The glut

The courgettes are coming thick and fast, this little lot picked on Wednesday weighed in at 3.5Kg and I picked almost the same amount again yesterday. At least 5Kg of courgettes a week!

Likewise the french beans have stepped it up a bit too, about 4Kg of beans a week at the moment. Most of this produce is going into the deep freeze. French beans are easy to freeze, the courgettes are cooked up with tomatoes and then frozen.

The sunflower is enjoying the hot weather and looking at it's best right now.

My neighbour had some left over leeks after he'd planted his. He gave them to me and I've now been able to fill in where my earlier ones didn't take. Let's see how these ones do.

These are my cucumbers. The larger one is perhaps 15cm long but not very thick, I don't know how long I leave them growing for? The skin is quite spiny.

I've spotted about half a dozen squash forming so far, hopefully there will be a few more undetected so far. There not very big yet but will grow for another couple of months at least.

Although these ones don't look too bad most of my tomatoes now show signs of blight and the fruits themselves are not yet ripe. I wonder if I'll be able to salvage any sort of crop?

Although it looks chilli like this is supposed to be a capsicum pepper. I'll let it go on growing and see what happens to it.

Wings of Desiree

Although the potato crop wasn't as big as last year the Desiree potatoes did okay. Quite a large bag full to keep us going until Christmas I hope.

My sunflower (only one survived the slugs) is in bloom, just. I'm sure it'll open out a bit more over the next few days. It's not quite 5 foot high and the flower is only about 6 inches wide.

Courgettes are coming thick and fast, the yellows doing rather well. I'm picking twice a week perhaps ten each visit.

I might get a cucumber yet! Only one plant survived (again thank you slugs)  and it has several tiny spiny cucumbers forming on it.

The first of the squash are also beginning to form, by shape I'd guess this was a cobnut squash, I'll have to wait and see what the other ones are.

Finally some tomatoes, they're rather small cherry tomatoes. I hope we get enough sun to ripen them.

Boat race

The noise of helicopters, pa systems and even a blimp must mean it's the boat race again. My garlic is looking good, I watered it yesterday which I think it appreciated.

First beans are getting ever bigger. Not much actually happening on the plot right now, mostly I'm planting things up for later.

The second beans are catching up. I planted up some yellow french beans in the green house, but they won't be planted out until much later.

Rhubarb row is filling out but I not big enough to pick any yet.  Undercover I also planted up some leeks from a free packet of seeds I got last year, I wonder if they'll germinate?

The stalks look good and pink but they need to get a bit longer before I pick them. I've also planted up a few new globe artichoke plants.

The strawberries are still in flower but no evidence of fruit forming as of yet. I planted a couple of sunflower seeds and some nasturtiums to put out later in the spring.

So lots planted up in the two greenhouses but nothing to eat at the moment! This time last year my peas were already sprouting and I had picked my first rhubarb. although we've had the sunshine I guess it's been generally to dry and perhaps a bit cold so far in April this year. 
I heard the live commentary on the boat race and sounded rather exciting what with swimmers and broken oars, Cambridge came home first in an event filled race.

Sunflowers

Both sunflowers are now in bloom, they look very pretty with the nasturtiums growing around the base of them.

The hot damp weather has given me a load more tomatoes to harvest and of course even more french beans. I weighed them when I got home and yet again over 5.5kg! I can't give them away fast enough.

I have about five or six cobnut squash growing, not sure how long to wait before I pick them? I also dug up the rest of my early potatoes, I'd guess about 20kg of spuds. There were also as I thought a few desiree plants mixed in, the pink potatoes are much bigger so probably 5kg of them from three plants.

The cabbage and broccoli are growing under netting to protect them from the birds. So although there are a lot of weeds around them the cabbages are doing well and beginning to ball up.

Here's a view of the broccoli from above, the plants are a lovely colour with minty green leaves and light purple stalks. I've never grown sprouting broccoli before so I've no idea how long it takes before they sprout, the plants look healthy and are about 45cm tall I guess.

Bean bags

French beans in bags, about 5.5Kg of them! This years glut and I'm going to have to start giving them away as we have another 2Kg in the fridge already.

Not to be left out the squash and courgettes are still highly productive, about a dozen of each every week and there are now five cobnut squash but they will be ready a bit later.

The first of my sunflowers is in bloom, it's only about five feet tall a tiddler compared to some on other plots.

I also got to pick my first four tomatoes, there are plenty of green ones which i hope ripen soon in this warm weather.

Look who I found when cutting the grass! A common frog I believe, I don't know where it came from but as long as it eats the slugs I don't mind. It had very pretty speckled markings. He was only about 5cm long.

I also picked a couple of beetroot, one red as you'd expect but the other was white. At first I thought it might be a stray turnip but it definitely was a beetroot. Paul thought perhaps an albino one? Was it a rare specimen? Too late we ate it. I've also picked a lot of nasturtium flowers, they're very peppery but nice in salad.

Muggy May

Surprisingly humid May weather, we had a good deal of rain last night and the sun has been peeping out from between the clouds this afternoon while I attended to the plot. My very first strawberry has gone red, I didn't pick it yet as it's still a bit unripe on the other side.

Things are growing on well #68, not too many bare patches left and I still have broccoli, cabbages and tomatoes to plant out.

The peas are coming on well so I put out some canes with string pulled across them to give the plants something to hold on to.

The potatoes are looking good. In the bottom right there was a plant that didn't come up so I planted another potato there which is just beginning to come through.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely, still a bit small yet but I hope to plant them out by the end of the month. I went through the greenhouse to see how things were fairing. I've planted out a few more french beans, they're much bigger than the ones which I planted out earlier. I also put three germinated sunflowers in the soil beside my shed, let's see how tall they get.

I had taken this tray out of the greenhouse the other week because I thought nothing was happening with it. Then today I could see little shoots which are unmistakably asparagus plants. I've got no idea where I shall plant them out and it'll be at least another two years before I have any spears to eat.

I collected some herbs before I went home, the thyme is in flower and the lavender has a lot of buds on it.