19th July

A great weekend for the garden, but not a great weekend for gardening. Sunshine was scarce and frequently replaced by torrential rain. Oh well, the veg appreciated it. As did I on Sunday morning when it was time to dig up the first of my potatoes!

I've only ever grown potatoes in containers before so was a bit nervous about having to dig them out the ground rather than just emptying tubs out into the wheelbarrow. It turned out to be a lot simpler than I thought (made much easier by the rain softened ground) and the first row yielded an impressive 5kg from 4 seed potatoes (and I only speared 2 with the fork while digging!).


The one small random red potato must be an escapee from the next row where I believe the Red Duke of York potatoes are. We had some of these simply boiled and served with a little butter and they were delicious (as were the mange tout also in the photo).

4th July

Eveything is growing like crazy! The courgettes and butternut squash are in and spreading rapidly spreading over their bed. We've got more lettuce than we know what to do with. Cabbages are the sizes of footballs, onions are bigger than tennis balls. Tomato plants are starting to flower. Potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes are forming a veritable forest and will be ready for digging up soon (I've removed the flowers from the potatoes so they will put all their energy into the crop underground).

The haul from this week (which I forgot to take a photo of) was a handful of delicious raspberries, a cabbage, 3 huge onions, 8 large carrots a whole carrier bag ful of broad beans and 2 lettuces (some of the onions, cabbage and carrots went straight into fully home grown coleslaw, it tasted a hundred times better than anything you'll ever buy from a shop!).

Picked on Sunday 21st June: A proud day!

There is a 50 pence piece in the middle above the strawberries for size reference. There were also a few more strawberries but they didn't even make it home ;-)

Mid June: All going well

The transplanted lettuces have thankfully perked up again and are growing well in their new position. Cabbages to their leftt are hearting up well and nearly ready to be picked. Two rows of pak choi have been planted in the first bed under the nets for the time being as I wasn't sure if the birds would go for them while they were tiny.



From the far end of the plot (much to my relief!) you can just see the French beans beginning to climb up their strings on the bean frame. The broad beans of them in front are cropping really well and the peas (which you can just about see among the pea sticks on the right) are growing rapidly.

The beginning of June

The lettuce is going crazy! Several have already been picked and eaten (they were delicious!). Tomatoes (grown from seed in my greenhouse) have been transplanted to the central raised bed with chilli plants (not visible here) in the bed to the left. Onions are growing well and carrots are appearing on the left in front of them. Some lettuces my Mother decided to transplant from the crammed raised bed aren't looking quite so cheerful but hopefully they will perk up when they get used their new home.

About a month in

The third raised bed has been built from more unwanted pallet wood (two boards deep this time so I can use it for tomatoes), stained to match the others and filled. Lettuces are popping up in the one on the right, carrots behind them and onions 2 beds back. Cabbages and everything else are growing well.

From the other end of the plot you can see the Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb (both donated by another plot neighbour) and potatoes appearing. The pidgeons were taking a bit too much interest in the growing broad beans so we've netted them for the time being until they are a bit bigger and can look after themselves.

Week 3: The shed is up!

It came "flat-pack" but wasn't actually that difficult to put together. It took 3 of us about 3 hours in all.

You can see in this picture that strawberries have taken up residence next to the raspberries, cabbages (donated by a kind plot neighbour) have been planted and the potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes have gone in (hence the earthed up rows). We've also removed the weed suppressing fabric from the end beds. It wasn't 100% keeping the beds weed free so we took it up so we could weed underneath.