The Good Life - Harvest on the 26th June

The Good Life - Harvest and honeymoon on the 20th June

 

 Harvest shot; strawberries, turnips, oregano, carrots, beetroot, peas and radishes.

 

Corinne, Paul and Sonia

 

 Paula and Sonia

The Good Life - Harvest on the 13th June

While most of the vegetables are still quite young we have managed to take a little harvest this weekend. The radishes and lettuce are plentiful and need to be used. Elsewhere the rocket, beetroot, oregano and mustard flower and parsley are maturing well.

This week we planted our pumpkins, courgettes, patissons and butternut squash. Our other seedlings continue to make good progress and in particular the fennel and perennial spinach shall be ready to transplant very soon. The broad beans have proved to be very healthy and aphid free so far. Their neighbours, the peas had a slow start and Corinne spent some time attaching their tender stems to bamboo canes to encourage them to grow in a more vertical and skyward direction. In the last week the potatoes have grown very tall and they are beginning to flower. The strawberry plants are also fruiting which should give us a pleasant diversity of fruit and vegetables over the next two or three weeks.

Corinne attaching the peas

The Good Life - Operation weed removal

The plot just prior to the deluge on the June Bank Holiday

The Good Life - Harvest on the 6th June

Freshly uprooted white and red radish

The last three weeks have proved to be a period of prodigious growth in the allotment. Along with the growth of the vegetables we have also had to deal with the unwelcome advances made by weeds, which have become rampant in places. While we have been able to take small amounts of produce from the allotment over the last few weeks when thinning some of the early growth, this weekend the strong period of growth has enabled us to take a good variety of produce for the table. Lettuce, mustard leaf and radish crops are thriving at the moment along with the sorrel, perennial spinach and chard. A good salad now accompanies every meal and Corinne has served up nice dishes of chard gratinee.

Elsewhere in the allotment the turnips and beetroots have been transplanted and are growing well. Harry has also transferred his sweet corn from the glass house to the plot and lines of cabbages are appearing in the beds where available space remains.

Signs of plunder in my lettuce bed

The weather has been warm over the last few weeks accompanied and complimented by scattered showers. The Entry into summer has been sudden and the remnants of a cold winter and spring have not completely been left behind. We are still nervous about planting the patission, butternut squash and pumpkin which could be easily damaged by a cold snap. There is a change in the weather forecast over the next week and the weather is expected to become cooler once again. Caution prevails.

Dappled high cloud in the evening sky during the week