Can't keep up

Oh dear! Everything is growing so quickly now that I can't keep up. Beautiful, warm weather has meant a trip to the allotment more or less every day this week. Lugging water cans back and forth, almost emptying the trough has been more powerful than a trip to the gym. I've come home with lettuce, potatoes and strawberries practically every time. Lovely!

Mrs. G. has had visitors this weekend and I've been busy sorting out the garage and sewing a "prom" dress for little Miss M's end of primary school do on Wednesday. However, I've managed to squeeze in two trips to water and harvest since Friday. I know that one shouldn't water in the middle of the day but that can sometimes not be helped. I had planned to take a walk over to the plot very early this morning, but a rather late dinner party last night put a stop to that. I set off this afternoon and came home with this:

Huge radishes!

The chard is now ready to pick.

We have loads of lettuce to pick.

The spinach is also ready to pick.

Lovely potatoes that melt in your mouth,

The rest is looking so fabulous. 

You should apparently pick the top of this purple sprouting broccoli so that it grows more heads. I'm leaving that one to Mrs. G. on Monday.

Look at the tiny courgettes growing. They'll be big in no time!

Just look at the spinach! We've got so much to pick now that I don't know where to start. We'll have to live on vegetables, which is not a bad idea. 

The ground was fairly hard when I dug up the potatoes today. Rumour has it that this heat wave will continue. This is of course fantastic news but a little bit of rain would not be a bad thing for the allotment. How about sunny, hot weather during the day and rain during the night? I'd like to order that please.

Mrs. M.

Sun, cider and spuds

The weather forecast experts (?) had predicted a heat wave and I was waiting for it throughout the week. Hm. I didn't need to water on Tuesday as it was raining and when Mr. M. and I turned up on Thursday evening there was a raven on the shed roof and mist everywhere. I felt part of a Hitchcock film! Then Friday came along and the sun came out. I spent all day at the local secondary school with my pupils attending a primary schools sports day. It was great fun and despite using sun screen I turned into a tomato... I then spent the evening at school listening to wonderful singing and playing so no trip to the plot. 

Until Saturday. In the afternoon I met up with Mrs. G., who had already been up to plant leek in the early hours of the morning. Isn't she good!?! Bob, the neighbour, had also been there and given her some useful tips. The leeks should be planted in holes, then watered and left. No need to fill the holes in as the leeks need to root themselves. This is what it looks like:

Very neat and tidy!

It was rather hot so after a very short weeding session we settled down on the lawn and had some cider. 

It was lovely! Cold and refreshing and just what we needed before getting on with another of Bob the neighbour's tips - dig up some potatoes to see if there actually are some underneath. And there were! It was all really exciting and we dug up roughly 3/4 of a row. 

Shared between the two of us we set off home. Or in my case, off to another concert with children performing.

Today was just as hot and glorious so Mrs. G. and I met up in the afternoon. Mrs. G. had been to the local garden centre and bought some more plants and some netting. Our plants are now growing really well and we need to lift up the netting. When we spoke to another allotmenteer the other day we were told that netting is necessary more or less throughout the season as the birds eat and eat and eat. However, the netting we've been using is not big enough to raise up on sticks so Mrs. G. went and got some more. While I was busy weeding she did a grand job of creating netting boxes. 

It looks like we know what we're doing now!

It's great to see how the plants are growing. Just look at these:

Broccoli

Chard

Parsnip

Brussels sprout

Can you see the tiny pepper?

Today we also planted some cauliflower where we had dug up the potatoes.

After a good couple of hours of weeding, planting, netting and watering we went home. You feel rather tired, but in a good way. Mr. M. was just about to light the barbeque as I got home and little Miss M. had a friend over. The potatoes from the plot were an absolute hit with everybody!

These just melted in the mouth!

We also had some radishes. I had to cut them up so that everybody could have a taste. 

And as the grand finale we had some of these:

They were so lovely and I can't wait to pick some more on Tuesday!

Mrs. M.

Mmmmmmm

I didn't get round to making anything with the rhubarb yesterday evening so tonight was the night. Straight after dinner I started cutting up rhubarb and measuring up water and sugar. A lovely smell filled the kitchen and I filled a bottle and a jar. I only had 1kg of rhubarb but that resulted in around 400ml of cordial and 1 jar of jam.

There was a little bit left of the jam that didn't fit into the jar so I put that on a piece of crispbread and mmmm, that was delicious!

The vanilla in the jam made all the difference. It's sweet without being too sweet if you see what I mean. I think I'll have some more.



Mrs. M.