Mouse Melons

These are an experiment for this year, and they have done very well. Very easy to grow and quite prolific (although obviously very small), they taste like tangy cucumbers, but with fairly thick, crunchy skins, especially when allowed to grow longer than an inch, the small ones are much more tender.

However I would be fibbing if I said that they had gone down a storm in our house. I haven't found many ways of using them, and there are still a few languishing in the fridge. I think I will do them again next year, but I will pick them all while still quite small, and pickle them.

A whole month since my last blog, and no wonder, since going back to work three weeks ago my feet have barely touched the ground. I am doing an extra 8 hours per week at work (24 in total) which means a lot less time during the week for allotmenting, especially as the days are getting so much shorter. On top of that, these last few weeks have been the busiest of the year in terms of keeping up with the harvest. We have been up to our ears in beans, courgettes, potatoes and raspberries. I made some raspberry jam yesterday, and the beans have been distributed amongst friends, family and anyone else who comes to the house. In addition we have been doing up our kitchen, which has not only taken up quite a bit of time, but meant that the kitchen was out of action at the peak of vegetable production. It's also a busy time for the allotment committee, I have been printing, stuffing in envelopes and delivering the autumn newsletter, now I need to produce 100 or so rent letters, and the AGM is coming up at the beginning of November. 

It's all go. Will be back soon for an end of season review.

Today's Harvest

I spent about 3 hours picking all this today, and then spent the rest of the day in the kitchen, washing, peeling, chopping, sorting, blanching, freezing, and making chutney. Growing your own can be very time-consuming. The beans, purple climbing french beans, flat-podded climbing french beans, runner beans and dwarf french beans, are at peak production at the moment, and I can't keep pace with them. We are going away this weekend to my sister-in-law, so will take some with me, then our kitchen will be out of action next week while we do some work on it, so I won't have an opportunity to cook or even to blanch and freeze any beans, so the neighbours will have to have the rest.

With all the extra growing space I have this year I have inevitably overdone it with certain veg, namely potatoes and beans. It's quite fortunate that I lost a number of courgette plants in the cold weather, otherwise I would be over-run with those too. I have decided that next year I will probably reduce the amount I plant, and just spread it out more. I have found it quite difficult moving about between things this year, I have packed it all in a bit too closely!

Weirdly, the blight which was threatening to take hold a couple of weeks ago seems not to have spread, indeed it even seems to be 'cured'. I cut off all the potato foliage, except for one row, which still looks the same as it did two weeks ago. Only one tomato was affected, and no more since then, and there has definitely been no more spread. All the remaining fruit looks fine, the foliage also looked fine, although I have now cut most of it off to encourage the fruit to ripen.

The first sowing of sweetcorn has a couple of cobs on each plant, but I am still waiting for them to ripen. The second sowing looks really healthy, and hopefully the warm weather will continue long enough for it to reach maturity. The flowers are already emerging at the top.

The autumn raspberries are starting to get going, but the summer ones haven't done much at all, I think I will have to replace them this winter.

Bee Bar

A few pictures of the flowers in my bee border - a narrow strip at the top end of the plot. It is in full flower at the moment and looking lovely. All the flowers are doing really well this year, and this has inspired me to devote a special patch next year specially for cutting flowers. Something to cheer me up if we get another year like this one, late July and still not much ready for harvest. Normally things are in full flow by now, so far this year all we have really had is broad beans, salad and potatoes ...

.. which brings me on to some really bad news: potato blight. I have never had it before, only tomato blight. Sadly the outdoor tomatoes are starting to show signs as well now, and they were doing so well, just starting to ripen, some of them. I have cut down most of the potato foliage and shoved it into bags, leaving some of the main crops which are not too badly affected yet. I am giving them a few more days to grow while the weather is good, but will have to cut them down before it starts to rain again. They have all had a dousing with anti-fungal treatment as well.

I have had a lot of blackcurrants and gooseberries though, and made plenty of jam. Yesterday I dug up my elephant garlic, just two bulbs to see if we liked it. Just as well I didn't plant more. It didn't agree with us and caused a very uncomfortable night! I have heard this said of artichokes, but nobody warned me about elephant garlic!

