Not just a bit of watering

Popping down to the allotment to water the greenhouse plants can take longer than expected at this time of year. There are quite often nice surprises in store.

The strawberries are ripening fast now and every time I go to the plot there are more to be found. There are always more than I think, they hide under the leaves to reveal big clusters of juicy red fruits. I have to pick the strawberries as soon as they are ready as they won't stay there for long, the slugs or the birds will have  them if I don't.

Looking at the vegetables I can see that the first little cauliflower heads are appearing, the calabrese have heads forming too and after all the heavy rain we've had this week the sweet corn seem to have grown several inches taller. The sweet peas are flowering now so I need to cut them regularly to keep them coming.

Some of the surprises are not so welcome though. Some of the  kale which I planted last week  have been eaten by slugs. But considering I have been so busy at home recently and haven't had as much time to spend on the allotment, things are not doing too badly.

Getting back to work on the plot

The allotment has been really neglected the last few weeks whilst we have been busy moving house. Our time has been taken up with so many other things. I have been to the plot to water and check over things and every time I've been so aware of all the jobs which needed doing but I didn't have the time to do them.

This week, feeling more settled in our new home, we finally managed  a couple of sessions on the plot to do some much needed jobs. There was the greenhouse to sort out. The tomatoes needed side shoots removing and then staking. I had plants to get in the ground, some Savoy cabbages and flower sprouts. As this is the first year I am growing flower sprouts I wanted to make sure I got them planted.

Arriving on the plot we could see that the moles had been at work in the onion bed. The onion bed also needed a good weed. In fact the weeds were growing in abundance all over the plot. But it was good to see other things doing well. The Sweet Williams are full of flowers and the sweet peas are just starting to flower. The peas and broad beans have got pods on now and we will soon be picking them. 

And the brassicas are growing well too, although I did spot a couple of caterpillars on one cabbage even though it was covered in netting. Those cabbage white butterflies are very good at finding ways to get under the netting.

We set to work, Richard weeded the onion bed and sorted out netting frames for the cabbages whilst I planted courgettes, cabbage, flower sprouts, cauliflowers and swedes. The tomatoes got a good tidy up and it was good to see some fruits appearing.

I decided not to get too stressed about the weeds, it's more important to get the food crops looked after, the weeds will get sorted eventually.