I picked the first peas (photo below) yesterday! Brought them home where they were quickly eaten by one small boy, better be careful when he’s at the allotment with me – he’ll eat everything in sight!

I also covered bed 3

How do you keep cool in these soaring temps?

Sip homemade elderflower champagne of course (and hope that there are still more to be harvested as the four litres you made are now reduced to one litre that is residing in the freezer for the winter!)

Met Mum at the allotment today. She had a tray full of sweetcorn that needed planting out or potting. It took me just half an hour to dig some gound, rake it over and stick in nine plants. Mum took Indi to the playground across from the lottie while I worked, it was so muggy today we couldn’t stay out there for too long.

Back they come to look at my work. I jokingly told Mum she’ll have to come up once a week now to tend it at which point she decided to confess that they are my own sweetcorns and the rest she’s going to put in large pots!
So now we’re having a little competition to see who can get the best cobs!
Mum will probably win as she see no problem in cheating and will use miracle grow on them, I on the other hand will tend the little crop as best I can without the use of stuff in a bottle!

(Bit worried now though… just read they have to be block planted for pollination and mine are in a nice straight row… Oh dear…)

I’m looking for a small chest freezer to store the bountiful harvest from my allotment plot although I’m doubting if it’ll even be filled half way!

I shall just have to make lots of soups and sauces then!

Quite a productive day today. Went down the lottie nice and early and constructed a modified version of a munty frame (topic no.39)for my second go at runner beans. The first lot grew too fast and got leggy so by the time I was able to get them in the ground, well just see for yourself in the photo below!
I’ve got all of July to sow more runners so if I stick them in now I might be lucky.

It took me a couple of hours to tie the bamboo together (they were too short & I’m trying to save money!) and string it up using the original frame as a prop and I got a nasty stab from a bamboo stick right underneath a fingernail but I’m mighty proud of it so far

Upon leaving the lottie I was given a pile of rhubarb, onions & lettuce from Jeff’s uncle who also has a (huge) plot there & lives less than half a minute’s walk away.
With a fraction of the rhubarb I made a pudding then cut up & froze the rest.

Sad little runner beans Hoping the next lot will fare better with my new & improved frame!

 

We have peas growing!!!

Summer is here!

Nothing beats a stroll down a quiet lane picking elderflowers & eating wild strawberries straight from the hedge!

Fresh food on the go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"If I stare at it long enough, maybe more strawberries will ripen..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mmmm that was a juicy strawberry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey! Little two legs! Where's our carrots?!

First Harvest!

Radishes!

These are the very first vegetables to be plucked from my allotment, and I am very proud!
Someone or something has decided to do a taste test first though, judging by the neat little holes that adorn each radish and the recent downpour has made one or two split but none of that really matters.

I feel so lucky and privilaged to have this tiny piece of land to grow what I wish, especially as I know of the outrageously long waiting lists of a lot of sites, particularly in London (40 years I have heard rumoured!).I still have a great deal of work to do down there. It will all be done in time, there is no rush this year.

Our beans don’t look too great but the rest are flourishing. I think my beans were sown too early and allowed to shoot up in the greenhouse before the ground was ready for them. I will remember that for next year!

We sowed some lettuce and rocket and some more peas within gaps in the peas & beans. There isn’t any real organisation in regards to where everything is planted at the moment, only two beds are really available and one is filled with potatoes so the other is being used as a free for all! More planks are needed to complete the last two beds, but in the meantime there is an awful lot of weeds to get rid of… Watch this space!

All is well at the lottie, in fact the beans look better for it! The storm must have blown away the dead leaves leaving behind the best.
There was a potato or two uncovered by earth so I quickly brushed some over, it was great to see them though – something is growing!

I need to go and do some weeding and thinning out soon, the carrots are getting bushier by the minute and there’s bindweed everywhere.

The weather is a bit cooler today so I’ll probably pop over this afternoon and pot about for a bit. Shame I only got four hours sleep last night – might be a bit more energetic if I’d slept more!

We had such a magnificent storm this weekend. Rain that pelted down like a waterfall, lightening that lit up the sky for a nano-second and thunder so loud you could almost feel the earth shake! And it went on for such a long time, an hour at least. Poor old Sky was so nervous she stayed by our legs the whole time.

So this evening after we’ve had our tea, I’m going to venture down the lottie and check out the damage, if any. I can’t imagine the beans & peas liking it very much as they were already hanging on for dear life. I hope that the potatoes still have their carefully earthed up mounds around them, it would be a shame to lose them.

I guess that’s the life of an allotmenteer then, stay on the good side of mother nature

Here’s the photos I promised, from that lovely period of time when it was sunny – the summer?!

Well I been a bad blogger! Very sorry about that

Have been keeping myself very busy with the allotment, sewing, cooking, re-learning to drive and of course, taking care of my little boy & the animals & the house! Oh, and this last week Jeff & I have been struck down with either a virus or food poisoning. Thankfully Indi wasn’t affected!

The allotment is looking a bit fuller than it did last time I wrote. We now have runner beans, peas and leeks  planted down there, which despite a dodgy start seem to be taking hold.
I particulary proud of my potato plants
Of the four rows, two have had all the potatoes sprout lush leaves, while the other two rows have had 70 %- 90% success.
I’ve been earthing them up, bit by bit which is actually one of my favourite jobs down there right now.
The tatties are ‘my babies’ so to speak. I chose them, chitted, planted, hoed and earthed them up. Jeff has helped with all the rest but not them, so I do feel a strange sort of bond with them! Oh how sad! How much sadder would it be if something terrible were to happen to them, or if they’re producing pretty leaves (and one flower I might add!) and no tubers!

Another of my favourite plants is at home – the tomato plants. I’ve been out there this weekend carefully putting them into newer, larger pots and hanging baskets. When we first started growing tomatoes seven years ago the smell was too overpowering but now I’m sniffing them as soon as they are popping through the earth in hope of that lovely, strange, fresh scent!

Now that I am driving again, popping over to the lottie will not wear me out before I begin any longer! I keep thinking ‘it’s not even a mile each way! I shouldn’t be so exhausted!’ but then I remember that this is the Welsh valleys, where to get anywhere you have to climb a hill or two, or three! And then I remember that my extra weight of at least 25lbs (Indi!) will wear anyone out going up hill, plus the crazy, pulling border collie who I just can’t leave at home without feeling guilty!

Anyway, I’m hoping this next week will be productive. There are still some brassicas to plant out and I’m sure I can find some more things to sow, and there are borders to be built, weeds to be mattocked… I feel a list coming on!

I have photos but it’s now time for bed so I’ll post them up as soon as possible!