Time for a holiday!

We're soon off to France for a couple of weeks which will be fabulous. Stuart has a key to the allotment so I hope he'll be able to call round once or twice and help himself to whatever is ready to pick. Undoubtedly there will be courgettes and the runner beans are starting to set now that they have reached the tops of their canes.

He can keep a general eye on things and pick whatever he sees - radishes will keep maturing fast now, and the chard could do with picking quite regularly now.

I harvested all the garlic and we've been eating the red onions regularly too. It's not been a sensational onion crop but hopefully what remain in the soil (including the shallots) will still be OK when we get back in 2 weeks' time.

I dug up the remaining Charlotte potatoes - 5 plants giving nearly 7lbs of potatoes so I think that sums it up - great crop and delicious potatoes! We'll take them to France with us rather than risk storage problems and no doubt smuggle a couple of courgettes in too. I'll do a final check tomorrow of pickable produce so that might also include some beans to go!

More news in August but for now we're getting ready for Brittany - the land of fields of artichokes (and much, much more!).

The fruits of our labour etc!

Finally we're really seeing our efforts coming to fruition at the allotment.

We have started on the Charlotte potatoes now - and they are delicious, exactly as I'd hoped. In addition we now have regular broad beans, courgettes, radishes, salad leaves (from the greenhouse) and very soon to be followed by dwarf French beans (is that sizeist?), chard and much more besides.

I looked closely at the kohl rabi yesterday - it's fascinating to see how they're developing golf ball-sized parts at the base of their stems. I'll need to check how big to let them grow, and also what to do with them!

It'll be something to impress the other allotmenteers with though!

And you can eat it ........................

After a lot of hard work up until now things are definitely becoming easier - more maintenance than heavy work. And - even better, of course - crops are starting to mature. So far we've been eating the Swift first early potatoes, with a photo to prove it! And once those are finished we'll be moving on to the Charlottes.

The courgettes are starting to mature, as are the broad beans, so very shortly we'll really be able to enjoy the fruits of our labour!

The Great Garden Transformation

As soon as the garden path was removed just over a week ago Linda has been working hard on the redesign and re-stocking of the garden. The shifting of 2 tons of topsoil through to the rear garden proved to be remarkably quick ( a little on Friday evening and the rest on Saturday, finishing around 4pm) and Linda can really concentrate on the finishing touches now.

These photos give an idea of how things are changing.

Brassicas in the cage at last!

With Stu's help on Sunday we finally got the netting on the cage, clearing the way to transplant the purple sprouting broccoli and kohl rabi. I'll put the sprouts in soon as well but fear the worst as they do seem to have struggled a lot from having been held back in pots for so long. Oh well, I'll try it and we'll just have to see.

Elsewhere everything seems to be doing well - courgettes, squashes, French beans, broad beans, runner beans, sweet corn, potatoes (doing really well, from the looks of things), raspberries, strawberries, currant bushes, rhubarb, radishes (our first crops to actually eat!), beetroot, carrots.

The trick now is to keep sowing in succession.

The greenhouse looks good too - tomatoes and hot peppers in growing bags, salad leaf in three trays, and a number of flower seedlings almost ready for outdoors.

More things from the greenhouse to the allotment

After hardening off at the bottom of the garden more and more plants grown in the greenhouse - including beans, sweet corn, courgettes, leeks and various flower seedlings, over the past couple of days I have planted out the courgettes and runner beans at the allotment. Last night there was a slight frost scare so I covered everything in fleece but this morning everything looked fine and I don't think there was a frost anyway!

I also took a couple of rosemary bushes and some lemon balm and they also looked fine today.

The asparagus continues to look impressive though we shall not be able to harvest any until next April. At least we've proved we can do it though, and the deep beds look good.

Finally we may get the netting draped over the fruit cage very soon now as Kryssy has managed to find some at SCARF which sounds ideal - large enough, but of a type of netting which will drape easily over the fruit cage structure. Once that's in place all the brassicas can go in and no pigeons or butterflies will be able to get close!

Almost mid-May but still frost alerts

It's a strange kind of weather at the moment - often fine in the day but with a cold wind. We've also had some frost warnings for the coming week so I've earthed up the potatoes and placed fleece on the earlies which have grown so much that they're impossible to earth up totally now. I don't think they should come to any harm though.

Seedlings which had been hardening off at the bottom of the garden ready to plant out either in the garden or in the allotment will now have to be held back a bit. I'll put most of them back in the greenhouse at night for the next 3 nights and will have to consider a bit of heating too for the more tender ones such as peppers, tomatoes, squash and courgettes.

With any luck, from next weekend it will be possible to get more things planted out and we can start enjoying a more spring-like Spring!