At the plot

finally today as it has not rained yet! This morning i had to look after my son Max, so he kicked around and gurgled while i watched the re-runs of 'the Larry Sanders Show' which are currently on ITV4 in the early hours. One of the best American satire shows ever produced by far, i never tire of watching it. Probably the only decent thing on the ITV network currently, waste of space that it is.

Anyway, at the plot this afternoon i picked a load of broad beans, will give away some and freeze the rest i think. Weeding as per usual, around the carrots in the seed bed which are coming along nicely, these are the Chatenay Red Core ones, and also weeded the turnips and swede.
I transplanted the spinach and chard, but was disappointed to see one of the tiny spinach plants was trying to bolt already. The variety i have used this year 'Hector F1' has been quite poor really and i'll try another next year defiantly. I also got in the remaining beans, 'Scarlet Emperor' and the french bean 'Fortex'.

It was also disappointing to see that i have still not managed to get a single courgette this year. All the ones so far have started rotting from the flower end before they reach any sort of decent size. I'm not sure why, again perhaps its the weather at the moment, certainly there has not been enough sun for them this year so far i imagine.
Looking at the Met Office website is also telling me that the weather is going to be like this for the next 2 weeks also, occasional sunny periods but mostly rain. Ho Hum.

The first strawberrys

have been disappointing, they were from the variety Pegasus, and were quite lacking in flavour and almost a little dry in the mouth. All the others seem to be fruiting up now so hopefully we'll have a better luck with them. The blueberry are now being picked and enjoyed, a small but tasty cropping.
Its still been raining to much to get out to the plot, and i have stuff to get in still, more spinach, beans, chard and lettuce. It is supposed to be better tomorrow so fingers crossed i'll get a few hours over there.

Its still raining

here in wales all the time, so much for june and global warming! I'll chop down a few more trees if it means i can get out and garden!!
The broad beans were okay, nice in the risotto but not to my taste on there own. I'm undecided whether i'll grow them again next year, although they where pretty easy to grow.
In the greenhouse i have a few tiny tomatoes now on the gardeners delight, and flowers on all other variety's. The chillies all look like they will have plenty of flowers, and the pepper plant has already one fruit.
At the plot a lot of weeding again was done on Tuesday morning in between showers, and i was a little disappointed to see the 2 new rows of beetroot i sowed have again had patchy germination. Whether its the soil or the seed I'm not sure, or perhaps the weather is also messing things up? The Runner beans are nicely winding there way up the poles, and i have a second lot to put in as soon as i have a moment.
The lettuces are mostly looking good also, and we soon will be able to pick a few whole ones rather than the catch and come again leaves in the garden grow bag, which has been quite successful.

CONGRATULATIONS also to bigdougfromdorset (or whatever he's calling himself this week ), on getting his plot sorted. Plenty of time to get some stuff in still my friend!!!

Update Pt 2

Just popped to the plot which has received much needed rain over the last few days and more to come today i believe. Weeds still popping up everywhere, esp. after the rain, but hopefully i will get there on Monday and/or Tuesday to tackle them again! Picked the first broad beans, small but the pods have almost doubled in size since last week, and i think we will try a pea and bean risotto tonight.As for the greenhouse that i looking fuller by the day. The 'Camp Joy' tomato plants are massive, hopefully the crop will be too. I need to check how many flower sets it has and then maybe pinch out the tips if required.Before we went to Tenby for a few days i managed to install the automatic roof vent which appears to be working, currently open in the sun, but not in the picture you see here though.The Chillies all seem to be doing well with little flower buds appearing on most. The 'Padron' (left) is about 3ft tall, and i had to put the 3 'Big Jim' plants into a grow bag after cutting the bottom of their pots out to allow root growth.



Below are photos of the onions i planted before i got the new plot, a grow of lettuce, strawberry grow bag progress including one almost ready strawberry, outside tomatoes plants 'Gardeners Delight' , and the blueberry plant showing some berrys starting to turn their dusky blue. Cannot wait!!.

Plot Update

Bit late with this update!! Sorry, just not getting the time to post at the moment, blame those two in the last post!!
At the allotment i have turned over the seed bed sowings of parsnips - of which none came up, and beetroot - too few to be worthwhile. I weeded it and realized i made a mistake with the layout of the bed as it was tricky to weed properly in between the rows. A lesson for next time. I resowed 2 rows of beetroot 'perfect 2' variety, but its too late for parsnips now i believe. The rest of the sowings, turnips and parsnips are better but patchy.
The courgettes seemed to take a step backwards after planting after looking so healthy in the pots, but have now started to show signs of fruit. The pumpkins are now also show little round buds so thats promising.
My first time growing broad beans this year and it will be interest to try them after so many years. I don't have good memories of them but perhaps that was the way my Gran cooked them I'm hoping. Young and small they are supposed to be sweeter. I had a little problem with balckfly on a couple of the plants but pinched out the tips and that seemed to help. Also below is the runner beans, old favorite 'scarlet emperor' grown by my mother-in-law Susan.
Greenhouse update in a couple of days - promise!!!