I picked my first 2 strawberries today – well I say 2 but one of them isn’t really fully ripe. The trouble is I also removed 5 half eaten strawberries from the plants which I am presuming the birds have had a go at so I decided they weren’t getting the big fat nearly ripe one too. I had hoped not to have to resort to netting the plants but it appears my hopes were in vain. I haven’t cosseted the plants, feeding and watering them, as much as I have just to feed the local feathered fiends. So it will a trip to the garden center on the way home for me tomorrow to get some netting and supports.
Now onions are another matter I have been harvesting them for a couple of weeks as I need them. Also harvested the first mangetout today.
You can admire the delightful rust on my garlic to the right of the photo. The potatoes are a little sporadic which is disappointing but the earlier planted ones further down the plot are doing much better. This week I have planted sweetcorn (just out of shot) and Carvelo Nero (black kale) which is being protected under netting. A tough lesson learnt having lost all my cauliflowers to pigeons a month ago.
The first sowing of parsnips and carrots had poor germination, I suspect because the temperatures dropped just after I sowed. However the second sowings a couple of weeks ago have been much more successful. The white rectangle you can see is protecting my celery and celeriac seedlings from well everything and anything – so far so good. The brown patch is my neighbours plot, they are new and I think decided that digging the weeds by hand was too labor intensive so have applied weed killer. Luckily it doesn’t seem to have affected my plot.
I though the biggest challenge with an allotment would be battling the weeds but it turns out that it is actually more challenging battling the various creatures that see my patch as a smorgasbord of delights – but I won’t be defeated!