Race for the strawberries

Its still light at 10 o'clock I love it, so spending long evenings up at the plot, its fabulous. The allotment glows in the evening light. These photos were taken last week, its a bit grey today but sunshine is planned for the weekend, good timing for my trip to River Cottage.

The allotment is flourishing at the moment, could do with it being a bit warmer at night still and the wind has been a bit annoying but I'm days away to harvesting some of the crops, the over-wintered onions are glistening, spinach is ready, strawberries ripening as we speak as are gooseberries and redcurrants, potatoes are flowering, suggesting that their starchy goodness is ready, broad bean and peapods are swelling and lettuce is hearting up nicely. Its a bit of a race to get the strawberries before the slugs, they seem to have become a bit more active again recently with the damp weather, I've had to lose some but overall I think I'm winning.

I'm growing some purple flowered broad beans this year which have done really well, and produce not only a lovely colourful flower which the bees are loving, but also have a lovely scent which wafts around as I work.

I've also got some things planted for future crops, I've some runner beans 'White Lady', some dwarf french beans, both green and yellow-bean varieties. There is some climbing french beans 'Cosse Violette' which were fabulous last year and I've just planted some Borlotti beans which have a lovely speckled pods and will be great to harvest for their beans which can be eaten fresh or dried for storing and can be used in soups and stews in the winter.

 There are some squashes, a bit of a mixture here, I've planted some 'Blue Hubbard' and 'Crown Prince', which I've had good success with in the past. 'Uchiki Kuri' and 'Patty Pan' the latter of which I'm going to try growing up a wigwam. There is also a pumpkin 'Jack O'Lantern', never grown a pumpkin before. These have taken a bit to get going, another reason why we need some warmth.

Here are my Brussel Sprout 'Titus', I'm determined that I'll have a few more winter crops this year so I've got some sprouts and I'm also soon to plant some red cabbage.

The leeks, another winter staple have now also gone in though admittedly a bit weedy looking at the moment I'm sure they will get going soon.

I've planted a few sunflowers which I've managed to get past the slugs this year and they are growing strongly now.

The Globe artichokes are starting to bud.

New for me this year is the Cucamelon, supposed to give you small sweet fruits. Not sure whether it will cope with being outside but will have to see, its starting to climb.

Anyway hope you are all busy harvesting the first delicious crops and enjoy the sunshine this weekend.

Catching up!

Time is flying I can't believe we are nearly into June. After a lovely April, May has not been quite so nice but at least we had some rain but the problem has been the wind which has been very strong at times. I've been a bit lax at keeping up with my blog recently but lots of things have been happening so I'm trying to catch up. So I'll try and post a few blogs over the next few days, one to catch up with what has been going on at the allotment and also my garden. Then I've also been to visit a few gardens so I'd like to talk about them and show some pictures. This week I've been down to the Chelsea Flower Show, the last time we went was in 2006 so I was really looking forward to it. As always I love the fact that we get at least an hours coverage on TV every night. Alan Titchmarsh back on TV doing what he does best talking about gardening.
Anyway I'll talk about that in a later blog, but first things first. My allotment. There has been a few disasters but some things are doing OK.
We had a frost at the beginning of May which damaged the tops of the potatoes.

There has also been a problem with flea beetle on the radishes that I sown.

On a stormy night in May I planted two rows of Calabrese.

I didn't manage to get up to the allotment again for a week and this is what I found when I next got there!

Bl.oody slugs! Luckily I didn't plant all the seedlings and have some back at home which I'm now going to grow into bigger plants which will hopefully survive some slug attack. This has been the first sign of slugs since I  got the plot but I guess that is due to the dry April. Will be much more vigilant now.
I had a long day on the plot on the 25th, there has been an explosion of weed seedlings, they seem to be some form of annual Euphorbia. They have ruined my sowing of carrots and parsnips, but the radishes have survived, despite the weeds and also the flea beetle.

 My strawberry beds are starting to fruit.

The runner beans have germinated and are coming through well.

The potatoes have recovered and growing well now.

The Broad beans are starting to develop pods.

The shallots are doing OK but the onions not so good, only just really starting to grow now and not the best growth.

I had a thorough weed and then carried on digging over one of the new beds.

 I need to get the strimmer up there soon though as I'm getting a great crop of buttercups!

So thats where I'm up to with the allotment. I've also planted some more peas tonight and some flowers, some Ammi majus, Cerinthe major, sunflowers, Campanula persicifolia and Alchemilla mollis, plus the sweet peas.

Warmest April on record!

Its official, last month was the UK's warmest April on record, according to the Met Office. Records show that much of the UK experienced temperatures 3 to 5C warmer than is normal for April. It was also the 11th driest month, with on average half the usual rainfall.
This has its advantages in that there hasn't so far been a problem with slugs and snails but its disadvantages in that having to do a lot of extra watering which is taking up my digging time, plus the ground is rock hard now! The person who had the allotment before me left a good hosepipe at the allotment but I've not been able to use it due to not having the correct connector for the tap.The tap has a thread at the end and the two connectors I've bought have both been too big. I chatted to the chap who has the allotment next to mine and he has one but he wasn't sure where he got it from. But today I have been at the plot and the chap on the other plot lent me his (he had a whole box full of adaptors that he bought which didn't fit!) and I managed to water at last, it was much quicker with the hose. Though I was a bit cautious and didn't water my spuds as there may be a touch of frost tonight. I just covered the newly emerging leaves with some more soil to protect them. I love how everyone is so friendly and helpful though.
So my spuds are starting to emerge.

I've got lots of flowers on my strawberry plants.

Also there are now flowers on by broad beans, which have been a bit nibbled by pea and bean weevil but I think they are growing well enough now to cope with that. The peas are starting to grow up their supports.

Plus have got some radishes coming up now which I sowed in rows.

Today I also sowed some Spring onions 'White Lisbon' and 'Deep Purple'.
It has been really windy the last few days and this has kept it cool, it looks like there is rain forecast maybe for the end of the week but we'll see.