Melons

I have counted about 6 female flowers, with tiny melons behind them, and two of them are beginning to swell. If they grow to full size I will have to come up with a way of supporting them until they ripen. I have heard of people using bras or tights to hold them up, but I hope my bras just won't be big enough!

Notes for Next Year

Have had a whole day at the plot today and about time too. Did lots of weeding, sowed some green manure in a few empty spaces, removed broad beans (leaving a few stumps with pods left to ripen for seed collection), re-sowed two rows of carrots which failed to germinate (although I'm a bit worried it might be the seeds that are at fault - they are Autumn King as opposed to the Early Nantes which are doing really well at the moment) and put a few more french bean seeds in the gaps where they hadn't come up.

I have run out of compost bin space. Next job, as a matter of urgency, is to empty the older bin to make some more space. One thing I could do with it is mulch the PSB.

Cauliflowers have suddenly appeared, although they are a bit yellow and pathetic looking. Several of the PSBs are sprouting and one has already started flowering. Gathered enough cauliflower and brocolli to make a very nice brassica cheese, topped with grilled red onion and served with new potatoes and cherry tomatoes - delicious.

Pauline was going around with a man with a clipboard, taking notes. She says, "this gentleman is judging the plots."
"What for?" I ask.
"Best kept allotment" says she.
"I thought you had to enter for that - fill out a form and such like"
"Well," she says, "if I see a plot that's looking pretty good, I enter it."
I was being 'entered'. Gosh. I wonder what constitutes 'pretty good' - it obviously doesn't necessarily mean neat and tidy and no weeds.
They stood there for quite a while looking at it, and I could hear her telling him all about the vandalism, and all the misfortunes that have befallen my shed. Perhaps I will win the 'most stoical in the face of extreme provocation' consolation prize.

Below is a list of 'things to do differently/better' next year, I have been meaning to jot down for a while now. A bit boring to read but hopefully will be useful for me to consult next spring.

Peas:
Vertical supports - two rows - use both sides. Sow one row a month starting in April. Sow direct?
French beans:
Sow direct - four rows, two in May, two mid June. Some spares in pots.
Sow runner beans direct?
Carrots:
Lots more early Nantes
Potatoes:
Maybe just 3 varieties, 1 early, 1 2nd early, 1 main. Stagger planting times - 2nd earlies later than 1st.
Brassicas:
P.S Brocolli - sow later - late spring, transplant early summer.
Don't bother with calabrese/cauliflower
Slug protection for cabbages

Greenhouse Report

These posts are coming thick and fast, I know, but there is just so much happening at the moment. Below, right, are Sungold and Gardener's Delight toms, on the left cucumbers and down at the bottom peppers.


Below are Marmande (left) and Moneymaker, Red Cherry at the far end, and lots more peppers. You can't see them but there are lots of pepper flowers hiding under the leaves.


The chillies (below left) have plenty of flowers and some fruit. On the right, the melons are going a bit beserk. There are only one or two female flowers, with tiny fruitlets behind them, which I have tried to pollinate even though the blurb said they were self-pollinating. I don't want to leave anything to chance. I have nipped out the growing tips to try and stop them taking over the whole greenhouse. You can't see too clearly from this picture (unless you click to enlarge it), but the shoots are snaking all over the place.


This is interesting - the lettuces, which I sowed last September to overwinter, began to bolt several weeks ago, but I never got around to pulling them out, and they are now developing flowers. I have never seen lettuce flowers before, but I thought I may as well let them go all the way now and produce some seed which I could collect.

Progress photos

The sweetcorn have really come on in the heat, some of them are starting to put up their flower stalks.


This is the first ever Romanesco sprout - it doesn't look like the ones you see in the shops, I thought they were supposed to be all green. This looks a bit like purple sprouting brocolli - talking of which, I have also picked two heads of that as well! I have also picked quite a bit of ordinary green calabrese. Despite all this, I have come to the conclusion that these type of brassicas don't really justify the amount of space they take up on my plot. The heads never get bigger than a couple of inches. Next year I think I will concentrate on cabbages (winter and summer) and purple sprouting brocolli.


These are the outdoor tomatoes, which are beginning to ripen. I have tasted a few of my greenhouse tomatoes, and they have so far all had rather disappointingly tough skins, so while I am hoping that the outdoor ones will be better, I have picked a few of the green greenhouse tomatoes and brought them into the kitchen to ripen in a box, in the hope that this will improve them. Otherwise they will just have to be made into soup and sauce.


