Well, the Goddess has been doing her thing and our allotment is positively blooming. The weeds are doing well too :( but it is so much better than last year. We have heaps of fat hen for some reason, not quite sure why. A few of the other plot holders are not as keen as we are so the weeds we thing are blowing around the site and ending up on ours! Bind weed is still a problem but it its much easier to dig out specific bits as they appear rather than the mass that smothered everything. We are still growing through lining but this will reduce as the pernicious weeds are smothered, I think twitch will continue to be a problem until the end of time :(
Here are some lovely pictures to share our progress.
These are Lancashire Lads - lovely pretty heritage peas, apparently they are best as either storage peas or as mange tout. Yes they are purple-podded peas! I am startled at how pretty pea flowers are, I had forgotten!
These are salmon-flowering peas. Again a beautiful flower. Not sure what these are going to be like so we will have to wait and see. Exciting stuff!
Here are our Martock broad beans, another heritage variety. Smaller than traditional beans and a lot older! This variety was thought lost until someone found it growing as a self-seeder in the Bishop of Bath and Wells' (I always want to do a Blackadder joke there) palace. We've not eaten these, last year we seed-saved the whole lot so we had enough to grow this year, they are obviously very happy in Countesthorpe so we look forward to trying these in a few weeks' time. We also know that there are not many of these plants about so we are happy to swap a few seeds to anyone who is interested- just pop them in the ground water and let nature do the rest! They don't really need anything in terms of support - perfect!
We eat a lot of onions so is a good job we grew a lot! Simon painstakingly looked after these and my has it payed off! We are starting to pull and eat these winter onions - they are mighty strong tasting veggies thats for sure! We have grown red and white ones - the white being the most successful by miles. We will definatly be growing these again! (japanese onion sets from hawgrips)
Excuse the slightly rubbish photo!
The strawberries continue to produce flush after flush of the sweetest fruit you can imagine! We have eating millions of them! Every few days we get a massive bowl full and we know that there are still more left to ripen in the sun. Its wonderful to be so picky, we are only choosing the reddest, ripest fruit. The best time to eat is just picked and still warm from the sun. What its all about really.
This is our mixed root veg bed - mostly parsnips, beetroot and carrots. All growing really well! There are a few onions and garlic in there to try to keep the carrot fly away. The pretty marigolds do pretty much the same job, they look really beautiful in the summer sunshine.
This triffid-like exuberant group of plants is our tomatoes! They have gone bonkers. I had no idea! I've never had much luck with outdoor toms but this year might be different. I didn't for one minute thing that they would all survive but of course they have so they are a bit jammed in! I am thinning a few leaves out as I can but I am hopeful for lots of fruit, we might be lucky if the numbers of flowers are anything to go by.
This fine little plant will hopefully go on to produce some red onion squash. Can you guess what they might look like? I am really excited by these, it took me a while to track down the seed I have heard really good things about this squash - perfect size for 2 people, pretty looking and tasty. Fingers crossed it keeps on doing its squashy thing!
This is a trick or treat pumpkin - already sprawlling. We hope it will get much bigger than that! (excuse the weeds!) This is a trick or treat pumpkin, supposed to make good eating and perhaps more excitingly the seeds are naked, meaning that there is no annoying husk on them. This means we can dry our own healthy pumpkin seeds for the winter. No more waste!
We've interplanted the corn and the pumpkins this year. The corn are a bit smaller than we'd like, I lost a whole load earlier in the year thanks to next door's bl**y cat sitting on them as they were hardening off. A hasty re-sow and 2 weeks baking in my mother in law's front room got them growing but I am not sure we will get a crop this year - lets hope we have a decent summer.
Here are some Martock broad beans - they are nearly ready for eating.
This odd-looking vegetable is a blue hubbard squash, this should be about the size of a rugby ball by the time its done.
A bowl of produce, mostly courgettes and a few beans. They will be made into lovely things, like puree and the like. Nommy.
