after 2 weeks away it seems that the Rocket, Mizuna and Mustard have decided to shoot to flower – and before going on holiday I had only harvested about half a dozen mustard leaves..
I love the Rocket flowers but am not so keen on the Mizuna flowers close up – I guess the next step is to dig them out and re-seeded for a new batch.

We have a second wave of Mizuna coming through – but I had not planted any more Rocket – I think I used up all my seeds in one go.

The plot is looking nice and colourful though.

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.

My back garden – with lots of help from Suzy – is giving me lots of pleasure to look at these days. i can sit for hours staring at the garden. We have opted for more flowers this year – as the new allotment has allowed us to free up some of the garden. The flowers are really bushing out with lots of flowers on the go. My usual desire to tidy up and keep everything in its place has waned and i am happy to see things hanging out over the borders and the pavements.

Here are a few pictures taken this morning June 29th 2011.

Purple Flowering Geraniums – these have been brilliant – lots of flowers that have lasted weeks already.

Sunflowers growing up in front of my shed – the flowers are just forming now – so these should end up about 8 feet tall – I can’t wait.

Some Cosmos bought from my local summer fair.

One of my 3 lovely Artichoke head s- I’ll leave these to flower rather than eating them.

One of my blueberry bushes has been great – the other one I think I may have killed by putting too much ericaceous feed in the pot.

Lovely curly cucumber that I also bought from the local summer fair.

Hazel tree grown from a nut picked off of a local tree. Very reliable to grow. just a few years to wait before we get some Nuts off of it I expect.

Lettuce and Kale growing in front of my shed.

Nasturtiums – that have been slow to grow – but now finally are flowering.

I have loved the Orange Poppies – they have about a dozen new flowers each day – but the flowers do only last a day. but the seed heads are very pretty too.

This slightly forgotten Parsley has gone to flower – so i’ll let it go to seed.

Some pink poppies that are just now starting to flower – lots of buds are coming up. I’ll collect these seeds and take some down to the allotment.

Flowering wild rocket – I’ll try to get some seeds from these too.

Just emerging Welsh salad onions – to be eaten like chives or left to get a bit bigger and eaten like small spring onions. loking forward to these – i have planted some of these in the allotment too.

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.

My bright purple Orach has reared its head about 2 weeks after planting.
They are looking very healthy and bright – but I think I may need to get some more netting to protect them from the local pests. I have built a few more frames to staple the netting to but need to get hold of some more netting.
I’ll take some pictures next time I get to go up to the allotment.

8th July – Picked a small bunch of the Orach leaves for a salad yesterday – along with the Rocket, Perpetual Spinach and Rocket – it made a great salad mix – went well with some some of my dressing and a sprinkle of roasted Pumpkin seeds and Parmesan cheese.

Here is how the Orach is currently looking – and I have just read that it will produce leaves until the first frosts and that it will grow to about 1m tall and can self seed if the seeds are left to dry out.