Potatoes especially are possibly the best we've ever had - they taste delicious.
The weather definitely can't make it's mind up this year.After a couple of days rain ten days ago it hasn't rained since so we went and watered and picked another decent amount of produce.
Potatoes especially are possibly the best we've ever had - they taste delicious.
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Difficult to believe that a couple of weeks ago we'd had three months worth of rain in about three weeks but already some of the beds look dry on the surface. It hasn't helped that we've had a couple of really hot days and as many of the plants are quite new we need to water, and possibly feed too. Already two outdoor cucumbers have perished, though that may be as much to do with the earlier cold and wet as the hot and dry. Sweetcorn is looking excellent. Potatoes, hopefully, will be better than we've had for the last few years. Onions, too, are looking really good. Carrots are also a lot better than last year. We have our first two courgettes of the season. The comfrey leaves from last week have dried out so we placed them around the tomatoes as a mulch - looks a mess but very effective. Some more produce. First blueberries of the season. Went down for a couple of hours just to check things over and to plant the celery. Given up a bit on the celeriac and gone back to ordinary celery. Planted the celery in sunken beds and surrounded with black membrane to aid blanching. Had a quick look round at everything else. We noticed a lot of cuckoo spit on the rosemary which hasn't been apparent before, We also noticed that the beds we spread a lot of our home-made compost on earlier in the year are now sprouting dozens of little tomato plants. I bet if you planted them properly they wouldn't come up half as well. We've had a small amount of rain since our last visit so everything seems to be thriving. Potatoes. Sweetcorn. Onions and broad beans. Artichokes. Blueberries. Mange-tout And the asparagus is still providing us with a small but steady crop. Went down for nearly four hours to do some work for the first time in a while. Weather forecast for next week is for a dramatic drop in temperature and change in the weather so this may be the last proper day down the allotment until late winter/early spring. Took more garden cuttings etc down. Compost bin is now full to overflowing. Weeded a few beds and generally tidied them up. Sowed some green manure seeds ready for Spring. Trimmed back the asparagus. The leaves on the main blueberry bush are turning to spectacular autumn colours. Planted several rose cuttings to see if they grow next year. Before we left we picked a few carrots. These look a bit better than previous years. Had quite a bit to do today but we had some visitors who were only to eager to help. Becky came down with Sophie and Jess who picked some tomatoes (and unlike Mercy resisted taking a bite out of each one) and also picked a few blueberries and blackberries. We also had Stacey come down to help and she cut the beans down and cleared the bean-sticks and then picked a few of the remaining blackberries. We also cut back some of the stuff that was dying back, particularly around the seating area and we tidied up some of the beds such as the rhubarb. Sophie and Jessica picked a few tomatoes...... ..............and also a few blackberries. The rhubarb looked a bit of a mess so we cleared the dead leaves and tidied the bed. Just some of the produce we picked. Stacey cut the beans down and tidied the sticks. The weather forecast for the week ahead still does not contain any rain and over the next few days the temperature is set to rise to the low thirties degrees Celsius. Having said that we went down late evening today but just picked a load of fruit and veg and gave the watering a rest. What's the betting we're back down there watering within the next two or three days.
Picked the first onions and potatoes this evening. We seem to be going down every other day now. Exceeded thirty degrees today, not for the first time in this heatwave and for the last five weeks it's regularly been in the mid to high twenties with absolutely no rain in the offing. Down yet again to water. I think we may have rescued about 40% of the leeks but everything else is looking good with all this sunshine. Picked some more produce.
With other commitments such as visiting my mom, meeting up with Carol and Ron and looking after the grandchildren, we're now having to go down and water whenever the opportunity occurs. Went down this evening for a couple of hours and gave everything a good soaking but the leeks aren't coping at all. Probably lost about half of them so far but the ones that are left are not growing significantly.
Today there was a little bit of cloud cover and the temperature, at 25 degrees, was down on previous days, but the forecast is for it to climb back up into the thirties later this week. Picked a bit of fruit and veg but nothing major. Mange-touts are obviously loving this weather. We've been getting on top of the allotment since we came back from holiday and now all beds except one have something in them. This is an overview with what's in each bed. The small fruit cage is looking good and the blueberries have settled in well in their new home. The gooseberries are looking good even if there's not a huge amount of them. The asparagus just have to be left now to recuperate for next year. The beetroot is looking promising. The sweet peas, cucumbers and French beans are coming on growing up the canes. The two beds of potatoes are also doing OK. After a disastrous year last year and a slow start this year the carrots are finally looking reasonable. The wallflowers are doing OK but the radishes look to be doing very well indeed. Courgettes are also OK. Sweetcorn too, is OK. Tomatoes seem to be fine. Onions, as always, are coming on OK. Mange-tout and celeriac. The large fruit-cage, as every year, promises much. Parsnips look to be OK. Tomatoes, parsnips and rhubarb. As you can see the leeks have only just been planted. Cabbages too are looking good (through the netting!) The squashes are looking alright but will need to be kept well watered as they're in the very dry/sheltered bottom bed. The main blueberry bath looks to be OK. Finally, there is just one spare, empty bed, and that will be planted up with leeks on our next visit. We clipped some wire netting over the picnic area for the vine and clematis to clamber over but the clematis looks a bit poorly at the moment with parts of it seemingly dying away. Finally, the two trees grown from acorns are growing really well up against the cemetery wall; but the buddleia has pretty much had it. |
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