Weeding, Harvesting on our 2nd place plot

 Well the purple climbing french beans have reached the top of the wig-wam, so I've nipped off the growing tips, so all the growth now goes into forming the fruit. 

Flowers are forming, so wont be long.

The Shiraz mange-tout peas are coming fast now. 
We have already had some with our dinner, just steamed over the pot with Charlotte potatoes boiling beneath.

This wig -wam with the Borlotti beans have also reached the top, so their growing tips have been nipped off too.

Plenty of Peas coming now, the frames I made have worked a treat. 
We have had some and they are super sweet.

Sweetcorn all weeded again, getting taller day by day.

I had to cut all the halums off the early spuds, as 'blight' seemed to have taken hold, I did a test dig and most were OK. 

Luckily these Cara potatoes have some resistance to 'blight' and are looking good.

The Redcurrants are ripening fast, we have already harvested the Blackcurrants (see below). 

Wont be long before we can harvest these.

Today's Harvest: 
Blackcurrants (5.5 lb),
Gooseberries (2.25 lb),
Raspberries (1 lb),
Mixed berries (6oz)
3x Courgettes. 

During the week we also picked more Raspberries, Strawberries & Loganberries.

If you remember last week, we were busy getting our plot tidy for the judging on Tuesday, well we had the good news we came 2nd, in the local Lily Jones Cup, wont know the result from the Wirral judges for a month.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo.

The weekend before the competition.

Well as the title says, its the w/e before the competition judging.

So we have been busy tidying up the plot, biggest job to cut the grass path, my petrol strimmer won't work and needs a part, so I had to do it all by hand with shears!

I'm so tired after doing it I'm celebrating with a bottle of last years Rhubarb wine :)

Parsnips, Carrots & Garlic patch nicely weeded. The Broad Beans to the right are cropping well, see below.

The Sweetcorn patch looking good, both plantings staggered to give a follow on crop.

These Peas are tightly packed in the pod and so sweet, cant get any fresher than picked & cooked within an hour. 
But even fresher eaten raw straight from the pod, like I did :)

The early Raspberries still cropping well, the mid season ones are ripening now, then the autumn cropping ones to follow.

Gooseberries almost ready to pick, will leave them one more week I think.

The apples are looking good too, these Cox's Orange Pippins will be super sweet when they are ready. 
Can't wait, it will be the best crop yet from the trees we put in 3 years ago.

Love the colour combination of Cornflowers & Calendula, just a few of the Bee friendly flowers we grow.

The Cara potatoes doing well, now at waist height & almost all in flower. 
The Harlequin are also growing well and a few in flower too.

Today's Harvest: 
Peas, 
Broad Beans, 
Rhubarb (4.5 lb), 
Raspberries (1lb 10oz), 
Strawberries (12oz), 
Potatoes, Lady Christl (7lb).

So another busy day, the sun was out & it was lovely, lots to do & harvest too. 
We were there for 6 hours and had a pic-nic lunch.

Judging is on Tuesday, so just one more day to check its all neat & tidy.

And to finish with, 3 Frogs on the edge of the pond, we've also seen some very small Frogs, must be from this years tadpoles, so lovely to see they are staying around and I don't blame them, having such a lovely pond to live in.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo. 

We weeded, planted and harvested until it rained, again.

First job of the day, was to weed this patch where the Leeks, Sweetcorn, Onions & Brassicas are. 
Looks a lot better for it. 
We need to get the weeding done, see why below.

We did have a pile of weeds here, so we got them burnt in the new incinerator bin. 
The space got filled with yet another Squash! 
Should do well here as I put a bucket of manure in the hole first.

The foliage on the Charlotte 2nd early potatoes looked a bit wilted, so I did a test dig and look how many came up from just one plant! 
There were more under the soil, see next picture.

Here is what I dug up from just two Charlotte potato plants. 
There is almost 4lb (1.8kg), we planted 36 so that means a possible yield of 72lb (32.4kg) from an initial 3kg purchase, a very good return on that investment.

The early Raspberries are ready to pick now, we have had a few already and harvesting daily now.

The Strawberries are being harvested daily too, see below. 

Jo has been very busy too and weeded this patch, where the Peas, Kale and French beans are. 
We need to get our plot looking good because we have entered it into the Wirral Allotments competition. Judges will be visiting on July 5th and we still have lots to do!

