Beans, beds and bacon

So. Almost a whole week has passed without me managing to update. Again.

Let me fill you in on last weekend.

Sian and James came for a visit and a potter at the plot on Sunday in the sunshine. James and Adam cracked on with some more pallet-splitting and raised-bed-making, as well as attaching a length of guttering from the sheds to our mammoth water tank. So hopefully if (IF!) this summer turns out to be a good one we're now prepared and won't need to make countless trips to the well with buckets.

Meanwhile me and Sian sowed a variety of beans down the far end of the allotment - runner beans, borlotti beans, french beans and mange tout. Yum. So now I need to think of a way to keep the slugs off as the runner beans got ravaged last year. We also weeded the raspberry canes, which are sending up loads of new shoots from the roots. Maybe we'll need a fruit cage this summer.

Then it was bacon sandwiches and cake for lunch for the hard workers. Thanks guys! And congrats on the new house! :)

Back home we've got sunflowers which need planting out. But that's assuming they'll survive the cooking they got in the greenhouse this week thanks to the near-tropical weather conditions and my crappy efforts at watering. The tomatoes are doing much better since I brought them back inside. Maybe I was too hasty and they were too small - anyway they seem to like the windowsill much better. And the troughs of salad leaves are doing fine.

Oh! And parsnip news! On Sunday afternoon I searched through my allegedly-chitting parsnip seeds on the kitchen windowsill and found some which had sprouted! Woo! I forgot to take a pic as it was just too exciting. So I sowed them in toilet rolls, and also sowed other parsnip seeds - ones which were looking kinda plump and hopeful - into a trough of compost to see if any take root. Then maybe I'll be able to transplant them onto the plot and fulfil my craving for home-grown roast parsnip at Christmas.