon. Continuing to dig up salad potatoes. Because some of the varieties are maincrop i can leave them in longer and eat them full size. I think i planted too many this year taking up too many beds. The ones grown in containers did really well with better quality spuds with no scab or pest damage. Slowly moving some of the Sprouting Broccolis into where the potatoes were though some of them are sprouting now. Not sure if it's the warm weather or because i sowed them too early. Anyway I will eat then now before they go to flower. The Dwarf Kale Has been especially good to eat, just picking off a few leaves per plant then i will leave them to overwinter.

On Monday I made Aloo Saag with potatoes and spinach from Karol Kliens recipe book. I think the secrect to growing is also knowing how to cook things and what they can be used for as there is a tendancy for gluts of food and the inevitable over facing of the same veg!

On Tuesday I took cutting from shrubs, Hebe, Buddleja, Honeysuckle, Fuchia and Willow.

The rest of the week is picking and eating salad, radish, beetroot, baby carrots, tidy up and weeding. Potted up some chillies and peppers and pricked out the artichokes. As the summer holidays approach quickly i need to make sure all plants in pots are planted out and settled in before going away. Not a good time of year to go with so much going on in the allotment but I need, we all need a good rest. Ronnie on the next allotment has agreed to look after things and pick the veg and fruit thats ready. Millies also will keep an eye on things as well. Always exciting coming back from hols to see whats grow etc.

On Saturday planted out the last of the peas 'kelvendon' and 'meteor' and beans 'valour'. Then got soaked with the heaviest downpour i have seen for ages. Did the plants and duck good though.

Sunday was a lovely day, warm and humid, too hot to work so some friend came to visit us which was a real treat. Good to have friends that appreciate what we do. Hopefully we can all do it together soon!

Had a little barbeque just for the kids and us. Two fresh Trout, new potatoes and salad with marshmellows to finish. Perfect end to perfect day.

to busy to take any photos i think this week. will sort some out for next blog

Friday and Saturday was rain so very little done. On Sunday I divided up some primroses, potted up a couple of cayenne and peppadew chillies and a bit of weeding. Weather gone sunny again. Too tired to do too much, sal and kids went to the farm to go horse riding and i read up on taking cuttings and had a nap in the pen house. I took some photo's to show the progress so far and dug up some 'Dunluce' first early potatoes. As you can see from the pic's, not very big plants but some nice big spuds. They were a little floury and broke up when boiled but still very tasty.

Next are some pictures of broad bean 'bunyard exhibition' and 'pea meteor'. The three sisters bed with sweetcorn, bean and pumpkin (and courgette) Chillies , tomatoes and basil in the greenhouse. THe kids raised beds and finally the herb bed