Nice Of You To Drop By

Looking around my allotment I notices quite a few volunteers (no don,t mean spuds)some are things I have planted in the past others have just dropped in

A pansy growing amongst the runner beans

Lemon balm, makes lovely tea,think I will replant this in a pot as it spreads

Bronze Fennel again by the beans, will replant this when it dies back
Camomile I planted this 5 years ago,lots of uses including a relaxing tea

This Bee is a welcome guest! no shortage of them on the marigolds

These Sparrows are in my front garden. this is taken through my home window
These Sarpo Potatoes are still green and healthy although Blight has killed potatoes all around them. have dug some up,they are tasty and a good size only thing is slugs are getting at them as it is sooo wet! will try to dig them up when (if) we get a few days of dry weather

This weeks harvest

Here are the Salad Leaves I sowed weeks ago. think I might start some more!!

Time to look to the future! These are the winter cabbage just waiting for room
Leaminton Cauli,Avron Cauli,January King,Savoy Emerald and Torvoy

Spring Greens and winter onions just sprouting.Sushyu and Sonic onions.Brassicas are Winter Green,April,Early Queen and Flower of Spring,doesnt seem like 5 mins ago I was eating this years!

I,m Still Alive (and so is most of my allotment)

Here we are mid August and it,s quite chilly and very wet! the greenhouse is full of ripening tomatoes but the leaves look very sorry for themeselves :o( I think it,s because it is so damp, i am cutting down a lot of the plant and allowing lower shoots to grow

the beans have decided to live and we had our first meal off of them at the begining of august,they are very late but I am hoping that they will carry on till october if the frost stays away here are the runner beans at last


And the french climbing beans a mixture of Blue Lake and cobra

The pond has a lot of Duckweed on it this year and I am having to net out a lot of dead slugs! don,t mind slugs getting suicidal but not in the middle of my pond!!!

Loads of baby frogs around,have to watch where you walk. I am glad to say our new next door neighbours like frogs

the courgette and squash are doing well,afraid some marrows have had to go to compostas they get ginourmouse very quickly here are the squashes

Last but not least some resent harvests

Where is this Year Going?

It is now July and we are half way through the year (or should I say have the 2nd half to look forward to). we have dug a few potatoes up,not a huge quantity per plant but they tasted yummy!the beans continue to look a bit pathetic,we keep having really high winds which blow them off the canes cannot help thinking that if they were not so puny they would cling on,the nieghbouring plot has very strong ones and his thick stemmed and dark green whilst mine are light. any way I have tried to erect a windbreak to protect my poor little runts

We have also caged this years brassicas againt the local bird population,the PSB and sprouts have discovered a will to live and seem strong enough to see off the slugs

here is todays harvest

In The Greenhouse
Have been trying to increase the tomatoes by supporting them right up to the roof axis and the same with the cucumber,hopfully it will increase air cerculation as well

Have sowed a selection of cut and come again salad leaves in pots most have germinated

No sign of the Plumeria yet :o( I have put them on a sunny window sill indoors and talk to them daily,perhaps thats why!!!

In the Greenhouse

I have been sent some Plumeria seeds from a friend in Australia (thanks Georgie)I shall report how I get on here. this is how they look now

This is how I hope they will look one day

and another

and this one

Ihave also discovered a taste for Basil Tea it is supposed to help stop bloating
(I have lost nearly 3st in weight so a swollen tum actually shows :0)
I sent for a offer of different varieties and they are coming up yum yum

and so are the winter cabbage,shall pot these on till the ground is cleared of spring cabbage.I know I work my patch hard but I try to replace goodness that I take out

If You Don,t Succeed, Try Again

And thats what I did! I,v resown the carrots and covered with fleece and they have come up better than before

I,v had to mix Cobra french beans in with the Blue lake, they seem to be looking strong and healthy. Hoping they will stand up to the slimy enemy better :0)

The runner beans Mergoles, were mostly just battered and looked very poorlyand I will have to rethink about growing them on at home next year even though I had hardend them off well.I have resown some and think they will make it even though they are behind others on the site

The sweetcorn has benefited from being covered with a large piece of white netting thats been hanging about for years they are interplanted with turtle bean,

Here is one of the two butternut squashes,there were three but one got slugged
I,v no idea if this is right as I have never grown them before

Am still planting winter brassicas in the space vacated by spring greens,the summer cabbage is coming on fine

and more with peas and lettuce,radish and spring onions

The 1st potatoes are almost ready for digging,there was a blight scare so I sprayed with bordeaux. the maincrop should be OK as they are Sarpo ones (fingers crossed)

the parsnips continue to do well,that is one crop I will grow on at home again

and finally todays harvest

I,m Feeding The Local Wildlife

And no,not by choice! On my last post Iwas complaining about the weeds growing inbetween the carrots only to find the other day AL weeds and NO carrots just little stalks,have cleared the strip and resown and covered it up think rabbits might be guilty. next to my newly transplanted french beans well they were french beans

slugs?birds? then the sweetcorn. birds here I think! covered them as well

think they took a battering from high winds as well
So what about the lovely healthy runner beans, not quite so damaged but not looking good

the PSB and russian kale is also being slugged so I keep replacing from spares at home. also have resown french beans and runners THIS IS WAR and I aint beaten yet
On a lighter note still harvesting spring greens and the lettuce is plentiful

And this is one of my favourites,it,s an annual called Cerinthe

We are having a dry spell at the moment but rain is expected over the next few days
everything is belting up,I am sure things will get better by the next time I post

Everything is Shooting Up, Including The Weeds

Things are certainly in a growing mood but although the sun is shining there is a north easterly wind cooling things down and it still possible to get a frost so trying to hold back on the more tender things
I sowed carrots this year by broadcasting them over a foot wide area they are coming up with most just getting the real leaves but they are hard to see as the weeds are doing well there too and I am afraid of disturbing the carrot roots while removing the weeds

The parsnips that were chitted on a paper towel and and then grown on in root-trainers are looking good, worth all the fiddling around I think

The front garden has changed again with alium and granniebonnets adding colour

It is living up to being called a wildlife garden!we watched the sparrows teach their chicks how to feed off greenfly on the R.rugosa but only managed to snap mum

Also watched a frog over several hours just sitting on a stone managed to get this pic before he jumped in among the many tadpoles