Surprise, surprise everything's growing!

28 & 29 May - Bank Holiday weekend
Spent most of the weekend of 28 & 29 May on the Farm tidying up, hacking back and fixing up.
The grass under the redcurrants and along our paths had gone bananas! Here are some before and after photo's.

Above: overgrown under the redcurrants & pears

After: grass massacred!

Above: strimming back the jungle next to the compost heap and storage area.

Fruit
Otherwise things growing wonderfully! It looks like we may have some pears this year. Last year a late frost killed off all the flowers and we didn't get a single pear.

Above: you can see the baby pears against the sky in the top-left corner of the photo

Strawberries are coming along nicely. We have put straw down around the plants so that the fruit ripen off the ground and less likely to rot. They also stay clean and it seems to deter slugs and snails.

Above: strawberries in flower

Chris has constructed some support for the raspberry canes growing in the hedge next to the shed, on the border of the Farm. See photo below. What you can see in the foreground on the left are radishes & some tiny spring onions; on the right are mangetout.

Above: raspberries

Waiting for rain...
Chris has also put up guttering to collect rainwater from the shed roof. This will collect in the two water butt type things we inherited on the farm. The one on the left was full of holes but have managed to repair it using washers and lots of silicone sealer! Now we just have to wait for rain.....

Above: guttering to collect rainwater. In the foreground are shallots & onions.

Vegetables
The some of the runner beans and dwarf beans were attacked by slugs & snails, which has set them back a lot. It's surprising that they recover at all. The ones that escaped the slime monsters have got off to a great start.

Above: runner beans and dwarf beans (note rampant grass in background....)

The broad beans survived the weevils and are going great guns. We've planted four rows of salad leaves next to them.

Playing catch up

Allotment quickie

• it's spring at last!
• paths strimmed
• beds weeded, hoed & raked
• many seeds sown
• a frog visits...

Racing to catch up - 29 April

Went away on holiday for two weeks and came back to find the grass on the paths had grown six inches and there were many, many little weed seedlings in the beds. Suspect a lot of them come from the compost we put on the beds - compost which was already on the allotment when we took it on. So first weekend back (29 April) was spent doing a big tidy up before sowing any seeds. First to go in were runner beans, dwarf beans and mangetout. It took two pairs of hands to wrestle the pea netting into shape; started off as a tangled mess new out of the packaging!

Also put in 6 strawberry plants which were a bargain from a supermarket; and 6 lavendar plants for the herb patch.

Back on track - 6 May

I spent at least twelve hours on the allotment this weekend, and partner put in six (so that's eighteen hours of not shopping, sitting in front of the telly or quaffing pints in the pub...all good stuff!) Partner went fishing on the Saturday and came home with five lovely trout - a few hens & a small cow and we'll be self-sufficient (mind you there's only so much trout you can eat before you start turning into one...)

Sowings this weekend:

• salad leaves - mixed & oriental spicy (the 'cut & come again' type)
• (sky)rocket
• landcress
• courgettes - 2 x 'normal'; 1 x round; 1 x yellow (not tried these exotic types before)
• tomatoes - 2 bought seedlings 'Gardener's Delight'
• aubergine - 1 bought plant (wish me luck!)
• sunflowers
• parsnips
• carrots
• beetroot
• fennel
• sweetcorn
• radish
• spring onions
• pumpkin (planted straight into the compost heap, not tried this before)
• chives
• coriander
• mint - 1 bought plant
• french tarragon - 1 bought plant
• and for the bees, two packets of meadow flower mix

Still to plant...

Will plant the following up at home in seed trays before planting out:

• sweet basil
• Thai basil
• gem lettuce
• marjoram
• chilli

No pictures this week (pics of freshly planted seeds as exciting as watching paint dry...) Although wish I had taken a photo of the frog!

The frog!

On Friday took a peek under the black plastic covering one of the compost heaps to see how it was doing and was astonished to find a frog sitting there, quietly, in the damp. Didn't disturb him/her and wished we had the pond ready, already! Took another look on Sunday afternoon and the frog was gone, but left behind was a small amount of frog spawn. So partner scooped the spawn into a puddle of water that had collected in the plastic on top of the next door compost heap. So hopefully we'll have a bunch of little froggies one day - must get the pond built!

Stuff we've eaten

Had a good few leeks out (given some away) as well as rhubarb. Have made rhubarb and ginger jam. Tonight had leek & potato fritatta followed by rhubarb & custard!