Scorchio!

Gosh, it was warm today. Two sessions today, one before 1100 and the other after 1700. Today's main achievement was sowing some peas (the ones I meant to sow last week). These were Early Onwards, I think, from the Potato Day. They went into one of the beds vacated by the onions and garlic. I also transplanted a couple of Good King Henry plants and a couple of Sea Kale.

There looks to be some form of action in the next bed in which I sowed chicory, Chinese cabbage and fennel. Fingers crossed for some plants.

Permission to be smug...

For lunch today (and tomorrow), I cooked up a Spanish tortilla with red onion, potatoes and courgette from the allotment and chilli from the windowsill (see piccies below).





Together with some spinach from the patio garden, it went down pretty well.

It was baking over at the allotment this afternoon. I only managed to net over some cabbages as the tunnel covering them before did not have enough room for their growth. I just hope that they are big enough now to withstand nibbling by the rabbits.

This Summer, I will be mostly eating courgettes

Yum! I am very sad, I know, but I have just picked my first courgettes and am very happy. See piccie below.



I'll probably stuff and cook the two round ones at the weekend but I just ate the yellow one for tea. Don't worry - this is not going to turn into a cookery blog but, for my future reference, I gently fried strips of the courgette (made using a potato peeler) in garlic-infused olive oil (garlic from the allotment) until they softened while also cooking some pasta. When the courgette strips dried out and there was a risk of burnage, I added some water from the pasta. When softened, I added a liberal amount of parmesan, salt and black pepper and a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. I mixed in the cooked pasta, plated up and grated over some more parmesan. Not rocket science, I know. With a glass of Pinot Grigio (which I don't normally like that much). Yum! I'll definitely do that again. Good job too because the courgettes might be on the menu every day for a while.

There were a couple of other allotmenteers on the site when I nipped over just now. They were mainly watering their runner beans. I didn't do any watering as I hear there might be rain tomorrow evening. If it doesn't rain, I might nip over tomorrow after work to water as things looked pretty dry today.

Aside from the courgettes, there are several tomatoes starting to form and the sweetcorn is starting to look stronger.

What I didn't do last Sunday...

I didn't dig up all of the early potatoes...
I didn't plant any leeks...
I didn't sow any peas...

But I did put two new compost bins on the plot - one for weeds and one for kitchen waste. And I had a chat with some mates on the allotment and have agreed to help organise a BBQ sometime in August. So it wasn't a completely wasted afternoon.

Things move fast in our house...

After taking the shots of some of chillies yesterday starting to turn red, when we woke this morning, we saw that they have actually turned completely red. I might add them to a burger or two for tea tonight.

I spent about 3 hours on the plot yesterday in the afternoon. The showers kept off though it was quite windy. I dug over half the bed vacated by the onions and sowed the chicory, Florence Fennel, Chinese cabbage and some radish.

I wasn't sure when I went over whether or not to expect any harvestable courgettes. I was hopeful after seeing a couple of small ones last week but I have since read that the first lot can be quite slow. Once they are cut though, they come through thick and fast. When I arrived though there were a few more small ones (see piccie below for one of the plants). Fingers crossed for some fully grown ones in the next couple of weeks.



A fellow allotmenteer was harvesting his courgettes a couple of plots away and cursed at finding one approaching marrow size. He kindly offered it to me as he and his family really don't like them at that size. I love marrows so I was happy to take it. I picked some sugar snap peas and dug up some early potatoes and went home. The main crop potatoes are starting to flower nicely so hopefully they will be ready next month.

I am about to go over to the plot for a couple of hours. I plan to dig up the remaining potatoes and plant some leeks in there place. I might also sow some main crop peas and it turns out that it might be possible to get a crop out before the frosts start. I have plenty of seeds left from the half pint I bought in Feb so it might be worth trying.

Chilli update

Just thought I'd add an update on the chillies for future reference. I meant to keep just 4 plants for myself, one of each, but I still have several to give away. The plants could do with the space. I must remember to take some into work.

The 'Iranian Round' Big Cherry Chilli (below) seems to be quite prolific. The fruits are very cute but they look like they might pack a punch. One of the plants has six of them but has more flowers to go.



The Early Green Jalapeño is the least productive at the moment. Just one on one of the plants but it was one of the first to appear.



The 'Wenks Yellow Hots' chillies look strange - I've not seen yellow ones before. These are coming thick and fast now. I can't wait for them to turn orange.



