High Summer

 

After last years prize winning pumpkin but less than thrilling squash I am pleasantly surprised by the first Festival squash picked on Monday night. About 5 – 6 inches but aesthetically wonderful. Several more on their way but some time off I think. Other cucurbits are coming along but not photogenic yet. (cucumbers, pumpkins and decorative gourds) 

My sister is very ill and so this and other family issues leave little time for the allotment at the moment but it is still wonderful to be able to sit and think by the chamomile lawn and lavender bush and keep the stress down.  Joan bought an echinacea plant after seeing it on mtp a couple of weeks back but it is in the garden at the moment until I decide exactly where it should go to add to the sense of calm.

It is very reassuring to see that the allotment will produce its bounty even without me attacking the weeds. I just need to remember that I do need to sow or plant first.

Below is a selection of lettuce ( Webbs Wonderful, Lollo Rosso and others), peas (Hurst Green Shaft – not impressed so far), runner beans ( Aintree ), courgettes (Pomodoro and AN Other), beetroot (Chioggia) and carrot thinnings.

The onions will need to be lifted soon as the necks have all gone over. No prizes this year I suspect! 

Summer Selection

I also cut back almost all of my tomatoes in the garden yesterday as the blight had got to them. I’ll try to save those few left but interestingly of the four varieties, only the cherry type ( Red Alert) was least affected. The left over plants that I put in the mini greenhouse look more promising now even though they are still in 4″ pots and on a liquid diet.

New Pickings

Black Red and White currants

Finally decided that I should pick the currents at the weekend.  Not sure about the weight but must be a couple of pounds of blackcurrants.

The Redcurrants were lost at the start of the season. I think the wind got to them or possibly birds right at the beginning. I netted the three bushes quite early and lost very few. I look forward to eating them later.

 

Eschallot Grise

The shallots have dried out nicely so I trimmed them to about 3 ins and will hang them in the string bag. About 1.5 Kg (189 bulbs)  from 12 surviving plants. I lost four to rot and then another before I decided to cut my losses and lift them several weeks ago.

The broad beans plants were all lifted and some left over runner and french beans put in their place as a second crop.

Lollo Rosso and Winter Density lettuces doing well in their nursery between the leeks. Also just sown Webbs Wonderful, Ice King, Mixed Shades and Salad Bowl to give me some later lettuces.

 

Overview

Just to show that there are other things going on – a shot from the North East corner looking up and across the allotment.

In the foreground are Cabbages – Savoy Endeavour, Ruby Perfection and Candice.

Runner and French beans – Aintree and Empress

Onions – Red Baron and New Fen Globe,

Potatoes – Desiree

Out of Shot – Parsnips and Celery,

Middle beds from the bottom:

Peas – Hurst green Shaft ( almost ready to pick)

Onions,

Potatoes – Kestrel

Cucumbers – Marketmore and Burpless

Pumpkins - Crown Prince

Decorative gourds ( some of last years still going strong)

Broccoli, Spinach, Swiss Chard

Far beds:

Leeks – Musselburgh

Lettuces – various

Potatoes – Pentland Javelin

Carrots – Early Nantes and Parmex

Beetroot – Chioggia and Wodan,

Sprouts – Berwick and Cromwell

Lettuces

Sweetcorn

At the top is Sweetpeas, Lettuces, Rhubarb, Sunflowers, Courgettes – Gold Rush, Pomodoro and unknown green, Squashes

I can’t remember all the specifics so I’ll update this later!

The Season Begins (again)

Away at the weekend so not back on the allotment until 5:30 on Monday evening after two hours shredding the vines removed from the trellis. I did manage to get in two 3ft rows of beetroot. Last years worked so well I am trying them again – Detroit 6 Rubidus -  but I also spotted an RHS variety – Wodin – that looks interesting. The books suggest soaking the multigerm seeds before sowing but it became impossible to deal with them so I did it the old way. I did soak them well afterwards

I realised that without some seeds growing I would have nothing to plant later so got to work.

Allowing for slugs and other losses I put 40 sweetcorn – Honeydew, 4 pumpkin – Hundredweight and 10 cucumber – Marketmore – into the propagator.

I also sowed 17 (the whole packet) courgette – Gold Rush, 10 squash – Hunter, 8 runner bean – White Lady, half a tray of leeks – Prizetaker and half a tray of a second parsnip – Hollow Crown.

In the picture above, the Cromwell and Montgomery sprouts are coming along nicely even with the snail attacks and the Panache parsnips are nearly ready to move from their root-training pots into the nicely prepared bed.  (Thanks to Hugh for the mini rotovator that makes the final stages so much easier). The end two rows in the root trainers are the newly planted runner beans.