Carried on tidying beds in garden plot, potted up some pansies, blackberry, gooseberry and redcurrant into nursery bed.

Flaming June Turns into Roasting July

This week has continued to be warm and humid with temperatures slowly creeping up as the week progresses 23-25 degrees most days. One or two thunderstaorms with the worst rain of Tuesday but this had little impact on dry land! Most plants doing ok but a rush to get organised for convention and holidays. Not much in pots now so they will go into any available space. Need to sort out strawberry runners and pin them into pots. No more sowing now until after holidays unless its a couple of rows of radish or similar outside.

This set of photos taken on Thursday morning hopefully showing where everything is and how its growing. This will give a good indicator for next year

Staring at the west facing border I have Broadbean 'bunyards exhibition' (sown 27/2, planted ?)very nice stir fried young whole pods. Next are peas 'oregon sugar pod', kelvendon wonder', 'meteor' (6/4) kelvendon wonder' (4/5)



In the border you can just make out more broad beans (sown 4/5), in the raised bed from left to right runner beans 'cobra' (sown 4/5) peas 'kelvendon' and 'meteor' (sown 7/6) dwarf bean 'valour' (sown 7/6) fennel (sown 8/4 & 11/5) peas 'meteor' and 'sugar pod' (sown 4/5)



Just between the two lots of peas are a row of dwarf beans 'tendergreen' (sown 4/5) next a row of peas 'celebration' (sown 14/4) spinach beet 'perpetual spinach' and swiss chard 'bright lights' (sown 6/4)

Just behind these raised bed some sweet peas in the border, slow to get going but worth the wait. Nice sweet fragrance and hopfully attracting useful insects plus adds a splash of colour to all the green!

Looking further along the nursury bed lots of cuttings and seedling waiting to be planted out in autumn. To the right are some sprouting broccoli 'early purple', 'late purple' & 'italian'waiting to be planted out but they are sprouting now so i am cutting off and eating the heads as they are ready. Not sure if this is supposed to happen but why waste them. Under the netting are 'green calabrese', dwarf kale and calevo nero (all brassicas sown 25/3) The netting has protected them well with no catapillar damage. The dwarf kale has been especially nice to eat just picking a few leaves per plant and cooked with a little oil and garlic.

Courgettes in tyres! The tyres have protected the plants from the worst of the weather and will keep the courgettes of the floor and protect them. Staarting at the top left and going clockwise are 'kojac', '?', 'dundoo', 'defender', 'zucchini', 'golden zucchini', 'bianca de trieste', 'kojac' with 'butternut squash' in the middle. As you can see the two zucchinis and butternut are not doing as well as the others (all sown 15/3, planted out 13/5)

Here is my attempt at the three sisters growing of sweetcorn (sown 12/3), baby sweeycorn (sown 14/4) bean (sown 4/5?)and squash (sown 25/3)together. As you can see all three are doing well although the beans have grown far quicker than i thought so they will need some cane to support them.


These are the leeks and onions. Not sure whether to grow or not next year, wait and see. I am Tempted to grow overwintering onions to fill the gap next year. Most sets were planted end of March/early April

In these shots its the fruit border. The beans have finally recovered from being put out too early when the weather turned much cooler. Other beans that were planted narly two monthe later are not much further behind. Lesson here i think. Dont sow too early! Not sure of the varieties.

The kid's raised beds are doing well with peas, lettuce and carrots as are the beetroot and chinese cabbages in the next bed

The herb bed is growing well. I think it is more for decorative than useable herbs. There is some lemon balm, thyme, garlic chives, oregan, tarragon and sage which can be used in the kitchen but the others are mints which may need digging out and putting in a border instead!

These strawberries are well protected from the blackbirds and are just starting to ripen

The potatoes in tyres are also doing well, not sure weather to do the same again next year or maybe put strawberries instead.

Hot June continues for the beginning of the month. Picked up some more gardening work which is always a joy. Wednesday (3rd) was a lovely day with me and the kids staying up the allotment until 8 o'clock. Still a lot of watering to do but the crops are doing ok. The strawberries are coming on now so i have put some straw under the fruit to protect them. On Thursday we had the first strawberry of the season, an 'aromel' everbearing variety, very sweet and juicy. All the plants were fed with liquid seaweed to give them a little boost. Some of the beans still not looking too good and a couple of the courgette plants dont look like they will survive much longer.

Very pleased with the turnips 'oasis'. These were sown 2/3 seeds per module and planted out without thinning. As you can see in the picture, as they grow they push each other apart. This may not do too well if they were left to grow full size but they recommend you pick them about the size of a golf ball. I have to say i prefer them raw than cooked. Nice sweet taste when raw and more to them than radish.

At the weekend the weather turned cooler and eventually rained which was good for the plants but not much to be done. I did pot up the chillies at home, pricked out and potted up the lupins, sowed a salad tray in modules, some more peas and beans and finally some green primrose seeds. On Gardeners World Carol Klein demonstrated how to grow primrose from green seed, worth a try.

Through the week the wethaer has picked up again, not as hot as before but a good mixture of sunshine and showers. A busy week of gardening but well worth it. Below is a little tray of pickings. Turnip, radish and spring onions for salads, rhubarb for dessert and chinese cabbage for soup. The cabbages have done really well with not pest damage and little attention. These were sown on the 14/4 so are pretty quick to mature.

On Thursday I dug up first if the salad potatoes 'belle de fontenay' with my little helper Elisabeth. We both had great fun finding all the little potatoes in the soil. Despite the rain recently the ground is still very dry. For one plant we collected 1 1/2 lb of potatoes. They had a lovely sweet taste especially with a little butter and salt. They were planted on the 22/3.

