3 peas in a pod

Rainy day, Little P's playing at a friend's house, time to blog!

Start of the summer holidays and so far I have only managed to grab a couple of hours at the allotment. I have however been very good and spent an afternoon in school moving and rearranging cupboards. Definitely time for some quality time at the lottie.

Everything is flourishing and I am drafting in the little Ps to help harvest the produce over the summer. Obviously it's their favourite jobs, 'one for home and two for me' comes to mind. Fresh air, exercise and a large chunk of their 5 a day, can't complain.

Anyway onto the plot.

45 has had most of the attention over the past couple weeks so time for 47 to receive some tlc.

I had to start with these pictures of the flowers on 47. You can see why we fell in love with the plot. The flowers are making a beautiful addition to our home and are brightening up every free space.

The Day Lillies are opening and it is a pleasure to walk through 'the jungle' as the little Ps have called them.

I took a cutting from the lilies to see if they would bloom in a vase.

Apparently they do ;)

The rose is in full bloom and I need to have discussions with the new owner of 48a to see if I can train it back across between the 2 plots. If not, tidy it for now and cut back with new trellis in the winter.

Behind the flower beds lies a mass of fat hen and herbs. I'm tempted to try the fat hen in a curry instead of spinach. Beyond the herbs lies a tangle of loganberries, raspberries and blackberries with masses of fruit ready for picking. (Obviously blackberries aren't ready yet but again we have masses forming.)

The gherkin and cucamelon beds are also becoming over run with weeds so that was my starting point. I found it quite fiddly weeding around the cucamelons as they need tying up again so instead have wrapped themselves around the weeds surrounding them and the result is a tangled mess of greenery. Not an easy sorting one handed. Best leave that bit for Mr P ;)

The gherkin plants that survived the slug attacks are starting to fruit as are the cucamelons so obviously not that unhappy with the invasion of weeds.

However what is worrying me is what appears to be rust on the weeds in this bed!

As we are only permitted to have fires between November and March, I have bagged them for disposal at home. Hopefully the plants won't be affected!

So other than eating peas what were the Little Ps doing whilst this was going on?

Bob topped the Charlotte potatoes and pink fir and with JJ dug up our first crop.

These were very tasty last night boiled with a touch of butter. Think I'm going to make potato salad again.

JJ helped me to take the chard out. It took some time taking the roots out without disturbing the rest of the bed. This is the smaller plant.

Mr P took this photo a couple of weeks ago, as you can see the largest chard is as big as me. Time to come out. 

The bed the chard came out of had a good sort out. It was topped up with compost and the radish and spinach spread out. 

Peas were picked....

.....and CP found some pods that  had split so decided to replant them. Never know might be lucky enough to get a second crop September/October time. Clever cookie knew to cover them up to stop the pigeons.

Purple French beans are forming. Not quite enough for a meal but give it a week.

The fruits of the Little P's hard work. Most of the produce had gone over but will harvest the seed for next year.

What amazes me is looking back through my previous posts how much more the Little Ps are able to do now and the skills and knowledge that they are accruing. Last year I would never have trusted Bob with the secateurs and JJ has her own tools. KP has taken on a bed (although has not been here long enough to plant it) and CP can carry the small watering can when it is full. They won't be little Ps for long!


So what's next?

 The loganberries and raspberries need picking and using, little project for the Little Ps to research over the summer.

Wine needs to be moved on to the next stage.

Oh and keeping on top of the weeds and watering, although looking at the forecast for the week ahead, watering is not going to be such an issue until nearer the weekend.


Thanks for reading

That's shallot!!

Yeah I know the titles get cheesier but so hard not to!!?

Today is the penultimate day of the school year here and quite frankly I am looking forward to having no excuse for not getting to the plots everyday. The paperwork has been laid to rest for a couple of weeks, although I can't leave it all Summer as it needs to be ready for the start of September. (Apologies typical workaholic teacher)

So here's the weekly, nearly 2 weekly round up!

As the title suggests our biggest success story since my last post is our shallots. We started off with 12 individual bulbs and have ended up with a draining board full! We lost some early on to rabbits however the crop more than makes up for those that Bugs Bunny's relatives pinched.

We've started cutting our flowers from the cut flowerbed. Decorated the fireplace, window sill, mantle piece and table with these beauties.

Having so many strawberries we were in a quandary as of how to best use them. Unfortunately quite a few have rotted on the plants as we could not pick them fast enough, however the remainder has been put to good use. We have started brewing our own strawberry wine :)

We have an abundance of peas and mange tout and CP has impressed her teacher by picking her own snack this week.

Our Lautrec garlic is ready and has been ready for a couple of weeks. We have rescued it in time and it is drying. The plan is to hold on to 1 bulb of each of the varieties grown to plant again this Autumn.

Cecelia has been removed for now and the area given a thorough weeding allowing everything to get going properly.

Our Avalon patio squash is training itself along the side of the greenhouse.

Our cucumbers are flowering and we have fruit forming on all three plants. We have one 'normal cucumber as JJ calls them and two crystal cucumbers.

The Turks Turban are flowering.

Our Tom-tato in the greenhouse is fruiting and the little P's are all fighting over who gets the first ripe tomatoes.

