MY WEEK : 32 ( 6TH AUGUST )

Hello all, I hope that you have all had a better week with the weather, we have had a bit of rain here at long last although only a few mm. The cooler weather has helped the Runner & French Beans, they are both starting to produce more flowers and hopefully in turn will produce a better yield of beans.
Daniel has dug up 2 of his Potato plants this week and to my dismay he had just over 15lbs of Potatoes from them, with the heaviest one being 1lb 12oz in weight which he is proudly holding in this photograph. The manure that we incorporated into the soil along with Dad's regular watering has provided him with a better crop than mine!!



This week I have noticed that the Blackberries are ready for harvesting, despite the lack of water or rain the fruit that have been produced are of a good size, I will need to pick them soon before the birds notice them and tuck in for a good meal.




Daniel's Pumpkins are doing well, I have only left the 3 fruits on his plant and stopped the plant so that all the energy, water and nutrients will go into these fruit rather than into producing any more. The soil was prepared in the same way as his Potato patch was with plenty of well rotted manure and compost being added earlier in the Spring, then just regular watering is required and some leaf removal when the fruits are big enough to allow them to ripen.





French Beans setting..... Runner Beans setting.....


The bulb fennel plants that started to run to seed I have left for them to produce their flowers and seeds so that I can use them to produce next years plants which will help save a bit of money, you can quite a bit of your own seed as long as it is not an F1 hybrid as these will revert back to their parent strain.






Parsnip seed is now ready..... Leek seeds need a bit longer.....



The Spray Chrysanthemums have been fantastic this year along with the other flowers, about a month earlier than they were last year, I will have to try and source some different colours to add to my collection for next year. Also I may try out some different forms although if this requires much more time then maybe I will stay as I am, I think that I would be better covering the lighter colours with some shading to reduce the effects of the sunshine on them as a few have been scorched.






Tomato Gardener's Delight..... Tomato Moneymaker.....

These have both done exceptionally well this year outdoors on my allotments, as you can see there are plenty of fruits and without much looking after as well.




Cauliflower Snowball..... Summer Cabbage.....

I am still harvesting Cauliflowers, they have done very well in my new brassica cage infact we have never had better crops let alone as much Cauliflower as we have in the freezer, the Summer Cabbages have done as well, their heads are holding well with no signs of them splitting however I will harvest them soon before they do split.


Below is another slideshow of my second lot of Dhalias that were given to me in the Spring they are the envy of the allotments, I hope that you enjoy them too.





Well that is it for another week, it is now time for me to start clearing some of my raised beds ready for the Winter, some of them will require a bit attention as the timber needs replacing in places, I shall then start on next years plan of where I will grow my crops so that I can mulch the necessary beds with well rotted manure and compost which I generally leave on them until the Spring when I rotorvate them. Have a good week all on your plots and I will speak to you all next week, thanks Steve.