Okay, I think we’re all in need of an allotment update aren’t we?!
Swiss Chard – middling. Growing but it’s getting a lot of attention from the pigeons. Unwanted attention from my point of view.
Asparagus – good this year but every time I took my eyes off them they grew about two foot!
Broad Beans – desperate. Completely destroyed by black fly. The nasturtiums I planted as companions were too late to entice the black fly away. I’m going to try an Autumn sowing which will hopefully be ready for early spring.
Cornflowers and Sweet Williams – didn’t even germinate. I’m slightly relieved in one way because I hadn’t realised Sweet Williams are biennial and that would have really messed up my crop rotation plans. Next year I think I’ll get the cornflowers started off indoors.
New potatoes – wonderful and delicious. Definitely late this year though.
Beetroot – good so far!
Carrots – only one has come up. I’m so sad.
Pumpkins – mixed. I should have fed them when I first planted them out and they were put off by the early hot weather. I’ve lost about half, and the slugs have been merciless. Keeping my fingers crossed for the rest.
Tomatoes – good so far. I’m being much better at pinching out, and thankfully Monty Don is doing a step-by-step guide on Gardener’s World this year, so hopefully I’ll finally know what I’m doing.
Sweet peas – As you can see – good!
Strawberries – A-ma-zing! We’re on to our second lot of jam. Big Dreamer has made wine, and we’ve had punnets and punnets to eat fresh. So many in fact that Finch says he’s gone off strawberries (!). There’s tons of unripe fruit on the blackberry brambles and we’ve had a handful of gooseberries and white currants from our baby bushes.
Perpetual Onions – looking good so far, but going to let them get a bit more established before I start pulling any up. Apparently they are also sometimes called ‘Walking Onions’ because they spread so well. I hope mine do!
Flowers – Dahlias are on their way up and so are the Rudbeckia. I’m hoping for lots for cutting. We’ve also been using nasturtium flowers and marigold petals in salads this year.
I find I get to this time of year and I can already see what has and hasn’t worked, and just can’t resist impatiently plotting for next year!
School’s out for the holidays this afternoon. We were planning a trip up to Wales next week but have decided not to go. It was a real quandary as we want to support businesses who have missed out on income over lockdown, but we just felt we would give it another month before going further afield. Instead we will be doing some day trips from home so I’m going to take the week off from posting but will be back the week after. See you then!
