It has been raining heavily, and extremely windy. We went down to check on the plot, make sure things were where we left them (the cold frame wanders off when it’s windy). It’s looking much better than I expected it to look this year.
From the top: Bernard’s plot has several nasturtiums, a line of radishes, and a potato sprouting. Next to it are some random jerusalem artichokes. Most of the rest of this end is currently under carpet.
The asparagus is, well, there. I was expecting to see a bit more this year but it looks exactly like it did last year. In the same bed, the parsely is going nuts.
The fruit bushes might possibly have some fruit this year, but we need to erect some sort of cage, I suppose. The rhubarb at the front is doing fine, but the one at the back has collapsed. What’s that about?
We have a veg bed with non-germinating peas, PSB, a few cabbage and beetroot (I’m not holding my breath; neither of these did anything last year), one borlotti bean, a row of radishes, and quite happy-looking broad beans. Behind that are half the maincrop spuds, just starting to come through.
An area at the back that was carpeted last year now hosts the rest of the maincrop and all the earlies. We also have random spuds all over the beds, where I guess we failed to find them last year. At the front of this section there are some leeks, which have been in there for months and months; the strawbs which are just flowering; three celeriacs and a small wigwam of runner beans.
And at the bottom, on the mound of the old compost heap (also home to a slow worm), one outdoor cucumber and one courgette. I am hoping that the site will be sunnier and wetter than the location of the courgette last year, and that the slow worm will take charge of slug control.
I also just picked up some peas at the garden centre. When I can bend my knee again, I’ll put them in somewhere.
Direct your slow worm to your rhubarb – I suspect a mollusc problem (I’ve had similar trouble). Carpet has been banned at our allotments (it leaves a terrible mess, you know, and past allotmenteers have been poor at tidying it up, so the council have, quite reasonably, banned it – I now see a trend to using split and damaged redundant swimming pool covers instead, which tend to last longer and are easier to tidy up afterwards). Net your strawberries now, else you’ll have nothing but stalks and fat birds. Carrots, parsnips and chard have all been pathetic for us, but potatoes, peas, lettuces, radishes, onions, shallots, peas, mizuna, rocket all look good at the moment. Beans are just going in (the seedlings are growing here at home and look good at the moment) and leeks will be planted shortly. we’ve also just planted some celeriac, which is a novelty for us.