Sweetcorn and Rain

August has continued to disappoint with the weather being cool and very wet. Most plants are doing well. Still picking beans, salad, potaotoes, courgettes, beetroot, carrots and as you can see below sweetcorn. These have grown really well with 2/3 cobs per plant and delicious to eat, all from a packed that cost 19p.

As September begins there are signs of improvement in the weather with some bright sunny spells forecast. This give a chance to tidy round the allotment and move some plants around. Some of the larger plants in the nursery bed can be moved into the boarders, it may be a little early but i want to get organised for next year.

I have some onions and garlic to plant now to be ready for next summer when the supplies of onions have run out from this year

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.

Post Holiday Overgrowth

Not just me thats overgrown on holiday, but the allotment is bursting with plant life. All the wildflowers and sweetpeas in the borders fill the pen with colour and fragrance. Whilst away the weather has be quite dull and wet which i suppose is a blessing because it looked like it was going to be anoher hot month after June. It is quite cold and wet at the moment and with so much to do it is a little frustrating. As you can see from these pictures there is plenty to do and pick.

Quite a few of the courgettes have grown too large and are alomost marrow size. I have taken these off to encourage more courgettes to form. The 'bianca de triese' are long and curled but they taste very sweet. The sweetcorn contiue to grow with plenty of cobs forming and the runnerbeans are flowering well and some beans are forming. Hopefully the weather will pick up then i can get things straight

Picked lettuce, courgettes, beetroot, peas, beans, pink fir apple potatoes and radish

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

Sweetcorn and Courgettes

The weather has improved but still cool and windy. Did some sowing and pricking out on Monday. On Tuesday i planted the asparagus connovers collosal into the seed bed. Wednesday i planted out the sweetcorn, courgettes, squash and pumpkins. The courgettes are in a bed to themselves. The weather was very windy so i tip i saw was to place tyres around the plants to protect them. Not very pretty but they do the job. In the middle of the sweetcorn i have planted the pumpkins, later i will plant some runner beans to create a 'three sisters' companion planting.

Sweetcorn and pumpkins

Growing radishes in a pot was not a great success

First of May

So far May has begun with a mix of weather. Sunny but cool, persistant rain and high winds! The dryer days meant i could paint the fencing and tidy up the borders ready for planting first sowing of peas and beans. Unfortunatly the bad weather didn't help them get settled in but hopefully they will pick up. More time can be spent in the greenhouse sowing the next succession of crops mostly salads, beans and carrots. So far the salads have done well and i am now able to pick quite a bit for lunches. In the raised bed i planted out the turnips, spring onions and beetroot in modules as well as sowing a row of radishes and carrots.

The asparagus are doing well that were plante dout last month. Of 20 crowns planted so far 13 spears have grown. It is tempting to try one but they need at lease 2/3 years before they can be cropped so that the plants establish themselves. Picked the first stalks of rhubarb today so it should be something nice for pudding tonight.

Hopefully with most of the 'building' work nearly done i can concentrate on the plants etc.

Broad beans and peas
French and runner beans

Courgettes, sweetcorn and asparagus hardening off