MY WEEK : 26 ( 26TH JUNE )

Hello all, where is the rain that we so desperately need? I've noticed that up and down the country people are having a few problems with their crops this year, a combination of poor germination or things going to seed. The forecast for most of us is not encouraging with temperatures set to rise although we may have some thundery showers the rain will probably run off the surface rather than soak in, never mind eh. As you can see my Shallots are starting to ripen nicely, some plot holders are finding that theirs are ripening before they have grown to a decent size, this is due to the dry weather unfortunately.

My Runner Beans seem to be doing well and producing flowers, I'm sure that this is a result of me trenching the rows and adding plenty of organic matter which acts as water reservoir for the plants, which in this dry weather is essential.

My Summer Cauliflowers are starting to produce heads, this is a little bit early and will probably result in them being smaller than I would have liked. The more experienced plot holders have told me that it is probably due to a delay in planting them out, this is one thing that Cauliflowers do not like along with a lack of water.

After watering the Peas evry other day this last week they have started to fill their pods and infact I was able to pick the first crop today, I couldn't help but try a few of them as I was picking them they are one of my favourite fresh vegetables, also I did not find any Pea Moth damage as they were sown early, they lay their eggs in the young pods and the resulting larvae then have a picnic on the peas.

This is my first season of growing Kohl Rabi, it is becoming an increasingly popular vegetable and although I have never cooked or tasted it in the past I'm looking forward to doing so, you still get enthusiastic about growing a new type of vegetable for the first time and so far it appears to be doing well.

This photo is of one of the Leeks that I replanted to produce my seed for next years crop, as you can see it has a beautiful flower with the added bonus that it will give you seed afterwards. Planting out my Leek plants is one of my jobs for next week and I will try to capture that on video as I have a little tip to share with you all.

On the subject of beautiful flowers, this is a photo of my Brambles in full flower at the moment with the fruit starting to form, the bees and insects are in abundance around them at the moment which is always nice to see on the plots. Infact around some of the beds I have planted flowers to encourage more of them.

Well that's it for another week on my plots, as promised I have posted a video of my second plot below, I hope you enjoy it as much as you did the first one which I received many compliments about and hopefully this one has slightly better filming skills. Anyway I hope you all have a good week on your plots, speak to you all next week, thanks Steve.