Hot June

Another hot weekend which looks like holding out for a while This is good for growing and some of the plants put out too early are starting to recover. It does mean more watering, especially newly planted crops and those in containers. The salad crops under the cloche are doing really well and unless the weather turns bad it can come off completly until autumn to extend the season. The largder plants are turnip 'oasis' which were sown in modules to grow as a cluster. These are now about the size of a golf ball, very tasty raw but not too sure about cooked! Other crops are spring onion, chinese cabbage, beetroot, cutting celery, radish and carrot. The first sowing of radish have been pulled and a new row sown.

A second row of peas have been sown here with dwarf beans in between. At the front are some fennel which were sown early. I have another batch to go in shortly. Just out of camera is a ring of runner beans to be supported by a wigwam of canes. The rest of the pictures show how the crops and plants are coming on despite the dry weather.

Friday was another day of rain. Whilst always welcome for watering the plants it is difficult to be motivated. However my first attempt at pak choi was a good success as this picture shows. These went into a nice stir fry with sweet chili sauce.

Saturdays weather was a little better quite sunny in the morning but then the rain came back. I try to work outside in the good weather and inside when it is not so good. It sounds pretty obvious but i try to save jobs for inside when the weather turns. So in between showers i cut some new pieces for the staging from old pallets. This gives me more work space and frees up a section of staging to make a complete section for the back of the greenhouse. The bottom photo shows the salad tray pricked out into respective pots.

The next job was to make a large cloche for one of the salad beds. Both the beds are the same size so the cloche can move from bed to bed depending on requirements. These will be handy for protecting early and late crops. The design is similar to geoff hamiltons from gardeners world. A rectangular frame is made from 4"x1" treated timber. Blue water pipe is then fixed to the insides with screws. A ridge of timber helps hold the pipes and rigid and supports the polythene which is then stretched and stapled to the wood. The cloche can be propped up for ventilation and access. The crops inside really do grow better under protection. Next step a polytunnel i think! The smaller square raised bed has a similar cover made from a timber square with a polythene cover. Finally i planted out some lettuces between to strawberries. It's good not to be tied to certain crops in certain beds, with salad leaves etc they can go anywhere there is a gap without affecting any crop rotation.

Sunday was a good planting out day. I put the green calabrese and dwarf kale in their permanent positions 12" apart and covered them with netting to prevent cabbage white butterflies and other pests. The sprouting broccoli's (Italian, early and late purple) are put into the nursery bed for transplanting later. Apparently the calabrese not good for transplanting. I also started off the compost heap properly. I got a load of fresh manure, grass, cardboard and materials from last years heap and built up in layers so there wasn't too much of one material. The compost heap was filled to the top but a few days later it was starting to heat up and the heap has settled down. in a week or so i will turn the heap over and mix everything up so that oxygen can get in and rot everything down quicker. The heap needs enough heat to kill weed seeds etc but not too hot or it will kill useful bacteria and worms.

On Tuesday i planted out the peas, celebration, alpine strawberries origen improved and the second sowing of delphiniums. The tomatoes in the greenhouse are doing well and the first strawberries. These are aromel which are an everbearing variety. The last picture is the asparagus bed. Most of the crowns have taken and are sprouting. It's just a case of keeping them clear of weeds, a little feed in summer and patiently wait

Asparagus and Strawberries

What another glorious week. The weather has been very sunny and warm yet a little cool at nights, a couple of nights there was a slight frost. No damage to any plants but a reminder that there could still be frosts well into May.

Thursday i planted out the spring onions from modules down the side of a strawberry bed, any spare soil will get used up with catchcrops to make good use of space. So far they have settled in ok. Some one was getting rid of some top soil from a project at home so i now have a couple of ton's of soil to sift through. There are lots of stones in but it will do for topping up beds and the stone will come in for gravel paths, nothing is wasted here.

I have widened out the fruit bed to make space for peas and beans. I then dug a trench and filled it with garden compost from the wooden bin, not as good a quality as bought compost but still useful for improving soil.

Saturday was a big day because the asparagus and strawberries were delivered. I thought i had prepared the bed ready for them but it took a while to get it just right. They are all in now, 10 Backlim and 10 Ginjlim, but it will be a couple of years before any can be picked. I still have some growing on in pots and some still in modules, but it is where to put them as they take up so much space.

These photo's show the crowns as they arrived, the trench dug out and the crowns laid on a mound at the bottom of the trench and finally the crowns covered over












Here the strawberries 'aromel' have been planted next to the rhubarb, this frees up the bed i had planned for them for a three sisters experiment (sweetcorn, bean and squash)



The children have sent off for som Dig In seeds from the the tv. Gardeners world and other programs are getting people started growing thier own with free seeds so on Sunday i finished off some raised beds for the kids to sow the seeds when they arrive.

On Sunday I finally painted the archway into the allotment and fixed the honeysuckle to it. Sowed some seeds in the salad bed under fleece, carrot 'tendersnax', beetroot 'boltardy' and radish 'sparkler/french breakfast'

In the garden plot i moved the huchera and gunnera near to the pond which will suit these moisture lovers. I divided up a red priumla that was looking past its best and potted up a couple and some hostas for home

Today I planted potatoes 'pink fir apple' in two sets of tyres

Elisabeth, Millie and Ziggy come for a visit


Seedlings and plants in the greenhouse

Potatoes in bags can go out now but need cover if frosty