Journeys, fruit and the first potatoes

The last few weeks have been very hectic; we have spent 2 weekends away visiting friends and family, I have been training for and then running in several races and then the rest of the time I have been flopped from the heat! Luckily I have managed to fit in a few morning visits to the allotment to keep things ticking along.

This year there has been a bumper crop of berries, first with the strawberries and now with the raspberries. Today I picked the first of the gooseberries, hopefully the rest will be ready soon, and also a glut of blackcurrants from just from 1 shrub. Strangely I have some raspberries growing under the apple tree and about 4 metres away from the actual raspberry bed, I have no idea how they got there but they seem happy enough and are fruiting already; I just wish I had cut the nettles back before I started picking the fruits!

The potatoes are flowering which is a relief after the poor chitting and then the late frosts, we enjoyed a few of the Charlottes last night but they were a little small. The peas were delicious but a little sparse and are already nearing their end; I grew Karina with were very early and then 2nd Early which did lengthen the picking season a little but from reading your blogs it seems this just wasn't the year of the pea.

I have followed Toby Buckland's advice regarding sweetcorn and them into modules a month apart, sadly the 2nd batch were planted out just as the weather started to get really hot but also when there was a very cold wind so they decided to give up the ghost. The first batch are now about a foot tall and look very sturdy, and I actually have quite a few plants anyway because Toby also said that sweetcorn is quite happy growing close together so you can sow 2 seeds to a module, I hope he's right.

Seed sowing is in full swing

It seems like we have skipped early spring and gone straight into the mad rush of late spring. Suddenly the weather is hot but wet and things are growing like crazy, the weeds in particular. This weekend I had a mammoth bindweed clearing session, there is still plenty to do but I cleared enough space to start with the direct sowing. 2 rows of carrots and 2 rows of parsnips are now in and badly covered with a piece of fleece that has seen better days, hopefully it will shelter the seeds from the heavy rains we've been having recently.

I have started some peas in pots but I know they don't like root distrubance so I have also sown the first of several successional pea sowings direct on the allotment. Now I need to construct some serious rabbit proof protection to shelter the seedlings as they grow. Next week more peas will go in along with the first of the beans, I have runner beans as usual as well as several varieties of french beans and Borlotti beans, which I will allow to dry before picking.

The cold frame is full and I am busy moving things in and out each day, hopefully some of the seedlings will be ready to stay outside soon because I still have plenty of seeds to sow. This weekend I have put my propergator to good use protecting lots of kale, cabbage and Brussels Sprout seeds as well as some borage. Some of the Kales are more unusual varieties from Real Seeds, I'm looking forward to tasting the "Red Ursa" and "Komatsuna" which is a Japanese Kale.

There is still no sign of the potatoes, hopefully they're busy doing something down there. On a positive side I managed to plant out the last of the strawberry runners on the allotment, these are an early variety and are already flowering. The salad leaves are looking very healthy and the radishes have come through after only 7 days. I have planted out the first lot of white beetroot and sown some more radish, now I'm counting down the time to the first salad!

Finally, a break

Work has rather taken over my life for the last couple of weeks so there hasn't been much time to blog, garden or even cook which is a shame. Luckily I have tomorrow off and with the bank holiday that means a 4 day weekend!

I will be sowing like mad, so far I have the tomatoes and salad things going, as well as the peas, hopefully beans, herbs and courgettes will soon follow. I managed to plant half the strawberry runners my Mum kindly potted up for me, I'll get the rest in tomorrow. The leeks are hardened off and I hve made a second sowing of beetroots and lettuce.

The asparagus is going like mad so I popped to the plot on Wednesday night to check for spears and also to water the onions and garlic. I'm still recovering from the shock of the weed growth so I think some serious weeding is also on the cards!

What have you got planned for the weekend?

Pea germination

I have discovered a completely fool proof approach to pea germination:

1) Buy a large packet of pea seeds, make sure the packet is made of paper and unlined

2) Wait for torrential rain, take seed packet into the rain whilst wearing waterproof coat

3) Open seeds and spend some time poking muddy fingers into the packet in a vague attempt to extract single seeds to sow

4) Roll up remaining seeds in packet and place into pocket of now very wet coat

5) Hang coat in a nice warm place to dry

6) Leave coat in nice warm place for up to 1 week

7) Plunge hand into pocket to discover hundreds of germinated seeds

Voila!

