Monday, August 3

Hot, wet or windy - give us a break!

The bizarre weather, last week, meant that we didn't really get as much done on the allotment as we would have liked. At times we were collecting equipment and dashing into the shed to shelter from a sudden downpour. We then had gale force winds that battered everything including us. On Friday, after spending much of July in clothes more befitting late autumn, the celestial thermostat was suddenly turned up and we had to shelter indoors from temperatures above 30C or 86F. I think the weathergods need to call in an engineer as the thermostat must be in need of replacement.

As far as allotment tasks, we had a few priorities. The first was to run the cultivator over the beds that had been previously cleared so that they were ready to be replanted.
 
This was achieved during gaps between the sudden, sometimes heavy showers
A second priority was to cut the grass. It's growth should have slowed down by now but not this year! 
No sooner is it cut than it seems to grow back and be in need cutting again.
The persistent showers thwarted any attempts to achieve this aim until Sunday when it remained dry and, Martyn managed to strim the grass to a more acceptable length.
When I wasn't weeding or generally tidying, I harvested a few things. I was doubly grateful that our blackberry is a thomless variety. This time, not only were my hands and arms spared of scratches but, with the winds lashing my face with the canes,  that part of my body came away unscathed too.
28 July
The Oullins gage plums are ripening quickly now, but we were robbed of some fruits by the winds, as quite a few had been blown from the tree. Something had taken advantage of the windfall as many fallen plums were partially eaten. I picked up as many of the fruits as I could find and consigned them to the compost heap. Not only is it likely that wasps will take advantage of the discarded fruit, in the compost, and stay away from the trees but the fruits are very messy  and slippery if accidentally trodden on. Another problem, this year, is that Ruby is a fruitaholic. Being just a puppy, she will also pick up anything that looks remotely chewable. Plums are not good for little canine stomachs and even worse, the stones can be toxic or cause internal injuries if crunched.

The potatoes in the above photo were produced by a volunteer plant.
30 July
The Monclano calabrese is producing the main heads giving us plenty to harvest. Cauliflowers are close on their heels.
Another priority was to dig up more early potatoes. We decided to harvest another of our trial potato varieties. This time it was the turn of Ulster Prince and I must say we were surprised by what we unearthed. Many of potatoes were huge. 
The contents of the bucket below was the product of just four seed potatoes.
Not only were the potatoes larger than expected but they were also free of damage, other than a tiny hole in one tuber. It looks as if Ulster Prince may be a contender for next year's variety list.
1 August
Whilst the potatoes were large the cucumbers, that we harvested, were the diminutive Mini Munch. I rarely photograph the cucumbers, that we are now picking regularly and eating fresh from the plants, but this time I did.
The carrots, being harvested from the crates in the garden greenhouse, rarely make a phototshoot either, however we decided to dig some of the first of the carrots grown on the allotment.
Last year the carrots grown on the plot were a disaster, so we were readying ourselves for disappointment as we pulled the first few roots of one of the variety, Romance. This variety was new to us this year. We were pleasantly surprised when we lifted some near perfect specimens. We're just hoping that the rest are as good.  

Another couple of jobs that I managed on Sunday, but don't have photographic proof of, were to cut back the apple hedge and to cut out all this year's fruiting canes of our purple fruiting - Glencoe - raspberry. It had finished providing us with fruit and as with other summer fruiting raspberries and blackberries, next year it will fruit on canes produced this year. It's habit is more like a blackberry than a raspberry and so the long, new canes needed tying in.

We weren't the only ones harvesting. One or two hardy butterflies and several bees were feeding from our buddleias. Hopefully more will turn up soon.
Other butterflies were making the most of some Sunday sunshine.


The video of the second part of the tour of our allotment has now been posted here 

If you like to see dogs having fun you may like to watch a video of Ruby which is on our YouTube channel here.

