on the allotment: June 2010 Archives

I got back down to the allottment today after a week of dashing down only once to water the squash that I had to leave in the shed. Finally they are all planted, although the squash area is very dry and could do with a some good compost. I was quite relieved that the shed dweller didn't eat them or sit on them!

The borlotti beans have suddenly flowered, and at the same time are looking yellowed. I don't think that they'll be a bumper crop after the cooking incident.

The potatoes on the other hand are looking spectacular. Or their foliage is, anyway. And so are the onions - despite a rather large amount of bind week trying to entwine itself odious self around them.

Our harvest today was a huge bag of peas, and two radishes. We ate the radishes on the spot, so there is no photographic evidence, but they were mildy spicy and very nice. The peas are here:

The girls set about picking the peas with a pair of scissors, and there may be some number of peas that were immediately eaten rather than being included in the harvest - but it's all ending up in the right place either way!

After getting the squash in and recreating the netting covers on the brassicas I decided to pull the carpet off the remainder of the second brassica row. This involved much dirt in the eyeball sockets from a combination of wind and flapping, so that was a highly enjoyable little game. 

But having got it cleared of loose debris and then rolled up, I found that the soil underneath was excellent and pretty weed free. That gives me some nice space to plant in the chevalier calabrese that is in the greenhouse.

I also planted out the courgettes, electing to put them in the carrots row due to the larger amount of squash that I've planted. That row is very empty at the moment anyway, due to me losing the sieve! I don't want to plant my carrots until I've tilled out some fine sandy soil from my "home pile" which is full of weeds and probably the poo of some small children. That's a story for another day!

And I leave you with more lovely photos of poppies and corn, plus the full view update photo!

This is a backdated update, as I've been so busy with orchestra and school that I dashed about the allotment and didn't get a chance to make any posts about it!

The big excitement was the first sight of peas!

They were delicious! I forgot to take a photo of the harvest before we ate them though!

The big annoyance was that the foxes had walked over my netted cabbages, and broken over half of them. It's a good thing I don't actually like cabbages!