Last week of May 2017

Well although the weather can't seem to decide between autumn, spring or summer the plants still seem to be doing their thing and most crops seem to be growing well on the plot.

Peas growing well, lots of pods beginning to form

The slugs and snails have been far to active for my liking though and the rainbow carrots the children sowed on their beds didn't survive the 'all you can eat' buffet. I am worried that the parsnips are meeting the same fate as they germinate so I have sown more to be on the safe side! In this first year I have learned that growing your own is a piece of cake, it is stopping the local wildlife from munching our hard work that is the tricky part. A good amount our time is spent making covers to keep crops safe from the birds and butterflies. (Shame they don't keep the slimmies off too!) I have found myself window shopping for cloche hoops and cages but the price tag is eye watering so if we can bodge our own we will for now at least.

Makeshift cover for carrots and beetroot.

I have directly sown most of the beans, carrots, parsnip, radish and beetroot at the plot and planted out the lettuce, squashes, courgettes, pumpkins, and globe artichokes and the  Aurora tomotoes. I am interested to see how early they crop in the hope they will beat the blight.

At home I have module sown swedes and calabrese as well as a few herbs,  the slugs found most of them and I had to re-sow. They also ate all the cucumber plants so I will be re-sowing them too, but keeping them on the kitchen window ledge until they are big enough to survive a nibble or two. Hopefully I haven't left it to late for that.. The sweetcorn had a 100% germination rate which was great, although I will now need to find space for about 32 plants, the more the merrier though, they were a favourite crop with the children last year, they are growing well and should be ready to plant out soon the climbing beans I module sown at home are just poking through now too. I have sown both crops in root trainers which turned out to be a great investment. I would definitely recommend them for sweet peas, peas, beans and sweetcorn.

I was very excited to see the asparagus has sprouted, we have 7 out if 12 so far and I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed that the rest will make it. It certainly made that frustrating day of planting them worth while.
I am not having much luck with the broad beans this year. Blackfly have covered the whole crop despite nipping the tops off. I am wiping them off everytime I visit (yuck) but I am not holding out much hope of a bountiful harvest,  the pods just aren't getting any bigger! I tried the variety Wizard beans from Real Seeds (They are actually field beans). I still have about 10 seeds left so next season I will sow them alongside another variety to see if I can do better! They take up to much room to produce a small harvest but I love them to much to give up at the first hurdle.
The most magical moment though, the one I dreamed about before even going on the list for an allotment..... the first strawberry harvest. It was only a small handful from our unknown variety but it was AMAZING! I can't wait for the rest to turn red,  they may not make it home..........