MY WEEK : 28 ( W/E 15TH JULY )

Welcome to this week's update from my allotments. As you can see from this photograph my plots are starting to fill up nicely with produce, in fact this week I finished all of the planting and sowing with every area being used which is quite satisfying. There will still be some successional sowings of some salad crops to be done and of next years Spring Cabbages later this month. I hope that despite the unseasonal weather we have been having this Summer you are all managing to harvest your crops, I think that the slightly raised beds that I have on my plots have helped with the drainage of all the rain water as my ground is still workable, thank goodness!!





My crop of Peas are really thriving with with the double row I have in my large netted cage dripping with pods at the moment and I'm sure that I will be harvesting them very soon. My Florence Fennel pictured top-right are also filling out well with all the moisture we are having, these are lovely braised in the oven in some vegetable or chicken stock and the ferns are beautiful in a creamy sauce over fillets of fish.





The Onions continue to do well despite my fears of them rotting off in all this rain although their leaves are starting to yellow a bit, my Asparagus plants which were only planted this Spring have started to produce a second spear on them which hopefully will feed their roots to give a stronger plant next year.





The Courgettes pictured top-left have started cropping although they are a bit on the smaller side than usual they taste better like this, the Salad Bowl Lettuce plants are thriving on all the rain as you can see from the top-right picture, these are to replace the ones that have been providing me with Salad leaves since early June.





The Dwarf French Beans pictured top-left have started to produce their slender pods which should be picked regularly to keep the plants productive because if the plant believes that it has produced enough seed then it stops producing more pods. The Spray Chrysanthemums that I stopped a week or two ago have started to produce side shoots now which will provide me with more Sprays than if I just left them to produce their main stem.





The Sweetcorn plants continue to go from strength to strength with them increasing in height quite rapidly, the first signs of their flowers are clearly visible. The Broad Beans are filling out well and I should be harvesting the first of these within a week or two, the plants themselves are showing signs of Rust on their leaves as a result of all the damp and humid weather but this will not affect the Beans themselves.





The Beetroot is continuing to swell nicely and I managed to harvest the first of the Beets this week which were lovely and sweet. My Climbing French Beans are progressing well and during the latter part of the week the first of their flowers appeared so it won't be long before these start to produce, as you may have noticed I have rather a lot of French Beans, this is so that some of them can be left to produce seed for next years crop and also some can be left to mature fully, the Beans from these can be dried and used in Soup, Stews & Casseroles etc over the Winter months they are otherwise known as Haricot Beans.





The Gladioli have started blooming in the last week, they look stunning and are good as a cut flower in a tall vase if you have the room for them. As the lower flowers fade you just remove them and shorten the stem which means that they will keep for up to two weeks, well worth growing if you can spare the ground.

Well that is it for another week, I have included a slideshow below of the different Dhalias that have started to bloom at my allotments with a few more to come shortly. I hope that you have a good week and I will be back as usual next week with my progress, thanks Steve.