MY WEEK 27 : ( 3RD JULY )

Hello, well what a violent end to the Heatwave we have experienced in the last few days, there have been some intense thunderstorms around the country with numerous incidents of flooding, I hope that none of you have been affected by them. With flooding in some places around my area I can't believe that there has not been any rain on my allotments, I have spent 2 days this week watering the crops with thunder rumbling in the distance, never mind life must go on.
As you can see from the photo the first of my Dhalias are starting to bloom, I love the way nature can produce such beautiful things it's amazing!!



This week I had to decide whether to let my cordon Sweet Peas either stay at the top of their sticks and go to seed or Layer them, this is something that I have not done before but if it works will allow me to carry on picking Sweet Peas for another month or more. To do this I had to carefully untie each of the plants from it's current stick and gently lay it down alongside the row and tie it to a stick approximately 6' away and hopefully this will then allow the plants to continue growing up their new supports, I will keep you posted on if it works or not.





The first of my Spray Chrysanthemums have started to flower and also the flower spikes are starting to form on my Gladioli, our house will soon smell and look like a flower shop. There will be too many flowers for just us but I enjoy giving them to family, friends and neighbours and anyone who appreciates them. The same goes for any surplus vegetables and fruit that I may have.



This week I have harvested my crop of Garlic, I'm afraid that I do not what variety it is as my Mum & Dad brought me back from a holiday 2 years ago a string of Garlic and I used some for cooking and the rest I used as seed. The resulting crops that I have been able to grow from them have been excellent and of good size and flavour with good keeping qualities. What I intend to do this year when time permits is to try a tip out that was given to me, where you peel and crush them all and then mix with a little water and fill ice cube trays and freeze them into cubes, these then can be added to your cooking as and when you require over the rest of the year.




The first of my Ridge Cucumbers have started to form this week, they are not as pretty or big as the supermarket Cucumbers that cost a small fortune but they are much easier to grow and have a far superior flavour to them along with being prolific croppers. their skins are thicker and you may prefer to peel them with a potato peeler first, if you have a glut of them then you can pickle them as a suitable Gherkin replacement.






Also this week, the Sweetcorn is really putting on a good amount of growth, I think that the warm weather has really suited it. The Spring Onions are ready for harvesting now and the French Beans are starting to flower so with more watering and warm weather it should not be long before I start to harvest them the Celery plants are coming along nicely as well.




Around the plot this is how things are coming along, the Maincrop Carrots are doing well as are the French Marigolds planted around them to deter the Carrot Fly. In the Brassica cage the crops are also thriving, the Summer Cabbages are starting to fill up, I have several Cauliflowers that are producing heads and I have bent over some of their leaves tp protect the curds from yellowing in the sunlight, the Calabrese and Purple Sprouting plants that I transplanted only a couple of weeks ago have taken well and started to grow away nicely.





The bed for the Cucumbers, Courgettes and Butternut Squashes at the front of my plots is really strting to fill up now, I have been able to harvest the first crop of Courgettes this week and I will use these to make some Ratatouille which freezes very well for use later in the year. As you can see from the second photo the plots are looking full and healthy.


Well that's it for another week on my allotments, I hope that you are continuing to enjoy the fruits of your labour and the excitement of knowing that you grew it. The following video is of how I transplant my Leeks into their final growing position, I hope that you enjoy it, I was very nervous at being in front of the camera for the first time so please bear that in mind, thankyou all again for following and appreciating my efforts, regards Steve.