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.

Hot beans

Suddenly scorching weather. It's been quite windy too, the broad beans are quite tall and some have been blown over. The first beans are almost ready to pick, I love the beans when they're small and sweet.

Six beans in a pod isn't bad, they're a beautiful bright shade of green when they're so young. I'll wait until next week end to do a proper harvest. Then I'll be away two weeks, I hope the other will be okay when I return.

My courgettes have gone into the ground, plants still quite small but I wanted them out of the greenhouse before we go away.

Yep, it's a parsnip! they seem to have done quite well this year unlike the cabbages that didn't germinate. I bought some cabbage plants from the trading hut, two pots for a pound that contained around eighteen decent seedlings which I potted up.

These are turnips which seem to have attracted some pests, I'll have to keep an eye on them. I also bought a few sweet pepper plants from the trading hut, I've never grown them before.

A few globes are forming on the artichokes, I counted only four in total. I really love them boiled and eaten with butter, I hope they get a bit bigger.

The thyme is in flower and looks very pretty, it would make an amazing repeat pattern don't you think?

The first ripe strawberry of the season, I ate it of course and it was delicious. I look set to have a bumper crop this year as long as the slugs don't get them.

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.

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.

Slow grow

It's been much slower this year. Although it was warm in March I think it's been cooler since and although we had a few downpours we haven't really had all that much rain here in Fulham.

The first stirring from the french beans planted two weeks ago, just a couple of them pushing through. Nothing else in the greenhouse has made a move yet, I think it's been too cold for them.

The very first evidence of potatoes, just one plant has become visible  so far.  I did some more planting up today, some purple french beans and some kobacha seeds. The greenhouses are quite full up now!

A lot of strawberry flowers and the raspberry canes seem to keep popping up all over the place.

My first rhubarb this season. Not the longest stalks but I decided to pick some anyway because there's so much of it.

The red green pattern of the stalks never ceases to amaze me, let's hope they taste as good as they look.