The cycle of allotment life

No sooner have we nearly filled the beds on the allotment and are beginning to wonder where we will plant later crops than we start to empty beds. It seems just a short time that we have a full allotment before things start to look bare again.

Last week we cleared three beds, One had housed our first brassicas which have now been eaten and the bed will now be made ready for some dwarf French beans.

All the autumn planted onions have been dug from another bed. We had planted two varieties, Radar and Senshyu Yellow, both are rounded onions rather than the flatter types. I prefer the rounder ones for cooking as I seem to have more waste and less usable onion when preparing the flatter ones.

The third bed was cleared of our first batch of peas. The tops have been cut off and the roots left in the ground to release nitrogen into the soil.

Our second and third sowings of peas have been given, twiggy supports. The first lot of were rather disappointing. I can excuse them for their poor performance as they really were up against all that the weather could throw at them this year.

23 July

The courgette plants are now coming into production. I'm trying to catch the fruits before they become too large before harvesting and so far I am keeping up. The yellow variety hasn't got into its stride yet. I'm pleased to say that so far all the courgettes have passed the lick test.

The blueberry bushes are really confused by the unseasonal weather. Although the later fruiting varieties have berries just beginning to ripen, the same bushes are beginning to show autumnal colours.

At last the runner and climbing French beans have decided to climb up the canes. Some vines already have flowers despite them having quite a lot of growing to do. Hopefully now they seem to have got the idea they will speed up their ascent.

24 July

We made a concerted effort to pick blackcurrants last week. I wonder is it just us that doesn't top and tail the berries? We make sure the tail - the stems - are removed when we pick them but the tops we leave. We haven't suffered any ill effects from this negligence, in fact once the blackcurrants are cooked you don't notice.

The blackberries are now beginning to ripen. The canes are loaded with fruits. Fortunately the canes are thornless so picking is a painless activity.

We started harvesting brassicas from the second bed. The Kalibro cabbage haven't solid hearts up but the decision was made to cut one. We're guessing that these cabbages will all heart at the same time so this way we can spread the harvest out a little.

26 July

The Oullins Gage plums are beginning to ripen so I only just hung the waspinators in time. There was also a very pleasant surprise. Usually many of the first plums to ripen have plum moth maggots hiding inside, but this year so far they have been clear. I wonder if the moths were deterred by the weather. I hope this doesn't mean that we will find them at a later stage.

We're still picking cucumbers from the raised bed in the garden. The time between picking and eating is so short that I rarely get a photo.

The crate in the garden greenhouse is still yielding mini carrots. This time they are all the same shape.

We're not the only ones harvesting. Now that the buddleias have finally flowered - I'm sure that they are later than usual this year - the bees have homed in. So far, as far as butterfly visitors I have only spotted the odd small tortoiseshell and the ubiquitous whites. I'm hoping more species will arrive soon.

The bees quite like verbena bonariensis too.

If you fancy taking a look around half of our allotment with us, we have posted a video here.

I hope that everyone is still keeping well and safe.

This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

You don't have to have your own blog in order to join in conversations. It may seem that everyone who comments knows one another but bloggers always welcome new commenters, after all that is how we all started. 

PS: It's not just our gardens that suffer from blight. Martyn and I are currently suffering from an influx of blog blight. It seems that it is the season of the spammer. One in particular is persistently targeting our and what appears to be lots of other people's blogs. Most are sent to the spam or moderation folders as we moderate comments on posts over five days old. These spam comments are deleted and never see the light of day but unfortunately some do sneak through. I apologise for any that sneak through and end up being emailed to those who subscribe to comments, Please do not click on any links in spam comments which gives these nuisances satisfaction and encouragement. They can track where click throughs originate from and will target a blog even more if they think that this is causing more people to visit their site.

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