Barnes Allotment

Potatoes take centre stage

The crops have been hit and miss so far.  The corn, aubergine and carrots were definite successes but cucumbers, peas and beans all suffered from the quantity of rain we have had this summer.  Sadly I had to pull the tomatoes out this weekend as well and it looks like they had suffered from blight.  I did try to save the green ones for chutney but they were all afflicted and had to go to the dustbin - totally bypassing the compost.

The potatoes however are going great guns despite repeated slug attempts.

Carrot tops

Of all of my produce so far,the carrots have filled me with the greatest joy.  I don't think I have ever grown anything that I need to pull out of the ground to reveal the results. It is amazing to see the orange carrot tops appearing just at the surface of the soil.

I can see the error of my ways having planted them too close together. The result a few three legged tidddlers and the odd nubbin but most of the carrots have been fully formed and juicy and very orange.

Rubbish doesn't describe it

More fool me for making a rash impulse grab and run in Homebase. This compost bin costs £26 and is possibly the most useless item I have encountered for some time. The click into place technology on all four sides, clicks right out of place when you move it, sneeze on it, go anywhere close to it.  Putting rubbish in it resulted in full 4-side-al breakdown.  Luckily I purchased £1.59 worth of twine to keep the thing together.

Wild and Abundant

The plot has been absolutely deluged this week and the result being my formerly orderly plot has turned into a rather chaotic mess of plants and weeds. The tomatoes have suffered the most; the plants have grown but the fruit have barely ripened.  Most of those that had nearly ripened have split as a result of guzzling too much water.  Scott advised me to pinch the side shoots to stop them being so greedy and taking on too much water. I did manage to retrieve a few.

Despite the mayhem, I did get another few corns, a couple of small aubergines, my first knobbly cucumber, the last of the under-performing peas. I impatiently also pulled up another couple of carrots.  They weren't quite ready but certainly delicious.

I was also quite pleased with the progress the potatoes have made.  I will need to protect that whole bed from slugs ... vaseline around the bed rim is apparently a trick.  May as well give it go.

Vegetables in Miniature

I completely forgot to post last week. Mainly because I was working most of every night and the weekend on a slightly less wholesome project.  But I did get to the plot for a short amount of rehabilitation on Saturday morning only to find that the rain had brought about the beginnings of many new signs of life.

I sacrificed a carrot to see how they were progressing (approx 2 more weeks) and spotted my first little pepper and chillis - see veg in miniature below:

You may also remember the echinacea that turned out not to be echinacea - well the first little flower did appear last weekend and this weekend several buds have appeared.  Any ideas what is is now?