Thursday, July 08, 2010

Allotment Diary - Me 44hrs. He 43hrs.

We have been up the allotment twice in the last ten days - we still have none stop sunshine and no rain, so it's been just a case of harvesting, watering and weeding.
All the potatoes are doing fantastically well despite the drought.

The grass is getting brown though

The birds got all the redcurrants but we have got  more fruit.

More thriving potatoes, but the plot next to us has rather a bad case of blight developing

I have been spending quite a bit of time here - picking gooseberries

This years' harvest was 17lb - all go which I have topped and tailed and they are now weighed, bagged and in the freezer

The raspberries were the size of small peas, but really juicy and tasty - almost 2lb are now in the freezer - a poor crop this year

We picked half a bag if broad beans - they too were smallish, but perfectly formed and I couldn't resist eating a few raw.  2lb of those in the freezer now - of course more to pick over the coming weeks

We dug up 6 early potato plants and got 12lb.   We had some today and they were delicious and taste of butter.  Old Geoff was up there and came over for a chat, and was amazed that we could dig out potatoes up - the other plots can't as the ground is like concrete.  I guess all the hard work putting well rotted manure down, is finally paying off after all these years

We dug a couple of deep holes and filled them with manure, poured in two cans of water for each pumpkin - that should get them off to a good start.

The pumpkins growing on the compost bins are mainly self sown - how they survived the winter I do not know - but these have grown from the rotted pumpkins from last year - they got a good soaking too.

I got stung by a wasp - there is a wasp nest at the end of out shed - outside! 
Do I live and let live - or do I do something about it.  I will see.
If they leave me alone and I will leave them alone!


Time to make my weary way home

10 comments:

  1. A bountiful harvest so far!

    I loved seeing the allotments when visiting the UK.
    We don't have them in NZ, as I suppose we all have a vege garden at home - however small.
    We were late planting last year after our trip to France, however our Agria potatoes were tasty but mostly small in size.
    A great crop of broccoli, spinach, beetroot, lettuces and herbs.
    Tomatoes and beans v disappointing.

    We too are working on the soil condition which hopefully will yield us benefits.

    Gardening is such a therapeutic pastime!

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  2. Thre is something special about allotments I think. I have three raised bed in my garden this year & am thrilled with the results. Your produce looks wonderful.

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  3. themessycraftroom8:06 pm

    You have been busy. Your fruit and veg so far look yummy. Especially the raspberries they're my favourites. xHugs ChrisB

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  4. claret4:47 pm

    Wow, the lottie is looking fantastic!

    Well done.

    :)

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  5. WOW look at all your hard work! This is such a blessing, harvesting all your fruits and veggies.

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  6. What a harvest. I esp. llove the look of those gooseberries.

    My potatoes in pots have yet to flower.

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  7. your potato plant have so many blooms ithe bed looks like a flower bed.

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  8. Flippin' 'eck woman - you and your man have been VERY busy by the looks of it!!

    I've been lazy this year - all my veggies were planted - our first tomato is only just ripening now!

    Still, we've been eating the mini and normal cucumbers, the beetroot are growing well, but unfortunately every courgette that grows seems to rot away.

    I can only aspire to such greatness as you and your hubby!

    :D

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  9. Hope your doing well and enjoying the summer. Missing you blogging.

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  10. I miss your allotment updates! Hope all is well with you and that you're just too busy doing art projects to update your blogs.

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