Here are the first little runner beans developing! The french beans are forming as well. Not long now.

So currently I am harvesting new potatoes, peas, carrots, lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, shallots, spring onions, and very nearly courgettes. The strawberries have slowed right down and are only producing quite small fruit now. I have amassed quite a few in the freezer for jam-making this weekend. The broad beans have just about finished.

In the garden, I'm afraid I have to confess to having resorted to spraying the asparagus beetles with Bug Clear. But it has certainly done the trick. As I mentioned in my previous post I also have a problem with raspberry beetle, but when I inspected my neighbour's allotment raspberries they appeared to be affected by it as well, so now I am in two minds as to whether I should put new plants in up there. Is this a very common ailment of raspberries I wonder? And do loganberries get it as well?

Following on from last week's rant...

I've got over my despairing mood of last week, now it's just too hot to do any despairing or anything else for that matter, including taking photos, hence no photos. We have also had a really torrential downpour last Friday, so that took the pressure off in the watering department.

Since then, we have eaten our first peas. How could I possibly have considered not growing peas again??? I thought long and hard about the scaling back idea, and decided that there really isn't much that I wouldn't want to grow, and green manure involves regular cutting down and digging in, so probably wouldn't be much less work anyway.

I will definitely put a lot more soft fruit in over the winter thought. My raspberries in the garden have all got raspberry beetle, and they're all covered in something sticky, and they are getting very overcrowded and there is no room to walk in between them . So I'm going to start again with some new plants at the allotment, and will also do some more currant bushes.

I have decided my potato situation is normal, the potatoes we have eaten are all fine, so all I have to do is stop comparing mine to my neighbours'.

The greenhouse tomatoes are starting to ripen. I tasted one today and although the flavour is good, the skins are so tough they are inedible. Very disappointing. I've brought a few green ones inside to ripen them in a box, see if they are any better. If not I hope the outdoor ones will be better, the greenhouse ones will just have to be put through the passata maker (should be able to get that out of its box soon...)

1st Anniversary

I've just realised I started doing this blog exactly one year and two days ago. Happy Birthday Blog.


A few months ago I posted the picture above, and said I would post another one in a few months time. Well, here is the promised update:




The flowers are lovely and doing a good job of keeping that area weed free (ish)

The runner beans are flowering,

There is plenty of fruit on the tomatoes.
BUT...


The potatoes are looking sickly. I know they start to die back after a while, but this seems a little soon. The earlies have only just been in 12 weeks, and the second earlies shouldn't even be ready yet, so surely they shouldn't be turning yellow and falling over? The maincrops look fine, apart from two which look a bit shrivelled, no idea why.

I wouldn't dream of moaning about hot sunny weather, but all this watering I'm having to do... it's the first year this has happened, and now I realise what a massive downside it is. I spent about 3 hours up there this afternoon, my back is aching and it's not as if you can put your feet up when you get home. Oh no. Then there's the strawberries to wash and hull, potatoes to scrub, lettuces to wash and beans to pod. That's before you've even started cooking. There is just SO much to do at the moment, and not just on the allotment. I had planned to do some curtain making tonight, but I just can't face it. As I was waiting for the pictures to upload, I was simultaneously scrubbing potatoes, podding beans and half-watching the tennis. On my way home from the plot I was fantasising about walking through the door with the box of veg and saying, 'there you are dear, there's the veg, what are we having for supper?' while I take a shower and settle down with a beer to watch the tennis.

Well, you have probably guessed I am having an off day. So much so that I'm seriously considering scaling back the allotment next year. It shouldn't be so stressful that I start to resent it. Obviously I don't want to give it up, but I was thinking maybe I could fill quite a big area with green manure, and just grow less of everything, particularly those things which give minimum yield for maximum faff, eg peas. Maybe concentrate on easy, good value things like courgettes, tomatoes, sweetcorn and runner beans. Half the amount of potatoes, so no having to find space to store them, ditto onions. One whole section could be devoted to soft fruit, and with any luck there would be more time for things like jam-making.

I'll see how I feel in a couple of weeks.

Pearly pink potatoes

We're having these for supper this evening - dug 'em up today - first ones of the summer!