Despite what looks like potato blight the Charlotte potatoes are doing well and I am starting to dig them up a couple of plants at a time. 

The disaster of the week is that our Kohl Rabi have split! As you can see from the picture I found a big slug munching on the middle. Very frustrating to say the least!

So what's next? 

Plot 45: 
Cecil needs a good weeding and we have cabbages ready to harvest.
The chard in the salad bed is as tall as me! It is also collapsing under its own weight. Time for trim.
There's the usual weeding etc. I have a butternut and a further Turks turban to plant.

Plot 47:
WEED!
Plant the remainder of the plants sitting and waiting in the greenhouse.
Pick the loganberries and find an interesting recipe ;)

Blight or magnesium deficiency?

I've been growing potatoes for a while at home and last year in plot 45 and until now have been incredibly fortunate not to have had any problems. This year however I think we might have something to worry about.

During my evening watering I came across this plant not looking too happy. I noticed it was wilting before the weekend but had Bob watering them with the instruction to tell me if anything looked different. Obviously missed this one.

Is this the dreaded blight? I have 5 rows planted but only 1 plant is affected. I've not grown potatoes where this particular plant is before and we found no stray tubers when we took on the plot 2 years ago. Can anyone advise please?

Thanks for reading.

We're into the last few of weeks of term so unsurprisingly last week was yet another manic week. Saying that, we've managed to get a few bits done at the plot and everything is flourishing with the arrival of summer.

Yesterday I was the first one on site!! Definitely a first for a Sunday morning ;) My reward was a breakfast of strawberries, raspberries and loganberries. Although they do taste a lot better when you haven't just brushed your teeth!

We are picking around a kilo of strawberries a day. I had to share this photo, a regular strawberry and one from the plot. All very sweet and juicy. I have found an interesting recipe for strawberry wine so if Mark is up for it we could get the home brew kit out again ;)

Our broad beans have fallen victim to black fly again and were starting to show signs of rust so I have had to remove them :( The bed has had a thorough digging over and all seeds discarded, we will have to start again in the Autumn and I already have a spot in mind :)

With a bed going spare it was time to rummage in the greenhouse and I came across some very pot bound tomatoes in desperate need of re-homing. They were ready to go out a month ago but with the inconsistent weather I decided to wait a while longer.

We have four different varieties, but I'm not entirely sure what two are called as we were given leftovers by a friend. The two I do know are hundreds and thousands and striped. We grew striped last year and these are the remainder of our seeds. I will make a point of collecting more seeds ready for next year.

I removed several of our marigolds from the flower bed and have companion planted them with the tomatoes to ward off any unwanted nasties. Mark erected wigwams around the tomatoes last year to support them, they're ready and waiting for when the tomatoes take off.

So what to do with the gaps in the flowerbed? Last year I collected seeds from our Gazania plants and have grown our own this year. With vibrant red and yellow flowers, they should be a colourful alternative.

So what's the plan for this week?

Maintenance is the agenda of the week. With only 2 weeks left until the end of term and having loose ends to tie up at work, time is precious.

Weeds are creeping back and 47 is looking untidy so that will be the focus for the next few days.

There's still plants left in the greenhouse to transplant although not all of them will go outside, some just need bigger pots.

I have to be realistic, after all I am a one armed bandit and not superwoman ;)


Thanks for reading. Have a good week:)

Pinch punch first of the month

So after a  busy week of birthdays, school concerts, end of year proms and scorching summer heat time for an update ;)

Everything is looking good on 45!


The flowerbed is properly edged and we have some perennials planted as well as annuals. The front has been strimmed, the holes filled in and Mark has relocated our plot sign to the middle, rather than the slightly relaxed position it's had laid in the corner for the last 12 months!

The mangetout are flowering and we have our first pods appearing, plus a few remaining plants we found hiding in the back of the greenhouse have been added to the bed in the hope they catch up soon.

The purple and yellow dwarf french beans are starting to flower and are finally looking much stronger than earlier in the season after being ravished by the local slugs.

Our peas are coming along nicely with flowers on most plants and the earlier plants being full of pods.

The blackcurrants are ripening and have been netted to keep the birds off as we don't want a repeat of last year!

We have had our first raspberries!

Our blueberry bush is full of fruit. Mark has avoided strimming round them so as not to disturb the fruit. (not to mention he stood on the bush last year!)

We have an abundance of some of the sweetest tasting strawberries we've ever had. We are picking around a kilo a day every day and there's no sign of running out any time soon! The little Ps have been taking them to school in their lunchboxes but really need to find another use. I don't want to waste any, they taste fantastic! So if anyone would like to share their favourite recipes it would be greatly appreciated.

So onto plot 47...

The gherkins are doing well, although we lost 3 last week to slug damage!

I planted some gherkin seeds directly into the soil to replace the damaged ones and they have been quick to make an appearance. Fingers crossed they're left alone this time.

Cucumelons are loving the heat and are growing quickly now.

 The flowerbed needs a tidy but it is not looking too bad and the flowers are blooming!

So what's next?

We still have lots of plants to transplant from the greenhouse, so this weeks mission is to finish getting them in during the cooler evenings as well as keeping everything hydrated in the heat. The temperature hit 35 according the car this afternoon !!!

Thanks for reading. :)