Weeding and harvesting

The allotment is looking very lush and green now. It's really rewarding after all the hard work earlier in the year to see everything growing well. I always have times of uncertainty when I start in the spring, wondering how many plants will survive or will they get eaten by slugs, will we have enough broad beans and peas
( because we love them).

The cabbages and Brussels sprouts are coming along fine. I planted some cauliflower seedlings last week and sowed another row of swede. I did some weeding in the brassica bed  which wasn't easy as I had to crawl on my hands and knees under the netting. I checked for caterpillars while I was under there just in case any cabbage white butterflies had found a way in through the netting. Fortunately not, and all the plants were looking quite healthy. It's surprising what you find though when you when you get down under the netting, there were some turnips ready for pulling which I hadn't seen before. Once I 'd pulled them out I could plant some purple sprouting broccoli and Cavalo Nero in their place.

We are now picking broad beans and peas and after wondering early on in the year if I had sown enough with two rows of each I know that was plenty. I have been watching the onions to see if they were ready for digging up and last week I pulled up one lot which we had planted in one of the raised beds on plot 10b.  The others which are on plot 8 are ready to dig up too and I shall be doing that this week. Most of the leeks were planted a few weeks ago but I ran out of space for the rest of them. Once I've cleared all the onions out of the bed I can plant the rest of these leeks.

The fennel has produced some good sized bulbs. The feathery foliage looks really attractive amongst the rows of vegetables. Now I'm looking out for some good recipes to use it in. We've been harvesting the potatoes now which were grown in bags.  The first ones we planted were Epicure and they have a good flavour.

Earlier in the year something ate the tops off some of the first lot of beetroot seedlings, we think it was a pigeon which we had seen hovering about in that area of the plot.  The second lot I sowed I covered with netting, but the first lot which were nibbled seem to have recovered and we have been pulling some lovely baby beetroots. We always have problems growing carrots as they get attacked by root fly, so we covered them with fleece and were really pleased to dig up some perfect carrots last week. Just hoping that the root fly didn't get the rest of the row whilst the fleece was off. We've also got some growing in deep containers just in case.

So now in August as I look around our plot I feel pleased with it all. There aren't  too many big jobs to do at the moment so we can have a little rest (not for long though!) and enjoy eating our produce.