Stay safe and healthy

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

22 comments:

  1. Goodness, those spuds are whoppers! You've done well with your carrots this year, lovely straight specimens. Archie was a little monkey when he was a puppy, he'd pull tomatoes off the plant when they were still green and eat them, I had to have eyes in the back of my head.

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    1. We have yet ti see hat Ruby makes of tomato plants, Jo although the plants are in no go zones as far as she is concerned. She has harvested a couple of gooseberries. The carrots are our bet yet and they weren’t even thinned.

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  2. I hope those potatoes taste as good as they're big. The weather certainly is against us this year. I wish my lawn looked as good as your grass.

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    1. They did taste nice, Deborah. Do you get lots of dandelions in your lan though?

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  3. Great photos of those butterflies Sue! The Ulster Prince potatoes do look nice and big. If I could only grow them like that.

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    1. I wish that we could grow sweet potatoes, Dave.

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  4. I've grown Romance this year too. The first few all seemed to have two roots and I was worried. But as I have progressed along the rows they have got bigger and are not bifurcated. Wouldn't have mentioned it, until I saw your post! If I can't get Ballydoon or Epicure I might well try Ulster Prince next year. (The Arran Pilot did not meet with universal approval here.) How do they cook/taste?

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    1. Ulster Prince did deliver on taste and it’s a good all rounder when it comes to cooking, Mal. It’s always tricky to recommend potato varieties as location, weather and soil types can make a big difference to taste and performance. We’re hoping the rest of the carrots are the same.

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  5. Your harvest looks yummy. I totally agree that the weather this year is crazy. We had the hottest July in 8 years and the wettest in 28 years. The video of Ruby at the dog park is fun. It appears to be a big area. How nice they have those weaving posts for the dogs to practice on. Too bad there wasn't another dog there for her to romp with.

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    1. It’s been a bizarre year for all sorts of reasons, Lisa. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to socialise Ruby as much as we wanted due to lockdowns and social distancing. She mange’s to romp all over us though. The field is three acres so lots of space.

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  6. Wow - that is a whopper of a potato! We've been quite dry here, until the last couple of days but it has been extremely hot. Most days in the past month have approached or surpassed 30 with humidex reaching 40 at times.

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    1. Despite the lack of dry days, the soil is very dry, Margaret. It’s more miserable and drizzly than ‘proper’ rain. Not really useful rain.

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  7. Your potatoes and broccoli look fantastic. It's so fun to see all the fruits and berries you've been harvesting. I keep thinking the tomato plants are done for in our garden, but they keep producing.

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    1. Our tomatoes are yet to ripen, Phuong. We may just have one or two in a few days time.

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  8. Too hot or wet, cool and windy seem to be the two default weather settings here too Sue since early June. It's the latter at the moment but I see that the pendulum is set to go in the opposite direction as the week goes on. What fabulous colourful dahlias. Your carrots are looking most delicious.

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    1. I wonder if we will ever experience the perfect year weatherise, Anna. Warm and dry with a gentle breeze during the day and a few hours of steady rain in the middle of the night.

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  9. What is the second butterfly with the red wings? Striking. We don't have that here.

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    1. The second butterfly is a peacock, tpals

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  10. What lovely harvests and oh those dahlias and various fruits. The butterflies are so interesting. Thanks for including them.

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    1. I did try for more butterflies but they flit about so quickly, Sue

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  11. Wow, that is some potato!!!The weather is the same here, so changable, it's difficult getting anything done. I love your harvests, as always, especially those carrots, so pleased they grew for you this year.Lovely butterflies, they are abundant here too. Our dogs eat fruit too so like you have to keep a sharp eye out. Even Littl'urchin is going after anything black or red!xxx

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    1. The potatoes were a huge surprise, Dina. So far we have only noticed a smattering of butterflies so I'm hoping for more except maybe the whites.I spent one day removing the berries from our daphne - just in case. Ladybirds better watch our in your garden.

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