The beginning and the end

Today I picked my first tomato, it was a 'Latah' which is an early ripening variety from Real Seeds, warmed from the sun it was delicious. Sadly today was also the end of my tomato bed because all the plants are showing the dreaded signs of blight, I had hoped that evening waterings and the blistering hot heat would delay the inevitable but sadly not. The are plenty of also ripe and unripe fruits which will be turned into sauces and chutneys; the bed will be used for some over-wintering kale and next year I will be growing blight resistant varieties.

The hot and wet weather should hopefully provide perfect seed germination conditions so I have sown Pak Choi, Mizuna, Fennel, Swede, Endive and Mispoona to hopefully provide crops in the coming months and over winter.

The new potatoes are continuing to delight, 'Charlotte' has proved to be an excellent masher so we are enjoying plenty of potatoes in all forms. The courgettes have started to go mad, I returned home today with 1 marrow, 1 very borderline marrow and a baby courgette as well as 6 cucumbers and another pot of raspberries. Now I'm off to dig out my stash of courgette recipes to turn these beauties into something truly delicious.

Enjoy your plots.

Fruits of July

The first cucumbers

The hot weather has made germination very difficult so despite the plot being much clearer than in previous years I have far fewer crops growing. It looks like I'm going to have to try again and then keep my fingers crossed if I'm going to see any swede, pak choi or endive this year.

I have lots of healthy plants sitting in pots at home but it seems to shock them when they get planted out at the allotment; I think it must be the increased heat and strong wind which causes the problems. The courgettes have finally found their feet, hopefully I'll be picking my first 'Black Beauty' next weekend and the squash are starting to stretch out and produce flowers, maybe they'll decide to take on the weedy patch which is growing next to them and save me a job. 8 of the aubergine plants are planted out and I have another 6 waiting at home, this is my first year of growing aubergines so I'm not sure how this is going to turn out but it feels like I'm running very late!

On the plus side the cucumbers are making up for everything! This is a new one for me but my four 'Wautoma' plants are all growing very happily and today I picked my first two cucumbers, I think they'll join the 'Reine des Glaces' lettuce to make a homegrown salad; I just wish there were some tomatoes to join it! Interestingly the plant I kept in the cold frame the longest and which got planted out last has produced the first fruits so it just goes to show that you should wait until the plants are ready and the conditions are good before planting out.

Now that we are almost at August it's time to start thinking about winter crops, I'm going to sow some more cabbages and lots more kale ready to plant out in a couple of months, if you're very lucky late sowings will miss the cabbage whites whilst still having enough warm weather to establish before winter really sets in.

Weeding, Seeding and trying to keep up

Wow things have been rather hectic over the last few weeks; work has turned manic and the hot and wet weather is making everything, including the weeds, grow like mad. I had a week off work and we spent a few days down in Dorset which was lovely but what with all the eating, drinking and of course walking also quite tiring.

Still, this is the wrong time of year to rest so I finally got round to shearing down the long grass and nettles around the front, sides and back of the plot. I also discovered where the bumble bees were nesting this year, this time it is right next to the shed but being more docile than the honey bee I don't usually have any trouble with them. Apparently the colony splits up every winter and then they re-nest the next year which explains why they keep moving around.

I also re-located my raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants from within the weeds. All are fruiting up very nicely and with a bit of luck (and sun) the gooseberries will be ready in just a few weeks. At home the strawberries have lots of fruit but none is yet ripe, sadly my attempts to stagger the crop by planting some early plants seem to have failed so I think there will be a short glut and then nothing. Well there will be a glut if I get around to putting out the nets and beer traps...

In amongst all this I managed to sow some swede, carrots, fennel and more radish as well as planting out the remaining cucumbers and several rows of cabbages. There is still lots of potting on and planting out that needs to happen over the next few weeks but finally it seems like things are going. Don't you just love this time of year?

Rabbit proofing and Parsnips

The rabbits are increasingly becoming a problem on the allotment; after munching their way through most of my winter veg they have seriously stunted the growth of the onions and the shallots. Since neither of my allotment neighbours seem to be putting in much work this year, both have far more weeds than veg and it turns out that rabbits like veg far more than weeds. So before the planting really kicked off I decided to invest in some chicken wire and build a protective fence around some of my allotment. Version 1 is now complete and features 40 meters of wire fencing with a slight ground cover to stop them digging under. Over the next few months I'll try to increase the supports and cut some gates into the sides but hopefully it'll be enough to protect the young plants that need to start moving outside.

The coldframe has become a logistical nightmare because although the days have been hot, the nights are still dropping down just low enough to make me nervous. Today I planted out the first of the cucumber plants, 2 more are spending the night outside in the garden and 1 gets to spend all day outside before returning to the coldframe overnight. Hopefully all 4 will survive the next few weeks but if not then at least 1 should pull through. Now I need to start moving the aubergines outside too.

A trip to London with friends as well as the fence building has put me behind with seed sowing. I have managed to get some beans into the ground as well as some more peas to fill the gaps on the row that germinated a few weeks ago. I sowed a tray of sweetcorn at the beginning of May and have followed it up with another tray today, hopefully this will extend the cropping season for me. The second sowing of brassicas unfortunately had to replace the first lot which cooked inside the propagator on a particularly hot day. I'm hoping this batch has a longer an happier life.

Finally the parsnips, 1 seed out of the 4 rows has germinated on the allotment, 1 more than last year anyway. Today I also planted out a full row of seedlings which were chitted seeds sown into compost filled rolls of newspaper. If they survive the next week they should have an excellent chance of turning into tasty parsnips. I think I'll chit some more just in case.