MY WEEK : 23 ( W/E 10TH JUNE )

Welcome to this weeks update from my allotments. It has been a busy week of planting, weeding and watering as in this part of the country we have not had any rain so far this month despite the threat of thunderstorms this weekend. As you can see from the picture I have harvested the first bunch of my favourite flower Sweet Peas, the house is being filled with their beautiful scent at the moment which is adorable.

I would like to thank you for your feedback regarding the graphics both at the sides of my blog and at the top which I have now adjusted to reflect what you have told me, I hope that they are better and enhance my website.

The first job of the week was to erect a small protective cage over my Strawberries as I had noticed that they were getting the attention of the local Pigeons and Blackbirds. It does unfortunately mean that to harvest them I need to crawl in on one of the sides but the harvest of the first bowlfuls were well worth the effort, they have a much better taste than the forced ones that are currently in the shops. I discovered this week that the farmers sell their mishaped Strawberries at the local Farmers Market, it is unbelievable to think that the Supermarkets will only have the ones that look like a Strawberry? what is the world coming to when this sort of thing goes on, however their customers still get a good dose of nine different sprays that go onto them before they reach the stores.






I have planted out my Sweetcorn plants which I started off in my cold frames and they are already showing signs of growing even though I only planted them at the beginning of the week, I have also planted my Fennel plants which after last years experience of them running to seed I will need to keep them well watered during any dry spells such as now, if you have not tasted them before they are wonderful as a braised vegetable and you can grate them into salads but their Aniseed flavour may be too strong for some if used this way.






At the front of my allotments I have a raised bay which I use to grow crops such as Cucumbers, Courgettes and Butternut Squashes in and as you can see from the top-right picture I have planted all of these in there this week, it will not take long for them to completely fill this area as they are quite vigorous growers, elsewhere on the plots I have transplanted the Salad Bowl Lettuce plants to follow on from the earlier ones which we are already enjoying in our Salads at the moment.






I have also planted out my Dwarf French Beans which is the first time I have grown them as I usually just have my Climbing French Beans which I will be planting out next week it will be interesting to see which gives me the better yield and quality. My Potatoes which were planted about a month later than usual are ready for earthing up which is another job I will be doing next week, I know that many of you must be enjoying the first of your Potatoes already after the Spring we have had and I bet they taste wonderful too, enjoy!!







The Runner Beans are starting to get going with them climbing the supports now, despite the frost the week before last when some plot holders had theirs scorched mine are still ok. The Gladioli are also growing well with the first signs of the ripples forming in their leaves which is a sign of the flower stems beginning to form on them, so it should not be too long before they emerge and bloom.








The Dhalias are also starting to grow strongly and were also not affected by the frost, I have however noticed that I have lost one or two of them during the Winter as they have not emerged, the other tubers though are that big that they will need dividing at the end of the season so this will help to fill in the gaps. The Apple Trees are also doing well in which is their first full year on the plot and as you can see from the top-right picture the Cox's Orange Pippins are already looking good.







In last week's update I mentioned that my Asparagus was under attack from it's main pest the Asparagus Beetle, during the week I have religiously checked them each day and any Beetles that I have found I have picked off and crushed, at the beginning of the week I found nearly 40 of them and by the end of the week I only had 4 remaining on the entire 2 rows so hopefully if I continue this on an every other day basis I should get the better of this pest. My Broad Beans are full of flowers and despite a few Blackfly present a quick spray with the Organic Insecticidal Spray has soon put paid to them and hopefully I will soon be rewarded with a good crop.




Well that is it for this week I'm afraid, I am gradually catching up with everything and will soon be back in control of my 2 plots with regards to looking after everything routinely, have a good week on your allotments and plots, I will speak to you all again next week regards Steve.