The 'Westlandse Lange Rode' chillies are starting to turn red. Hopefully, they will be fully ripe in a few days and ready to sample.



So, these seem to be on track.

Much improved weather

I didn't get back on the plot yesterday afternoon as the rain set in good and proper. It has done the plants good though - especially as the sun shone all day today. The weather and soil were both perfect for hand-weeding.

The first job was shearing back the long grass on some of the paths. A bit dull but it made quite a difference. A fellow allotmenteer then came over and kindly gave me some leftover swede seedlings so I planted those next to the brassicas before going home for lunch.

Over lunch at home, I sowed some Cavolo Nero, perpetual spinach, parsley, swiss chard and cauliflower. These will all overwinter nicely, hopefully.

After lunch I focused on the onion bed. While weeding, which was very easy, I pulled up all the onions. Their stalks seem to have bent over so I figured they were ready. They are now drying on a table on the patio in the garden (see bad-quality piccie below).



The harvest is a bit weak - many are the size of pickling onions (which was not the intension). The best performers were a couple of large red onions (from sets rather than seeds).

As I was clearing the onion bed, another fellow allotmenteer came over to say hello. He asked me why I hadn't planted any runner beans. It does seem that everyone else has gone some and there are many pretty wigwams about the site. I told him that I don't really like them enough to grow them but that I do like other types of green bean. I am not anti-green bean or anything (allotmenteers - it seems - are a little suspicious of people who choose to have an allotment but who do not grow runner beans. He offered me 6 spare plants of climbing french bean. I quickly erected a wigwam and planted these in the bed just cleared of onions.

Allotmenteers are lovely people and very generous. I should start growing extra in future to give to other allotmenteers who are even newer than me. That seems to be the done thing. I'd better do my bit.

I did mean to sow some things directly onto the plot including fennel (bulb) and chicory but I didn't get round to it. That's for next week...

I've seen the future...

...red gooseberries. When I arrived at the plot this morning, I spotted some gooseberries and peas that needed picking (see piccie below).



The gooseberry harvest isn't bad considering I only bought and planted the bush earlier this year. I tried a berry first though as I had never eaten a red gooseberry before. You really can eat them raw - not sour at all. I opened one of the pea pods up and had a taste of my first maincrop peas. Well, at least I think they were maincrop. They tasted amazing.

It is a bit damp today and has been raining much of the week I think. Perfect for a spot of hand-weeding though. This morning, I focused on weeding the three sisters bed. However, as only about 2 bean plants have actually emerged, it is more like a two sisters bed. There might still be time for beans though. There are a couple more flowers among the courgettes and I can see a small round courgette growing on one of the plants and a small yellow one on another. I can't wait to harvest my first courgettes.

I'm not sure how the weather is going to be for the rest of the day. If I get chance to go back over to the plot, I need to weed the onion bed - you cannot even see the onions right now. I'll also need to tend to the tomatoes by pinching out any sideshoots and planting some basil as a companion. I am pleased to hear that the tomato plants I gave to friends a couple of months ago are doing really well. Apparently, they are sturdy-looking and flowering nicely. Let's just hope they fruit.

On and off...

This past weekend was very strange weatherwise. Sunny one minute, rain the next, then back to sun, before another short spell of rain. I went in a shop when the sun was shining, browsed a little bit, then left the shop to find that it was very sunny but that the ground was very wet. That's how quick the showers came and went but it continued in that vein for much of the weekend so I didn't think I'd get any gardening done.

It was my birthday on the Sunday and I got a hanging basket from my outlaws (thank you - the flowers are lovely!). While I await the fixing of a bracket onto the wall (it is clearly a man-job) I set about weeding the pots and flower bed at the front of the house. I have left these to go a bit wild with grass and dead tulips. I dug up the bulbs and replanted them in groups. I hope they live to tell the tale.

I did get to do a spot of gardening on the allotment later that day. I planted some brussel sprout plants (which I bought off eBay), dug up some potatoes and weeded some of the brassicas. The sweetcorn is looking stockier alongside the courgettes and squashes which also seem to be growing nicely. I think I saw a flower forming on one of the courgette plants. I'll need to weed round them next weekend if I get the chance. I just sprinkled some slug pellets round them (organic, mind!) as they seem to have been doing the trick but have washed away a bit with all the rain. The current forecast is for rain on Saturday and sun on Sunday.