Still here!

We're still here beavering away, so much to do I haven't updated for 6 weeks or so. Her's a quick update of the past few weeks.

I was delighted to find baby cauliflowers this week, they are tiny probably not much bigger than a golf ball.

Amazingly these peppers are just growing now, I think it's because of the lovely sunshine that we have had for the past few weeks.

We also have a couple of squash, I'm hoping that they'll continue to grow.

and more marrows, luckily my family are loving stuffed marrow:)

Lily had another sunflower, a bit bigger this time.

I've also done a lot of weeding

and found some creepy crawlies, this one was on an aubergine plant, it's a flower crab spider, which changes colour to blend in with the background. I assume this one had just come off the gherkin flowers.

Butterflies that left some

not so welcome visitors

We've harvested quite a few things lots of sweet peas.

yummy sweetcorn

There's still plenty growing turnips, swedes, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, leeks, cabbage, cauliflowers, sprouts, broccolli, chard, pak choi, kale, courgettes and squash. I've planted potatoes that should be ready for Christmas and I have red onions and garlic to go in this week.

Week 12

Well week 12 is here, we should be harvesting loads by now but the weather is really not helping, first it was really dry then it was rain, rain and more rain, subsequently I have had to pull up 24 rotted tomato plants this week, not happy! Plenty of weeds around though.

Bees and insects too.

Lots of flowers on courgettes, marrow, squash, gherkins, runner beans, peas and strawberries.

The sweetcorn are coming along too.

Look out there's a pea thief about!

We picked this little lot on Tuesday. I said to Lily that I was going to pull up some turnips, so she stood behind me put her arms round my waist and said pull, pull, very funny. She loves 'The Enormous Turnip story.

My first picking of peas,

runner beans

and the 'enormous' turnips.

And a marrow that I stuffed and cooked last night, surprisingly they ate it and declared that it tasted lovely.

Oh and I mustn't forget Lily's first strawberry.

Week 11

Week ten on the allotment

I found this little fella yesterday and he kindly posed for about 20 photos.

The sweetcorn is doing well.

The nasturtiums are providing a welcome splash of colour.

We now have 1 inch runners beans along with quite a few flowers.

Peas.

Rainbow chard, I picked some yesterday, haven't tried it yet though.

Purple flowers on one of the aubergines, very hard to photograph as it's quite low to the ground.

My first courgette and tomato and some more radishes.

Another courgette, rainbow chard and yet more radishes.

A bit of colour and the wormery.

We've had quite a lot of rain this week and it's very warm too so everything is having a growth spurt. Lots of flowers on the plants too so hopefully after a bit of sunshine and if Mr bee comes across there may be something to eat! We've put out some slug pubs and tested lager then bitter to no avail so now have real ale in there.

Lots of insects around, don't know if these are good guys or bad.

I have managed to pick some sweet peas.

Pretty runner bean flowers.

A crystal lemon cucumber apparently a favourite of Victorian times.

A sweet pepper.

My first lot of Desiree potatoes, there's hopefully a lot more but I only dug what I needed.

I've bought a wormery with 1000 composting worms, which will hopefully give us not only lovely compost but some rich fertiliser too.

Things are starting to improve this week.

We used a strimmer and cut all the paths at last.

I've planted lots of swede, turnips, brocolli, cabbage, cauli, sprouts, carrots and parsnips, hence the white fleece everywhere, it's very fine so the water can still seep through and the plants seem to be growing well underneath.

Lily was delighted to find a flower on her strawberry plant at last.

Although the 16 tomato plants look rather sparse as far as greenery is concerned there are now quite a few little tomatoes growing.

Broad beans are still flowering although the first planting have been attacked by greenfly & blackfly. I found an organic spray, which is safe for use near children and you can eat the veg on the same day as spraying, but have now noticed some ladybirds so hopefully nature will sort things out!

Sweetcorn is doing well so I'll be able to remove the net soon, I've found out it's Jackdaws that pulled up my seedlings, so now I net everything.

Runner beans are starting to romp away at last, couple of flowers starting too and we've had rain today so that should do them alot of good.

Peas are looking well, I was concerned about a couple of mice holes in the ground but no damage yet.

These are some of the neighbours chicks, we are hoping to get some soon probably not from this bunch but similar.

Can you spot the lacewing?

Love the colour of these thistles.

I don't know what these are, they are growing all along the hedge and smell gorgeous.

Yesterday I finally managed to pick something, yay!

These are the books I've been using, as I don't tend to watch gardening programmes I don't really know who gives the best advice. I bought Carol's book last year and it's very easy to follow, I've bought the 'Cook your own veg' one now and it has some nice recipes in there.

Had to get these two as well of course, getting plenty of tips.

A bit of rain please.

Rainbow chard

Oh, it's hard work! I'm sure next year will be alot easier because we will have an earlier start. As we were a few months behind with the planting everything is taking so long to grow and we have to constantly take water down there, it's very exposed and the soil is drying out quickly.

Peas

Luckily the rabbit fence has worked but I have noticed mouse holes, no damage as yet! The pheasant took a liking to my sweetcorn seedlings and pulled them up but I managed to save most of them and placed upturned/bottomless plant pots & netting over them. This did the trick as they are doing well now.

Sweetcorn

Runner beans

Broad beans

Courgettes (can you see them?)

I think what worries me is the difference between the plants in the allotment and the ones in my garden. In the garden it's all green and lush, which is where I normally grow runner beans so I hope I get as many this year!

Potatoes

Jerusalem Artichokes

I know I shouldn't say it but I hope we'll get some rain tomorrow and then some more sunshine for the weekend, of course.