Pathetic peas

All this rain and weeds are growing like mad. most of the week end has been spent having a good tidy up. The lavender in bloom around the plot post looks good, the bind weed growing through the lavender isn't so welcome.

The french beans are reaching the tops of the canes now and are in flower. The Violet has appropriately purple flowers! The yellow beans have creamy coloured flowers and the normal green beans have white flowers.

The pathetic peas. Only one plant has really got going enough to produce pods, a disappointment after last year.

I ate them directly from the pod, so sweet and tasty. I wish I had a few more.

I was worried about blight, my neighbour thought my potatoes might have it. I think they're just going over. I dug up a plant to check, fifteen smallish new potatoes, all in good condition.

There's quite a few raspberries coming, they prefer the cooler wet conditions. In Scotland we saw them growing wild in the way Blackberries do here.

This one was ready to eat which I did without even washing my hands!

Some weeds are more attractive than others but they all had to go, at least they come up roots and all from the damp soil. I now have mud ingrained into my finger nails.

The view from the compost heap. Under the green nets and with plenty of slug pellets for defence I put out my savoy cabbages. In front of that there are some more tomato plants and in the very front patch I've tried putting out some leeks although they were rather tiny.

Progress

Such a long time since my last entry and so much has happened, sorry I've been to busy to post. a two week holiday in June isn't the best timing for the allotment but it has to be done. This bag of beans I picked before I went away.

Some pods held as many as seven beans! Shelling them takes ages and is hard work on my nails.

I've probably picked about a dozen of these tubs full now, each tub holds about 700g of beans. There are eleven tubs in the deep freeze and we've eaten a few beans already.

I had quite a tasty strawberry crop too, these are from the newer plants I put in last year. They have a really good flavour.

Yum yum!

The french beans aren't looking so hot right now. Quite a few had blown off their canes and I had to re wrap them, you always twist them anti-clockwise because this is the way they grow. I wonder if they grow clockwise in Australia?

The parsnips are doing well, really! I had to do a lot of careful weeding but the Turnips and beetroot have fared okay as well.

I put out some tomato plants before I went away worried that they'd dry out if I left them undercover.  They've survived but are still really small, the few I did leave covered are much bigger and I need to plant them out as well now.

The potatoes are in flower, these ones are a pretty pale shade of blue.

Most of them are whiter like these above.

I have several big globe artichokes now. This plant has tulip shaped globes.

These are more traditional round artichokes but they're supposed to be the same variety.

I picked two which we ate for supper, despite the shape they were very tasty.

More beans, like green fingers reaching up. Some plants are so heavy with beans they've collapsed.

My very first patty pan squash, it's about the size of a fifty pence piece at the moment.

The courgettes are tiny, quite a few fruits have appeared but all really small so far.

And the yellow ones are even smaller, perhaps one cm long.

This might be my total crop of peas. Despite a double planting I've only got about six plants and this is the first pod on the only one that's in flower.

I dug my garlic up too. The foliage had died right back, the heads aren't that big but they weren't about to get any bigger.

Snails

Even the plot sign has snails on it at the moment. Along with the slugs they're munching anything they can, slug pellets are killing so many around the green house that the ground crunches with shells when I walk on it.

The plot is just starting to fill out a bit but I'm at least two weeks behind last year due to the weather. I put up the canes for the french beans, there's a gap on the right where the soil is too thin to plant above a concrete drain.

I planted out six of each of the three varieties of climbing beans. Violette, yellow and green. This leaves a dozen post still needing a plant, I have many more but didn't want to put them all out at once.

Looking down the canes. A few more peas have come up but I still don't really have a decent row of them.

Parsnips have just grown a bit, it's always good to see the true leaves then you know what is what when weeding.

I was eating strawberries at this time in 2011, I just have my first fruits forming this year.

There are a lot of flowers though so I hope to get a bumper crop unless the slug get there first. The rhubarb is also going mad, I've picked so much I might have to freeze some.

The first few pods are showing on the broad bean plants. I picked the growing tops off of them today and will have them for dinner.

The potatoes seem quite content, even the 'missing' one is beginning to come through.

More rain

The beans are now towering over the garlic, the wet week has seen everything grow including the weeds. I also spotted my first blackfly, it'll be time to pinch out the bean tops soon.

The main crop potatoes are all beginning to show through although there's nothing from the earlies yet. Also a few rouge potatoes I must have left in the ground have begun to grow at various places around the plot.

Still tiny but the beetroot have begun to form their first true leaves now.

Still only about a half dozen pea plants have come through, what's happened to the rest? I might have to put some extra plants in but it wasn't possible in the soaked conditions today.

I'm so glad I planted some other things up earlier, artichokes and nasturtiums have now come through.

The yellow beans are just breaking through as well. I had hoped to put a trellis up for the french beans today but it was too wet to walk on the soil.

Ever faithful courgettes have all germinated. My neighbour said he'd give me some plants as well, I already have six plants so perhaps we're heading for a glut again?

And I also have some patty pan squash. The cobnut and kobacha squash haven't come through yet, too cold I reckon.

The green french beans are doing okay, I hope to get these guys in the soil before the end of May.

Along with the weeds there are some pretty wild flowers that have come through.

And in the hedgerow there are bluebells.

And purple bluebells! 

After the rain

I was keen to see the damage done with all the storms and hail this week.  although a few broad beans had flopped over they had in general benefited from all the rain. They're taller than the garlic now.

Elsewhere the french beans are coming along nicely, only about half have germinated so far. 

A couple of the patty pan squash have also germinated, it's great when these things start to grow.

Not all good news though, both sunflower seeds have germinated but been attacked by snails, despite all the slug pellets I've sprinkled around the greenhouse.

Outside the peas are just beginning to show, I've covered them with a net before the birds spot them.

Also the beetroot has germinated, there's a fine line of small green leaves were they've come up. I'll wait a while before I thin them out.

The strawberry plants are starting to fill out a bit and are still covered in  flowers.

I picked some more rhubarb, my only crop for the moment. They're still a bit on the short side but I can't wait for them to grow any bigger.

The glossy red stalks look amazing in the sunlight.

The second broad beans have also benefited from all the rain, I'm sure they'll catch the first ones up shortly. Nothing new planted today but I might get a chance to put a few things in on Sunday if the weather holds.