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.

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

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.

The recent windy weather has prompted me to buy some windbreak material to put between me and George's plot to try and protect the plants. Now that the border between our plots is finished off i can carry on planting up beans and some hardy annuals for colour and to attract pollinating insects. One plant that is doing really well is an honesty plant, grown from seeds found on a walk a couple of years ago. It has very dark purple flowers and the seed heads are round and flat like paper coins hence its nickname, popes money. The comfrey next to it is doing well and i may have a go at comfrey 'tea' to use as liquid fertilizer.

On Saturday the weather started out quite sunny tho still very breezy. The next few photo's show the raised bed i edged with leftover timber and how the rest of the allotment is coming on. The salad potatoes are doing really well from and earlier planting after warming up the soil with polythene.

The next shots are of the salad leaves in the greenhouse either waiting to be planted out or taken home to be eaten!

These plants are waiting to be planted out later when they have hardened off, mostly brassicas and some mini sweetcorn. The potatoes in bags are doing fine, i just need to make sure there is a enough drainage when it rains too much but also enough moisture because the leaves can deflect any water away from the soil.



These onion set are doing really well now. i may have to net them off to prevent onion fly. The herb bed looks well. It has a mix of mints, origano, tarragon, garlic chives, sage, thyme and lemon balm. I also have some pot marigold for colour and the attract beneficial insects to the plot

And finally look at the size of that! One of the asparagus spears is reaching for the stars. Most of the crowns have now produced one spear which means they have transplanted well. I do have some younger plants that are in the seed bed now but i am tempted to buy some more older crowns to get earlier crops.

Too Busy to Blog

It has been well over a week since i last updated my blog. As you can imagine its quite a busy time of year getting things started, sowing seed, potting on, pricking out, hardening off, too frosty, too sunny, not much rain. As well as those things to think about the allotment is still being finished off with fencing, top soil for beds, cuting grass etc. Hopefully next year will be a little easier. The garden plot is much easier with just a little maintenance and moving plants around.

Wednesday was the start of work for a guy called Richard, a neighbour of a gardning customer who wanted some raised beds building. Unfortunatly the timber suppliers had no suitable timber in but i got seven pallets for free. Thursday was spent making fence panels and another hour at Richards digging over the beds ready for the timber surrounds. On Friday i planted out the leeks and onions grow from seed into a bed prepared for them. The other two photos show the early potatoes and onions growing well but could do with some rain on them as could everything else. The sunny weather means everything is drying out and slowing down, but rain is forecast for next week.

Leeks and onions planted out

Onion sets

Early potatoes

Saturday looked like being poor weather so i stayed at home and tidied up the front garden. Is amazing how much material comes from cutting back and pruning. Later the weather turned reasonable so i was able to finish off the fencing down the pathway, tidied up some beds and took some fuscia cuttings. Sunday i planted out some sweet peas in the border and topped up some beds with seived soil. Later i got some plants from a friend Judith. I got some grasses, huechera and hosta and swapped for some geranium seedlings but i have some other plants to dig up for her later

On Monday it finally rained so into the greenhouse to sort through seedlings and plants. I pricked out the early sowing of brassicas into pots ready to harden off and plant in seed bed for later. Tuesday was more rain but Wednesday picked up and was quite hot and sunny. I finished off the raised beds for Richard and continued seiving top soil to top up borders and got some manure from the farm to mulch the hedging and plants.

Richards raised beds

Salad potatoes in bags now outside

Next are a couple of views, one of the fruit border which has space along the front edge for peas and beans. The tulips are just starting to fade now but have been a welcome addition to brighten up the plot. I have some hardy annuals to put in between hedges and plants to attract bees etc