I have been getting up at the crack of dawn every day this week, to go down and make the most of the cool early mornings. While I wouldn't dream of complaining about this beautiful weather, it's really a bit too hot for working in after mid-morning.

Things are really starting to put on some growth finally, now we have a bit of warmth. Courgettes are really getting going, and beans are starting to flower. I know it's not going to last, but I am making the most of it while it does.

A Glimmer of Hope

At last there is some hope on the horizon for our crops this summer, as reports are coming in that the Jet Stream is finally on the move northwards, which means that the weather will become more 'typical' for the time of year. Nobody has actually started talking about heatwaves yet though, so I suspect what they really mean is just 'a bit less crap' than we've had for the last couple of months. I'll settle for that, it'll be a definite improvement anyway.

These are the first of my tomatoes to start ripening, Sungold, typically reliable and early to ripen. We have had a cucumber already, with plenty more to come, and the plants are so much healthier than last year, when they were covered in mildew all summer long.

I have been picking broad beans galore, enough for some excess to freeze. I must remember to pay closer attention to spacing next year, I can hardly get in between my rows, and sturdier supports will be required too.

I have lost a couple of courgette and squash plants, to stem rot, and the red onions aren't doing too well, but most other crops are starting to perform well, including outdoor tomatoes, which I have mulched with chopped up comfrey. I picked vast quantities of blackcurrants the other day, enough to make about 9 jars of jam, and there are quite a lot more to come. Raspberries are starting to come as well, but the quality is not great and the birds seem to be eating most of them.

One area I am really pleased with is my bee border, which is now in full flower. I keep forgetting to take my camera with me, but I will definitely be showing that off in a future post.

Snake in the Grass

Or rather, snake in the netting. This grass snake had got itself tangled up and I had to cut it free while the plot holder, Brian, held it still. We weren't sure whether it was a grass snake or an adder until I got home and googled it, so it was a bit scary. Fortunately I quite like snakes, if it had been a spider I would have run a mile.

Anyway, no harm done to the snake and it was set free at the top of the plot, by the hedge. Good luck to it, netting can be lethal to wildlife, from now on I'm going to make sure all mine is stowed away in my tool box or bin when not in use.

Another Try

I got my first allotment in 2007, the first year of the lousy summers we've had ever since. I think it's fair to say this summer is the lousiest of them all - so far. In 2007 it was wet, but still relatively warm. It was similar up until last year when it was cold but dry, this year it's cold, it's wet AND it's windy. Just about everything on the allotment is struggling, particularly the tender veg, tomatoes, sweetcorn and squashes. I planted out 14 sweetcorn plants at the beginning of June, two of them have keeled over and died. I have a space in front of the squashes, so I have sown another batch of sweetcorn, which should be ready for planting out at the end of June. I am holding on to the optimistic hope that we will have a warm and dry late summer and autumn. To the same end, I have sown some more Autumn Crown squashes, the ones I planted in early June look so sickly I doubt if they will make it through.

I have lost a few plants, I suspect due to red ants tunneling around the roots, I unearthed colony after colony of red ants as I was digging the plot over earlier this year. Recently I have resorted to dusting them with ant powder whenever I dig up a nest. Also I think my soil needs beefing up a bit, things just don't look as healthy as they ought to, though that could be down to the weather. My garlic was looking really good, but is now covered in rust. I can't tell when the leaves are starting to go yellow, they are so yellow already. In theory, now that the days are getting shorter (what a depressing thought, when summer hasn't even arrived yet) the onions should start to bulk up. Other people's set-grown onions look nearly ready to lift.

I'm going up later to sow some more carrots, some more pre-chitted parsnips (I know it's a bit late but it's worth a try, and I need to replace all that celery and celeriac that I had to pull out :( ) and some more french beans.

Gardeners' Refrain: THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR!

Celeriac Strategy Scuppered

After all the time and effort I put into those celeriac and celery, and would you believe - every last plant has bolted! After that cold, miserable May and then the hot, dry spell they must have thought they had had winter and now it's spring again. I'm a bit gutted about it. Should I try again next year? After all they never got the chance to prove themselves did they? I think they can have one more chance, given that it's probably my fault for sowing them and planting them out too early.

It's not all bad news though, the strawberries are starting to ripen, and everything else is doing fine, except maybe the onions. And the beetroot.