Glad of the Rain

After endless weeks of endless sunshine it has been lovely to have some refreshing rain.  Makes weeding a whole lot easier!  And fewer trips to the tap with the watering cans.  Just the polytunnel and greenhouse needing water at the moment which is much less effort.  Cleared the broad beans today and picked the last of them, going to leave that patch fallow for the rest of the year and just enrich it as there was a large patch where nothing much grew.  Onion patch is all empty now and waiting for some purple sprouting broccoli to go in, and some more leeks.  Climbing beans and runner beans are all flowering now.  Cabbages and other brassicas are seeming to be avoiding the cabbage white butterflies thankfully but time will tell.....  Got quite a bit of bare space now but hoping to get some more things started, with the ground a bit softer and damper now it will be much better.  The beetroot seeds I put in just before the hot spell havent really done very much at all.  So, picked the last of the broad beans today for dinner - and some chard and curly kale.  Also the elephant garlic came up.  HUGE!  Really pleased with them.

All the onions are hanging now and hopefully will be enough to see us through the winter.  The freezer is heaving with beans and soft fruit which is a little unfortunate as the freezer is on the blink and we are awaiting delivery of a new one today.... hopefully it will come before everything has defrosted!

Sunny Days and Lots to Do

Well, what can I say?  It's all growing!  Picked our first two cucumbers of the year today and have our first tomato doing tomatoey type things.  Picked zillions of kale for 2 different recipes this week and brought home the first of the onions.  Sweet peas are being a constant joy to the nasal passages and the broad beans are about to produce more beans than we know what to do with.   Simon is cooking with peppers a lot, and drying a lot in his dehydrator, and hanging more to dry.  Picked the first of the blackcurrants, jostaberries and gooseberries to go in the freezer for jam making later in the year.  Lots of weeding, lots of watering, lots of getting a little bit sunburnt but worth it.   Dinner tonight is Simons risotto with everything except the rice coming from the allotment.  Heavenly!

A montage of photos from today..... a taste of plots 119 and 120!





 



 



 

 

Everything Growing Beautifully

All that hard work is now paying off with everything looking green and lovely on the plots.  Potatoes look very healthy - very few gaps, hoping we get a really good crop this year.  Fruit bushes are heavy with ripening berries.  The first of the onions are huge and just about ready to come out for hanging.  The shallots came out today, vinegar all ready for them to be pickled tomorrow.  The raised beds are heaving with chard and spinach and the seedlings are being constantly thinned out.  Cabbages, caulis and brussels are so far free from caterpillars, not sure how long that is going to last!  Picked some kale to have with our tea and some turnips for tomorrow.  Even the kohl rabi are starting to fatten up.  The polytunnel turned into a jungle again so the courgettes have moved outside and made more room for the tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines.  All seem to be doing better than last year.  Chilli greenhouse is looking very healthy too, Simon brought home more produce from there today and they are hanging up to dry - Gusto Purples, Apache F1s and Krakatoas.









And also picked our first sweet peas today, they smell absolutely glorious, the whole house smells lovely.   All in all, looking great down there, trimmed the paths a bit too today as they were getting a bit out of hand..... backbreaking with shears! Oh, and planted the two rows of beetroot FINALLY!

Another Busy Sunday

Lots to do today so made a full day of it, took lunch and headed off to the allotment.  Simon had dug over the last quarter of plot 120 and we filled it today.  More brussel sprouts - Fillbasket variety, and Greyhound cabbages.  Couple of rows of Snowball turnips, Duchess parsnips and some more Swiss Chard, Bright Lights.



Just about run out of planting space now, still have to work out where I'm going to put the beetroot..... little bit of land left in front of the polytunnel perhaps.

Simon picked up five wooden planters off Freecycle during the week which we have put to good use, pansies in one, strawberries in another and two different types of carrots in two others.  One still empty and maybe for flowers.  Not sure yet.



Picked some rhubarb today to make some rhubarb wine as well, and also a few leeks to have with our tea, nice to be able to bring something home for a change instead of planting things!



 

The "Super-Hot" Chillies

Well all the super-hot chillies have now germinated, even the Dorset Naga which I had given up on has sprung into life.

These five plants are all still living on the windowsill for the time being. These are all the seeds that The Chillees gave me ages ago. Habanero long hot, Habanero paper lantern, Naga jolokia, Bengal Naga & Dorset Naga.

These will all go down to the Allotment in a week or two along with the Birds Eye and Loco F1 which are also still on the windowsill here at home.

I have also now given away the Demon Red chilli pepper plant, nice plant, but I already have a small ornamental chilli growing well so it's been struck off the list of peppers to grow next year.

First pepper harvest (green)

The peppers seem to be doing ok in the greenhouse, most of the capsicums are in flower and some with quite a few fruit on them, so to promote more flowers I have harvested the unripe fruit from some of the plants.

Of the sweet peppers that have fruit on I've picked one Redskin F1, 2 Peperone's and a single Anaheim hopefully this will make these plants produce higher yields later in the year.

The hot peppers that have been picked "green" so far are Masquerade, Gusto Purple F1, Apache F1, and Superchili.

29 fruits harvested already and we only in May, not a bad start to the growing season. The Redskin F1, Peperone's and a single Anaheim have been eaten in an omelette and where very nice even at their green stage.

More diggin', more plantin'

Simon went down to the plot during the week and dug over some more of the new part to get ready for the brassicas.  Hard work!  Lots of thistles and comfrey, two nightmare plants.  Just one quarter left to dig now and the whole new plot will be dug over.  Broad beans have picked up after being transplanted last week and everything is starting to take off now.  Even got some spuds poking their heads up.  Also all the asparagus have come up, not for picking this year though.



Simon filled the flower beds under the hop arches with sweet peas he had grown from seed and some white cosmos that I had grown, also a couple of Wahoo sunflowers, grew them last year and they were lovely.



Planted up the brassica bed with two different types of kale, dwarf green and Starbor, some Jersey Wakefield cabbages and Brussel Sprout 'Brilliant'.  Had some left over to give the allotment neighbours too.  Still got some more bits and pieces growing in seed trays at home for the last quarter to be dug - turnips, more brussels, more cabbages, kohl rabi and celariac.

Filled the raised beds that were empty too, kale Nero di Toscana, carrots Nantes II, 2 types of Fennel and swiss chard Bright Lights.  Just got to figure out where I'm going to put 4 rows of beetroot.........

Also planted out my 3 mammoth pumpkins, my marketmore cucumbers (in the polytunnel) and my giant sunflowers - growing them for the seeds for my chickens!