Time for a few other jobs!

The rain on Monday gave us a bit of time off watering and so we were able to tackle a few other jobs.

Martyn managed to tidy up the two beds from which he had dug some potatoes and then sowed them with green manure. He sowed buckwheat in one and grazing rye in the other.

I tidied up the purple, Glencoe raspberries and the Black Jewel raspberries. Both of these are clump forming and grow like blackberries. They had already grown very long, new canes that were whipping around in the wind and so needed attention before the new canes spoiled. Each year all the canes, that had fruited earlier that year, are cut out completely and the new canes are tied in to wires. Side shoots will grow from the new canes and, will hopefully,  carry next year's berries.

As most of our strawberries died this year, we decided to buy some new plants of a variety called Sweetheart. These were advertised as being specially prepared to fruit this August. So far the plants have only produced one or two flowers so it looks as though that promise is not going to be realised. The plants have, however, produced a mass of runners. Maybe if I had not been so preoccupied with watering and had removed these earlier the plants would have concentrated their efforts on fruiting. Anyway it's too late for that now but not too late to pot up a dozen rooted runners.

On each visit to the plot, one of our first jobs is to pick up all the fallen fruit. Fruit naturally falls from the trees but the winds this week have made matters worse. A path runs under the plum and greengage trees and fallen plums on a path can be messy and slippery. 

Every other day at least, we are picking up buckets full of spoiled plums. Martyn has also cut back some tree branches as some were so heavily laden with fruit that they bent down and made the pathway almost unusable.

There are also plenty of windfall apples which need picking up. All this spoiled fruit means that our compost heap resembles a giant fruit basket and some diners are quick to move in.

With all this spoiled fruit you would think there wasn't much left for us but in fact we have so many plums that we are now given lots away. 

So far the wasps are leaving the fruit on the plum and greengage trees. There are plenty of wasps around so are my waspinators working?

13 August

The greengage trees have produced a record breaking harvest, for a few years now the two trees have only produced enough fruit to remind us of what we are missing.

Being green it is quite difficult to tell when the fruits are ripe. It is also quite a surprise when you taste them as they are so sweet and delicious so having an abundance of them this year is a real treat.

The Vivaldi potatoes were lifted this week and as with the potatoes harvested earlier the crop was a mere shadow of what it should have been. There were very few of the large tubers that the variety should produce.

15 August

As well as bringing tomatoes home from the allotment we are also picking them from the garden greenhouse. All of these were cooked down to make a sauce which has been portioned and popped in the freezer.

As well as providing us with tomatoes we are now picking grapes from the greenhouse. The variety is Himrod which is sweet and seedless.

Our second planting of brassicas are now being harvested, the calabrese is Montclano and the cabbage is Kalibos. 

16 August

The purple climbing French beans have now picked up the baton from Cobra and are producing buckets full of beans, however, the runner beans are still disappointing.

18 August

Not featured in the photos are the apples that we pick and are eaten straight from the tree when we have a coffee break whilst at the plot. Is there a better way to enjoy apples?

The herbs and salad leaves picked straight from the garden don't feature either as they are usually picked and used immediately with no time to pose for their portraits.

We are still picking sweet peas but have long given up on trying to completely clear the flowers. Not only are there hundred of flowers but many now have hardly any stem at all. Maybe it's the plants way of thwarting me and trying to be left to produce seed pods.

No problem though as there are plenty other flowers to provide cutting material.

Our complete monthly harvests are listed here.

This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett