Go wild

A quick Wednesday night visit confirmed things have got pretty wild again, just can't take a week off at this time of year. All the rain and warm weather had conspired to make the weeds grow like weeds!

The plants are growing too, here we see the very first of my patty pan squash, bright yellow about the size of a squash ball (appropriately).

I picked a few courgettes, four green and one yellow. There will be a lot more to come.

The peas are doing really well I think I'll have to pick them this week-end or next, they're so sweet when they're fresh.

A lot of weeding revealed a much better row for the secong parsnips and also quite a good beetroot row, it's strange how far ahead some plants in the row are than others planted at the same time. I saw this beetle which was about 4cm long. I think it's a female Stag beetle - they are quite rare.

The jungle

 I needn't have worried about watering the plants for the past two weeks, it looks like their has been plenty of rain. The french beans are already touching the tops of their trellis. All this water has also made the weeds go crazy and the plot was in a bit of state when I arrived.

The courgettes are coming on nicely, just the first few tiddlers to pick but flowers blooming with the promise of more to come. The patty pan squash also have flowers but the cobnut squash are yet to follow suit.

The leeks I left over from last year are now coming into flower, the stems are about five feet tall with big purple flower heads, very pretty if not much use.

The first peas are covered with pods some of which are beginning to swell. I picked a few for dinner but I think having podded them it might be a little early as I have micro peas but they are very sweet.

Here they are once picked and podded, the biggest ones are about petit pois size.

The broad beans are falling over with the weight of the pods on them. I picked a huge bag full making about five and a half tubs of beans most of which have gone into the freezer.

There are the two types of broad beans, the ones I planted in autumn are called Masterpiece Longpod. They have wonderful green beans in as the name suggests long pods with about six or seven beans per pod. The other type has whiter beans which are bigger but with perhaps only three or four in each pod.

The potatoes seem to be doing really well, especially the ones closest to the shed. I thought these were the earlies so dug some up but their red colour tells me they must be the main crop Desiree so i better leave the rest for a while.

The globe artichokes have come on a lot, these three heads are off the biggest plant. I was worried they had opened up too much but I was told the heart should still be good to eat, I'll have a go at cooking them later. The biggest of those three is about the size of a grapefruit!

And if that wasn't enough there were a fair few sturdy sticks of rhubarb ready to pull, along with the last of the strawberries and a few raspberries they will go nicely into a crumble.

Bean picking

Lots of lovely ripe broad beans to pick, both the autumn ones and the ones planted this year. I picked two tubs full that's over a 1kg, some will go into the freezer.  I'm away for two weeks from next saturday so I wanted to pick as many as I could but there are still a lot more coming.

Also picked a tub full of strawberries and a few raspberries. They smell so good as you pick them, they've done really well this year.

These pretty flowers are on the potatoes, both the earlies and the main crop are in bloom already. The earlies will be ready to pick when I'm back from Greece.

The double row of early spuds looks really good now, I hope I have a bigger crop than last year.

The pea flowers are really nice but I noticed that some naughty birds have been pecking away at the foliage.

I noticed a single pea pod had already formed, but I'm sure there are many others on the way.

The artichokes are very ornamental but I did have to spray some of them for black fly.

First pickings

Lots of lovely ripe strawberries ready to pick. I got about a half an ice cream tub full and a few raspberries as well. The raspberries aren't covered so I think the birds are picking them off as they turn red, I'll have to do something about that.

The first flowers are appearing on the peas, they're beginning to get a good hold of the net I put up as well.

I had a big plant out of things from the greenhouse for before we go away. Tomatoes, cabbage and broccoli are all in the ground. I running out of space to put things now but there isn't that much more I need to plant this year. The only empty spot is where I put the dwarf beans directly into the ground, they don't seem to have germinated yet.

Some of the broad beans are ready, I love them when they're young, green and tender. Paul prefers them when they get a bit bigger.

I picked enough for one meal but there will be plenty more to come.

Pottering about

First I picked some rhubarb, smallish sticks but enough to make a crumble. Then I put up the second pea net, much easier than the first one since I had a better idea of how to do it. The second peas aren't nearly so big yet but the first ones are tangling their way into the net already.

I planted up the basil seeds in pots, probably ten seeds to a pot for now. Watered them and put them in the greenhouse, let's hope lots of fresh basil is on the way.

I earthed up the main crop potatoes, been meaning to do this for a while. They always look a bit messy, especially as the plants were quit big but by next week end I'm sure they'll have sorted themselves out.

Here are the earlies that I earthed a couple of weeks back, they're looking pretty healthy now. The courgettes and squash that I planted out are looking much happier today, it seems it was the same last year that the immediate planting out makes them wilt but they soon bounce back.

A view across the plot, everything looking alright for now.

Strawberry fields

Well, not quite fields of them but I picked 18 and two others that had already gone over so I threw them away. They're a good size and colour with plenty more to come if the weather stays sunny and the slugs don't find them.

Lots of planting out was the main thing I did today. The courgette and squash plants were looking a little withered in the greenhouse and plenty of other people have put theirs out already so I thought it was time to get them in the soil. Three at the front of the plot in the half row and then five across the plot behind the french beans, let's see which ones do best. The nasturtiums had sprouted as well so I put them out as well.

I went to the garden centre to buy more twine for the peas but they didn't have any and I ended up buying a couple of pea nets instead. I put the first one up already, probably a lot better than using twine to train them anyway. I also bought some more four foot canes for the tomatoes and some basil seeds which I'll plant tomorrow.

The biggest of the artichokes now has four buds growing on it, I wonder if I shouldn't cut a couple of them down to help the others get bigger? I better look it up in my book. The other plants have just one bud each.

On top of the plot

You can never really be on top of everything at the allotment. I took this picture standing on the old tool box to give an over view of how things are. Spent the afternoon mostly weeding, strimming and tidying. Planted the chilli, coriander, cumin and mustard seeds I was give at Christmas, direct into the herb plot.
It seemed there were a lot of people shouting at their children today.