Its July down the allotment and despite the rain and low temperatures we have been having it’s not doing too bad. As you can see the courgettes have started to fruit. The one above is Courgette Floridor and I have already had 4 fruits off it. I also have Courgette Clarion and picked the first fruit today. Both plants are very healthy but the same cannot be said for my dark green Courgettes – I can’t remember the variety. They went in about a month later and have really suffered with slug damage. I think the others had got well established before the real damp weather unleashed slugs galore.
But as you can see they are valiantly struggling on so I don’t have the heart to pull them up yet.
Elsewhere on the allotment things are generally doing OK especially the buttercups and thistles but then I have hardly been to the allotment for two weeks due to a heavy workload, rain and our holiday in Barcelona. I am on leave this week so am determined to try to get on top of things, if the weather will let me. The borage looks wonderful and has definitely drawn the small amount of black fly from the tomatoes. The tomatoes are looking OK so far and there are even some small fruits. I just need it to warm up and hopefully there will be a tomato crop.
The kale and purple sprouting broccoli is also looking good and I am really pleased with the netting and bamboo hoops combo which has deterred the pigeons. Having lost my entire cauliflower crop to pigeons I am a little twitchy when it comes to brassicas. I am also wary of using netting since last summer we killed a grass snake in some netting which was very distressing. This time I have pulled the netting taut and weighted the sides down with stone so hopefully we wont have a repeat performance.
I finally weeded the celeriac and celery bed and I am quite chuffed with progress so far. I haven’t grown either of these crops before so I need to do some research on what to do next. I am protecting the plants from the various low flying pests with some whizzy fencing I bought and I think it has also helped protect the plants from the winds we have had.
Now before you get irritated with my tidy allotment I have to confess I have only shown you the goodish bits. At the fruit end of the plot it is not so good. The weeds are taking over and all the salads in the raised bed had bolted. So I decided enough was enough and pulled the lot up and have started again with a new sowing of mixed leaves and also salad onions. I have never really got on top of this area it is always the lowest priority but I am determined to get it sorted and get some paths down by this winter!
Looking at the weather forecast I might get some more time on Friday morning this week so hopefully it might start to look a bit more loved. Saying that despite feeling full of despair while I am weeding away, wondering if I will ever get on top of the situation, walking back to the car I notice that few of the plots are immaculate and many are struggling with weeds like me so maybe I should be kinder to myself.