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today...

Especially if today is sunny and tomorrow is forecast torrential rain; after abandoning the sweetcorn planting yesterday due to a lack of canes to support them with I was forced to return this morning, in the absolute pouring rain, to plant the remaining 8 plants. After plenty of slipping around they are all now planted into a grid of 4 x 4, apparently this will give the best pollination results, and every plant has either a pea seedling or a couple of seeds sowed next to it. Most importantly they are all carefully staked against the prevailing wind.

Due to the extensive mud and water I decided against any photography attempts so i will have to owe you a picture post of the results at a later date (preferably a sunny date so it all looks nice).

Planting, planting, planting and a little bit of accosting

Today is supposed to be the bank holiday's only day of sun so I have been fairly busy trying to make the most of it. This morning I planted out the masses of plants we were given by OH's very lovely grandparents, re-potted the strawberry sweetcorn and planted the tomato plants in the final garden veg bed; they are slightly overcrowded and I have 3 more which were never going to fit, so they will be going into a growbag at the bottom of the crappy greenhouse.

This afternoon I ventured down to the allotment to plant out my sweetcorn, unfortunately due to the extreme wind I ended up having to stake them and since I only had 5 canes with me I couldn't finish planting them out. I did manage to plant both courgette plants though. Each of the sweetcorns will have a pea plant next to them, today's lot get the pre-germinated ones and the rest will have to make do with a seed after a few pea disasters along the way.

I also bumped into one of the potential council complainers but after accosting them with my fork it turns out to not be them, this means it was definitely Mr he who got the council to clear him plot and then just sprayed chemicals all over it before planting it up with lots of nice seedlings from the garden centre. Nothing against anyone who chooses not to clear their own plot, or grow their own plants but I really don't think you can then go complaining about people who do!

Things are progressing well on the allotment, all the asparagus crowns now have a spear each so hopefully will gain strength over the summer to produce plenty more next year. The peas which I sowed but the wonky twigs are germinating. The sweat peas are growing well and I even have some carrot seedlings in the fleece tunnel! Not all the carrots have germinated but in the spaces where they have, there are a couple of seedlings so I should have enough to replant into the gaps.

Another successful weekend

This weekend was another scorcher so I hot-footed it down to the allotment where I was greeted by the first potato sprouts, not bad considering they only went into the ground at the end of April, unfortunately the ground was baked solid after all the wonderful weather so it took some time to scrape together enough clods to create mounds. I think the finished result is quite impressive, all things considering...

The Sweat Peas are still alive, and despite the heat, and lack of watering, all are still green and climbing. I took confidence from this and sowed a row of peas, not sure anything will come of them due to mice but there were loads in the pack so worth a try. The real pea area will be with the sweetcorn so they can climb the stems rather than my wonky tree cuttings. Behind the wonky twigs you can see the Sweat Peas and their canes, the raspberries and finally the asparagus. Ignore the wilderness behind that :)

All the raspberry canes are now growing, which is a relief, only half of them were sprouting last week and I was starting to get concerned but all this sun has got them going. If I can get the fruit cage (or maybe just netting) sorted then there should be plenty of raspberries to look forward to. The dandelion was removed shortly after this picture was taken...

The asparagus is growing like no tomorrow, here is one of the spears which was just emerging a week ago. So far I have got 1 spear from all but 3 of the 11 crowns, so things are going ok. I have sowed parsley in the bed to try and prevent asparagus beetles so hopefully they will get through the year unscathed.

After all the rain and then the sun I was thrilled to see the blackcurrant bush has loads of currants forming. They are already a fair size so if the weather stays nice they should be very successful. I haven't ever eaten a blackcurrant before due to the fact that they are almost impossible to buy so I am very excited about the first harvest.

Finally, for those of you who have made it this far I was thrilled to see the first 2 tubes in the Red Mason bee nest are filled. I even managed to see the bee flying into one of the tubes which was pretty good timing. Bees are fantastic pollinators and the Red Mason bee is completely docile, interestingly this is because they have nothing to defend unlike the Bumblebee which will defend the nest, therefore they are very welcome in my garden.