Late August

More weeding at the allotment revealed how the late sowing of Peas are progressing (see above). Not a huge amount have germinated, but there are a few plants looking healthy so I might still get a late crop of Peas.


Having pulled up the Tomato plants that died prematurely from blight, I pulled up the weeds from the front of the plot where the Tomatoes had been and covered the area with black plastic to stop the weeds from taking over the ground again.


One of the Pumpkins is stating to ripen now, but the others are fairly well covered by Squash and Pumpkin leaves so are still green.


As I mentioned before, the Sweetcorn plants are looking very good at the moment (see above) and are producing loads of cobs for picking (see below).


I also picked my first ever Celery (see below). It's not up to shop-brought standard, but I'm quite pleased with it. I sowed the seeds at home in March so it's taken a long time to reach this size! But I think it's done enough for me to give it another go next year. There are still about another 20 Celery plants in the ground, so hopefully they'll continue to get a bit bigger.

Early August

This has been the wettest summer on record. Almost constant rain through out May to August and it has really had a devastating affect on the allotment. The entire crop of Tomato plants (all 21 of them) got blight and died without producing any fruits, which was very depressing. The normally rampant Courgette plants have all but died off already, producing very few Courgettes this year. I have never had Courgette plants fail before, so that just shows how bad the weather has been. The Runner Beans have blown over several times, resulting in several plants dying but thankfully they're still producing a good amount of beans.

Worst of all, the weeds have been growing faster than I can ever remember and it has been absolutely impossible to stay on top of them, especially with the rain often preventing me from spending time at the allotment. So it has been quite an unhappy time for the allotment. Thankfully some crops have kept going and done really really. The Sweetcorn has produced lots of very good quality cobs. The Squash plants are doing great and producing lots of fruits. The Brassicas are doing well, the French Beans are slower than normal but still producing beans. Carrots have been very poor at germinating, but the early Peas have been superb.


The Purple Sprouting Broccoli plants are growing very nicely at the moment (see above), having just weeded around them. It will be a while before they're producing anything though so I'm just hoping they don't succumb to the wet weather too.


The Leeks planted out last month are also looking better for a recent weeding session.


The Uchiki Kuri Squash (see above) are obviously the earliest of the Squashes I'm growing this year as the plants have already produced their Squashes and started to die off. There are about 7 Squashes from the 4 plants I planted out. They look great, very bright colour, and taste very good too. Definitely one to grow again next year.