Today's Harvest: 
Strawberries, 
Raspberries, 
Broad Beans, 
Charlotte Potatoes, 
Rhubarb (see below), 
and Sweetpeas.

Victoria Rhubarb:
There is 7lb here and only 6 stalks, it's a beast!
Just one stalk & leaf measured 54" (135cm) from tip to root!

As the title says 'it rained, again' we arrived at 9:30, but had to leave around 1pm as we could feel rain in the air and sure enough the rain started as we walked home.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo.

Rain stopped play, but we did harvest

Well lets talk harvests. 
Today as you can see we picked: 
Strawberries, 
Raspberries, 
Peas, 
a Courgette 
& Sweetpeas. 

What a nice present on Fathers Day, 3 Eggs. 

One even has bumfluff on it, I hear you say 'Bumfluff' well its a true fact the soft downy feathers on a chickens rear are called 'Bumfluff' 

You probably cant tell, but its raining! 

We only managed to harvest (as above) but we have already had some good pickings this week, see below.

Friday:
Rhubarb, 
Potatoes, 
Strawberries, 
Courgettes, 
Asparagus.

Wednesday: 
Rhubarb, 
Potatoes, 
Strawberries. 

A Courgette plant too (for my Sister in Law)

The first potato harvest on the 11th of June. 
I can tell you Lady Christl potatoes are very tasty.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo

Working between the showers

The Squashes we put into the tyres are doing well, we have been watering them almost daily as they will dry out quick in a small container.

Planted out more Sweetcorn, 16 this time in a block 4x4. 
Will make a good follow on crop.

One job I've been meaning to do for a while, was to dig out the weedy/grass path that runs behind the pond and leads to where the Apple trees and the new raised beds with Gooseberries in are. 
So I made a new path using weed suppressant fabric topped with woodchips, will need some more to complete the job.

The Charlotte 2nd early potatoes, looks like they are all in flower now, so we will have to do a test dig soon.

We have already had some of the Lady Christl 1st early and they were lovely just with melted butter.

Can you spot the Squirrel? 
It ran in front of me and went into the tree on the lane, so fast I nearly missed it with my camera!

Todays Harvest: 
More Strawberries
More Asparagus
More Rhubarb (not in photo).
Gooseberry thinnings, only about a third taken to allow the rest to swell & ripen better.     

On the lane down to our Allotments, there are a few Elderflower trees, so we thought we would try making cordial from the flowers. 
Will report on the results soon.

So after 7 hours on the plot today, we got lots done and weeding (of course) too. 

There was a brief heavy rain shower mid afternoon, was a good opportunity to shelter and have a cuppa.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo

First weekend of June

 We still had some Purple podded mange tout Peas 'Shiraz' to put in, so I made a frame from bamboo canes & some mesh I found in the shed, also put cardboard down the middle to stop the weeds! I planted 25 each side. 

The Purple podded climbing French Beans are working their way up the wig-wam I put up a few weeks ago.  

The Borlotti Beans are winding their way up the bamboo wig-wam too.

In the Greenhouse we have started using cut bottles with a drip feed spike. We have 4 Tomatoes, 3 Peppers, 2 Cucumbers and a Courgette.

Now that the plot is almost full, we won't need any more horse manure, so Jo planted a couple of Squashes into the remaining muck, that's now well rotted.

Jo weeded the Onions, watered the Courgettes and planted a row of Rainbow Chard.

Pond update: We have now spotted 8 Frogs, of different sizes. 
Here you can see one of the bigger ones. 

The Tadpoles are much bigger too, we should see legs forming soon.

Lots of lovely flowers, California Poppies, Chives & Sage, the Bees love these. 

We also have Cornflowers, Scabious, Cosmos, Sunflowers, Calendulas, Poppies, Nasturtiums, Foxgloves, Verbena, Teasels, Echinops, Sweetpeas and a wild flower patch too, all liked by the Bees. 

Peas are climbing up the frames I made, these have even got pea pods forming, wont be long before we can try some. 

I love this patch at the gate end of our plot, now that we have finished the planting with a Courgette in the small raised bed (behind the dry brick wall). 

So we did alot today, weeding, planting, watering and even a bit of a bonfire, we still have lots of weeds to burn after drying. 

But it was such a hot day, luckily we have a parasol to get some shade under and a small table too to have our pic-nic on.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo