Shiny happy people

Well, what fantastic weather we had this weekend. And we did our usual trick of saying ‘let’s just pop to the allotment for a bit’ and then staying for five hours… I did mean to put a new post on here on Sunday, but what with the weather being so nice an’ all, the last thing I wanted to do was sit inside in front of a computer. Instead we had the first barbecue of the year and sat in the garden with a nice cold beer.

So, what did we get up to at the weekend? Well, we went to the plot on sunny Saturday, at about midday (the saying about mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun springs to mind, but never fear, I had my big floppy sun hat.) Adam attacked the weeds with gusto, while I ran around the plot getting excited about the broad bean flowers, the radishes, peas which are as yet un-pigeoned, and the tiny leeks which are looking (to tell the truth) a bit pathetic in the seed bed.

But wait, there’s more! (as a comedian from my childhood whose name I forget used to say)…

The potatoes are definitely getting carried away – we’re going to have to start earthing them up soon. The lettuces are looking green and healthy, the leaves on the six red cabbage plants which Phil gave us are getting purple-er and purple-er, and the mange tout and sugar snap peas have put in an appearance.

But, no sign of any carrots or parsnip seedlings. We decided, after weeks of waiting, that enough was enough, so we’ve planted some more. Hopefully with the warmer weather they’ll germinate this time. I’ll chalk that one up to being a small disaster. Now we’re weeks behind with the parsnip – I just don’t know where this time went! One minute we were sowing them under fleece in late February, the next minute it’s May and we’ve done absolutely nothing about it! Agh! So, we'll see if the next lot come up...

I stuck in some twiggy sticks along the rows of mange tout and sugar snap, hopefully this will help support the plants and act as a deterrent from birds and other nibbly creatures. We ate 3 radishes - the first this year. they were the only ones which were big enough to pull up, and it seemed a bit pointless to take them home so we ate them on the spot! Tasty and delicious! I also sowed some more radishes in the salad bed, as well as planting some lollo rosso lettuce, some basil and some differently-coloured beetroot.

Plus we took a big cabbage home to add to a stir fry. Yum!

On Sunday we popped down to the plot bright and early, with Big Plans. We had decided it was time to plant the sweetcorn and courgettes, so we uncovered the far end of the plot (which suddenly seems much bigger than I thought!). With the time-honoured technique of sticks and string we divided it up into beds and paths, so now we have one big bed with the sweetcorn in, two middle sized ones which will probably be for squashes and pumpkin, and four smaller ones, one of which now has green courgettes in, and another has the yellow courgettes... let's hope they germinate ok!

Here's the back bit of the plot - just before we left. Sweetcorn is in the bed at the back left, with courgettes in the uncovered beds on the right. Then there's the weeded half of the strawberry bed mid left, with the plank paths on, and the un-weeded half of strawberries on the right. The bed on the bottom right of the picture will, eventually, have tomato plants in. We covered over the beds with nothing in, just to stop any extra weed seeds blowing in or germinating... hopefully. It seems like the battle against the weeds is neverending. *sigh*...

Having said that, there is a big difference between those beds which we cultivated last year, and the new ones we've dug for this year. Last year's ones have much fewer weeds, and remembering this gives me hope.

Oh, by the way - anyone have any good tips for getting rid of bindweed? The only techniques we're undertaking are trying to dig out all the bits of root by hand, and spraying the leaves with something deadly... the only chemical we've resorted to so far. Any tips would be much appreciated!