The rain has stopped - at last!!

After some days of rain, sometimes torrential, it was great today to go down to the allotment again - all the more so as I've been working on a large translation job since Monday of this week and definitely needed a change of scenery after finishing it about 2pm today.

The tomatoes are finally ripening quickly in the greenhouse, and the many hot peppers are starting to turn red too. With those and cucumbers as well the greenhouse has been particularly productive this year.

Star of the crop today has to be the maincrop potatoes though - the photo shows the potatoes I dug from just 3 plants - monsters!

Now for the evidence!

It's been ages since I posted any photos from the allotment so here are a few to show the kinds of produce we've been able to enjoy in August:

Back home after a lovely holiday

We had a great time in France on holiday - the first week with Tina and Keith near Dinan and the second week on our own near Erquay on the coast.

I was a little apprehensive before we went to the allotment for the first time after our break. Stuart has watered some of the plants in our absence and nothing seems to have suffered through lack of water.

The sprouts had become infested with black fly so I had to pull all the plants out before the black fly spread further afield.

Some of the dwarf french beans had gone a little old but the runner beans look in their prime and we've already had a couple of meals involving them and they are really good.

Some of the courgettes are definitely marrows now but taste just as good for all that, and more recently sown broad beans are now providing a few small pods of tasty beans.

The beetroot is excellent - lots of pretty large beets - and the distinctive flavoured kohl rabi are ready though I'm not sure Linda will be partaking too much of them!

The main crop potatoes are also just ready to dig so we'll be able to continue with our third consecutive potato crop to keep us self-sufficient for at least another month - a big success!

We've also continued to get cucumbers both from the allotment and the greenhouse - which also has lots of tomatoes on the point of ripening, as well as many hot cayenne peppers which should start to turn red very soon.

All in all it's turning out to be a really successful first year on the allotment and we'll have learned a lot from our own experience and from the other allotmenteers which we can apply in future.

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.