MY WEEK : 30 ( W/E 29TH JULY )

Welcome to this week's update from my two allotments here in Stourbridge.

My Son Daniel is now on his school holidays and along with the wet weather this has reduced the time spent at the allotments this week, however I have enjoyed the harvesting of a few of my crops which is very rewarding.

As you can see from the photograph my Gladioli and Dhalias are putting on a stunning display now along with my Sweet Peas, I know that some plot holders feel that you should only grow something that you can eat on your plots but I feel that the mix of Fruit, Vegetables and Flowers is both productive, rewarding and therapeutic which after all is why I started, you do have set backs along the way but on the whole we all enjoy what allotment life gives us.

One setback that I know is striking both farmers and plot holders up and down the country at the moment is BLIGHT, as you can see from this picture one of my Potato crops has been ruined by it and my outdoor Tomatoes are now showing signs of it, yet the crop of Potatoes along side those in the picture are still looking healthy. Blight thrives in warm damp conditions which is what we have all experienced this season, all you can do is remove the foliage before it travels down to the tubers and if they are already the required size then you can still dig them up and use them however their keeping qualities will not be as good as usual I'm afraid, it is recommended that you either burn the haulms or get rid of them at the tip but you must not compost them as the Blight is a Fungal disease and could contaminate your compost heap.

On a happier note my Runner Beans have started to produce a good supply of lovely tender and string less Beans which just melt in your mouth, the Dwarf French Beans are also producing a good crop, the Climbing French Beans pictured top-right have started flowering and I have noticed that some of them are setting as well.

My crop of Peas that I am growing in my large cage have started to produce a fantastic harvest of Peas now with me picking nearly a carrier bag full of pods in the last couple of days which in return gave me 4lb of them pictured top-right, this was only a fraction of what remains on the plants and I did not find any sign of damage caused by the Pea Moth Larvae which results in the more commonly known 'Maggoty Peas' problem and along with the obvious protection from the birds this is where I will be growing my Peas from now on.

You may recall that I was sent by a couple of my website visitors earlier in the year some seed for an Onion called Roscoff Rose which was grown in that part of France and then brought to our shores by 'Onion Johnnies' as they were called and sold to people in London and the South of the country, this is the result so far pictured top-left and then I was sent some seed for something called a Banana Shallot which is pictured top-right, I think you will agree that both of them look fantastic and I am looking forward to using them in the next week.

The Florence Fennel pictured top-left has reached it's ideal size and maturity now, to use them you need to remove their roots and also all of their ferns leaving you with just the bulb pictured top-right, you can either grate these into a salad if you like the strong flavour of Aniseed or as I intend to do you can braise them in some chicken or vegetable stock in the oven or steam them until they are tender.

The Sweetcorn is producing ears of corn now with most of the plants having at least two or three ears on them it looks as though they should produce a good yield. The Shallots are ready for lifting and drying now pictured top-right, I usually put these on my slatted staging in one of my Greenhouses back at home so that they get a good dry air around them ready for pickling in September.

The Sweet Peas have been really stunning this season and now that I am off to my little mountain retreat in North Wales in the caravan for a couple of weeks it is the ideal time to let them go to seed whilst I'm away to produce my seed for next years display, I hope that those of you who kindly purchased some of my seed last year have had as good a display as I have this year. Back at home I have a dessert Grape Vine which as you can see from the picture top-right is really doing well this season, the bunches are starting to swell up now and it looks like it will be a good crop. I have taken a couple of cuttings of the Vine up at the allotments so that in future I hope to have a complete row of them across my plot.

Back at home the Hanging Baskets, Window Boxes and Towers are looking really good despite the weather they have had to endure this Summer, I have had to turn off the automatic watering supply on quite a few occasions as they were getting more than enough water from the skies, hopefully with some warm sunshine they will flourish even more whilst we are away.

Well that is it for this week, just to remind you that as I have already mentioned I will be away for the next two weeks now hopefully enjoying some decent weather and wonderful sunsets like we have had in previous years at our little retreat in North Wales, I will obviously update you on this in two weeks time along with what has happened at my allotments, thanks for continuing to follow my progress here and I will be back with my next update in two weeks time, regards Steve.