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