Harvesting, planting and weeding on the allotment

sweetcorn

We've had some welcome rain at last and the water butts on the plot are full again. The temperatures have cooled down too making it so much easier to get our gardening work done. The plot is looking good.

A couple of  weeks ago I  planted kale, purple sprouting broccoli  and calabrese. These are later than I normally plant them, but I didn't want to miss out on them, they are good winter veg.

the brassica bed covered with netting

There are an awful lot of cabbage white butterflies around at the moment so all our brassicas are well covered with netting although they are clever creatures and seem to be able to find the tiniest gap to get in and lay eggs.  The brassica bed is now full and there's no space left for anything more to be planted. At one end of the bed are the young kale and broccoli plants whilst at the other end are the cabbages I planted in the spring. We ate the first of these last week and it was really good. It was as good looking as any you find in the shops and tasted so much better.

the onion bed cleared and a row of late peas coming through

Onions now drying out in the greenhouse

I have been running out of planting space in other beds too. Last weekend I started planting out the leeks and had to search around for suitable places to plant them. The onion bed is now empty but I didn't want to plant the leeks there because they are part of the onion family and  disease could spread. So I spent some time time weeding and hoeing in other places to prepare the ground for the leeks. Leeks are one of our favourite winter vegetables and I have an awful lot of them to get in the ground.

leeks ready for planting

This hot summer has been good for some vegetables, but not for others. The climbing beans have gone mad. I have frozen some and given lots away to friends and neighbours and we have been eating lots of them. There are plenty of courgettes too. I planted more plants than I would need in case any got eaten by slugs. there are two varieties--'Black Beauty' and  'Tondo Di Piacenza' which is a round variety. In past years I have never had good crops of courgettes, so of course this year when I planted too many I have loads. What do you do with so many courgettes? I have made soup and used them in several recipes. They go well with tomatoes, make a good risotto with prawns or bacon or another veg such as beans. This week I may try making courgette burgers.

too many courgettes

Earlier in the year we moved the blueberry plants to a place where they would have more space and Richard made a fruit frame to cover them. We have had a good crop of them for the first time. The sunflowers both at the allotment and at home in the garden have grown to a magnificent height. I don't think I have ever grown any so tall before.

sunflowers

As I work through my jobs list, it's good to cross things off. But I never get to the end of the list because other jobs get added all the time. One of the jobs which always gets left to the end is weeding. The plot boundaries and the pond are in need of a really good weeding but never seem to get done. Each year I think I will make a bigger effort, but something else always takes precedence.  There are two corners of the plot which are getting taken over with bindweed and I really must try to get rid of it. Perhaps when I've got the rest of the leeks planted I'll be able to do it.

Allotment catch up

 It seems quite some time since I blogged about the allotment, but we have been so busy. At the moment we are sharing our time between making a new garden at home and doing essential work at the allotment. It's usually alternate days. We are still enjoying good weather and haven't had rain in ages. That of course means we have plenty of watering to do.

 A few weeks ago, we started putting up frames on the plot. Wigwam frames went up for the climbing beans (Blue Lake). My friend gave me the bean plants, they looked amazingly healthy, so I am hoping for good results from them.

The cabbages needed protecting from cabbage white butterflies so they got covered with a frame and netting.

The sweet peas were planted and another frame went up. The biggest frame project though was for the fruit. We moved the blueberries to another bed earlier in the year because they needed more space so Richard made a big fruit frame for them. Last year I lost a lot of blueberries to the birds, I'm determined to get my share of them this year. The other fruit frame needed repairing too. The building of all these frames involves a lot of recycling of wood which is stored behind the shed. We have bits of metalwork too which gets put to good use.

So frames done, the next thing was to sow some peas. The first lot which were planted a few weeks ago had been started off in cardboard tubes. A week or two later I sowed some straight into the ground. I did one short row of  Kelvedon Wonder and a longer row of  Onward. I covered the rows with holly branches to deter the mice. 

The Onward germinated well, but the Kelvedon Wonder only produced two seedlings. I don't know why that is but this week I sowed another row in a different bed of Hurst Green Shaft, so I will wait to see how they do. As the peas start to grow I put twiggy sticks in amongst them for support.

I planted some courgettes last week, along with some flowers--Zinnias and sunflowers.  This week I planted a few more courgettes. They are a round variety with a long Italian sounding name which I have forgotten. I always plant more courgette plants than I really need in case any get eaten by slugs. If they don't then I will have absolutely loads of courgettes, but this doesn't usually happen and I have enough but not too many. 

I also planted more climbing beans this week--Fasold and a purple variety called Blauhilde.

The rhubarb is very big now and I have harvested several lots of it. I freeze a lot of it otherwise we would be eating rhubarb crumble nearly every day. We are still eating the rhubarb jam which I made last year.

Weeks ago I sowed rows of radish and salad leaves and they are now being harvested. The radish were the best I have ever grown.

We have been cutting a few spears of asparagus occasionally, but I feel it is not enough to warrant taking up the space on the plot so I am considering giving up with them.

Hopefully soon all the harvests will get bigger. I can already see broad bean pods forming there are flowers on the peas where pods will soon form, the cabbages are getting bigger and the strawberries are starting to turn pink. That reminds me I need to net them, I have seen one or two of them have been chewed at by some cheeky birds.