Popped up to the allotment last night for a bit of harvesting – got another big plastic bag full of Mizuna, Rocket, Orach, Kale and Spinach and a box of sweet peas, runner beans and courgettes – I’m really liking the short stubby courgettes that seem to be coming from one of my plants – I think I’ll try to keep some seeds from that one. I’m pretty sure I will come back to some huge courgettes after my 2 week holiday.

Must ask the nieghbour to water my plot whilst I am away.

20 runner beans
10 courgettes
4 big telegraph peas
Bucket of cherries
Carrier bag of Mizuna, Rocket, Orach, Perpetual Spinach

I am loving the visits to the allotment even more now – instead of just watering and weeding – we are now going home with the rewards.

Bought back home the following yesterday…
1 Courgette.
3 runner beans.
Bunch of Kale.
2 Pots of cherries.
1 Bag of Mizuna

soon we will also be picking the Rocket/Orach/Perpetual Spinach and many many more beans of a all types.

Started harvesting a few things this week. We had 2 large courgettes from our plot …

…and the Mizuna is ready to pick – they have suddenly turned into large bushy clumps of tasty leaves.
The runner beans are growing in size and should hopefully be ready to start picking over the weekend.

Below are the cabbages and sprouts – doing OK I think – at least with the netting they have not been destroyed by caterpillars.

I also have some Kale here – that I started picking the leaves of last weekend – they went down well the other night with some sausages.

The other salad leaves (Orach, Perpetual Spinach and Rocket) are getting going and may need thinning out soon too.

Also – my girlfriend planted some edamame beans and these do not seem to be getting very big yet – not sure about how they should be growing though – maybe they will shoot up later in the summer.

Spent 4 hours of Saturday at the plot. Got a lock installed on the shed door and built another brassica net.
We did lots of weeding too – they really are trying their best to take over. The bindweed needs constantly pulling out – but the roots only come out half of the time I am starting to think i am on to a losing battle by just yanking them out.

The runner beans and courgettes are all taking off now – there are flowers on the courgettes and the beans are finally spiralling up the canes.

One of our raspberries seems to have bitten the dust and we can only assume that too much manure was left around the base of the stem.

I took a couple of pictures on our departure…

One of my courgettes that was surrounded by black plastic has been nibbled to nothingness by slugs – well I presume it was slugs.
I have a few other courgette plants that are still going well – but this one has been totally eaten.
I have decided to remove the black plastic as it seems to be creating a handy warm hiding place for snails and slugs and bindweed – so much for weed control plastic.

A couple of courgettes are in and thriving – despite the fact that there seems to be bindweed popping up and trying to spread all over the place – even when covered in black plastic.
I am trying my best to pick the bindweed shoots out when I spot them – but I’m pretty sure the roots are holding on in there. I must read up about this – will they finally die if I keep picking them out.

Made a short visit to the allotment at the weekend. Planted my courgettes and a row of sunflowers at the front of the plot (alongside the track).
Gave them a good watering in but it has been soo hot here for weeks. My girlfriend went over for a short visit yesterday to water everything and put some small stick in next to the sunflowers to give them some support (and stop them getting trodden on).

And today (Tuesday) I got a lift over to the plot from work with lots of timber frames that were being thrown away. These are going to make perfect raised beds (not raised by a great height but great for defining the individual beds).
So – Now I just have to wait till the weekend so that I can get out there and work out where the beds are going and what is going to go into them.

Really looking forward to the weekend now. I may even get a bit more done on the shed.

Bathroom windowsill – Sown into toilet roll tubes

Courgette (Middle Left)

• heavy cropping Green variety
• emerged after 8 days
• 11.04.11 – doing very well – Big Leaves
• 15.04.11 – Planted outdoors into raised bed – need mulching and maybe netting to protect them from slugs/rabbits/crows.

Basil (Bottom Left)

• Really successful last year – for lunchtime salads
• Emerged after 1 week
• 11.04.11 – very tiny still.
• 19.04.11 – still quite small

Blue Daisies (Top Left)

• seeds from successful pot plant we bought last year
• 11.04.11 – no sign yet
• 19.04.11 – still no sign

Yellow Diaises (Top Right)

• seeds collected from another garden
• 11.04.11 – no sign yet
• 19.04.11 – still no sign

Nasturtium (Bottom right)

• Standard variety – Orange and Yellow flowers
• Red ones were not very successful last year
• emerged after 1 week
• 19.04.11 – doing quite well – may plant out over the weekend

Peppers (Top Middle) – Yolo

• 11.04.11 – no sign yet
• 19.04.11 – emerged earlier this week.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli (Middle Middle)

• never had space to do these before
• sprouted after 3 days
• 11.04.11 – still quite small
• 19.04.11 – growing well

Honesty (Bottom Middle)

• 11.04.11 – no sign yet
• 19.04.11 – still no sign

Ipoemea (Lower Right)

• seeds collected from very successful climber grown from seed last year
• sprouted after 2 days
• doing v well (hopefully these will still be the red flowering variety – and not revert back to the White flowers)
• 19.04.11 – doing quite well – may plant out over the weekend – not sure where yet though.

Also sown:

Hollyhocks – top 2 rows (covered in dropped Geranium petals)

• Germinated after 10 days
• Slow growing
• 19.04.11 – doing OK

Sunflowers – bottom 2 rows

• Germinated after 6 days
• doing very well indoors
• 16.04.11 – planted out with small support sticks