August Update on the Plot

Hello friends,

Here is a little update for you on how the allotment plot has been doing in August. The month of August has been hotter than normal here in the UK, and although we have had just a couple of weekends with rain, the watering has still had to be done most mornings to keep the crops from wilting.

So taking you from the top of the plot as we walk down to the sheds. You can see the Dahlias now in bloom  though this year even though they have been watered, are not as large and their blooms soon die.

( If you click onto the photos you should be able to enlarge them.. only I am conserving on space here on my garden blog with the many photos.)

View from the top of the plot looking down to the bottom sheds and greenhouse

I think I mentioned before we had taken advantage of the dry weather to paint our home fences, so as the painting bug got to us, we both completed painting the allotment sheds while the wood was dry.. 

Both sheds repainted, Hubby unlocking the sheds as we arrived.

Kidney Beans half way down the plot as I walked down the plot.

While there are many kidney beans growing, the dry hot weather has made them very stringy.. So they have been very disappointing.  Even the young beans have been affected by the heat and dry. But you win some and you lose some. To make up for the Kidney beans the Dwarf beans have been prolific and very tasty, and we have harvested lots of those and been able to freeze some for storage.  

Sweetcorn

Here you see the leeks in the foreground, sweetcorn to the top and dwarf beans to the right of the picture

This year we tried a different variety of dwarf beans which was called The Purple-Queen. 

The Purple-Queen variety have been a good harvest.

The broad-beans we have had some off, and were looking forward to the rest, when  someone helped themselves to half our crop, I am sure they must have needed them.. And hope they enjoyed them as much as we did.. It’s hard to think other who hold an allotment would come to steal.. But it happens every year, We also had a large ripe cabbage taken from under the nets this week…  So we harvested our apple tree, as they were just about ready.. I forgot to take photos of them..

The plots are mainly open plan and there has to be over 200 plots on the huge expanse of land.. It has two main gates with locks which those of us paying rent for hold keys.. How ever there are also hedges and houses both sides of the fences.. We see people take plots on never to maintain or grow anything on them.. Yet they have the key.. SO its anyone’s guess at who steals.. We have sheds broken into each year also.. So we just have to accept it as part and parcel of what goes off in the world.. 

I know if anything major hit our world food supplies, our plots would be stripped in no time, and nothing you can do.. So while its annoying others take advantage of your hard-work, we always grow more than we need and give plenty away.. You just have to look on stolen crops as giving to the needy.. And hope they don’t get too greedy.. 

Shallots benefited from the hot weather and we also had a good crop of these

Lettuce I can now see as I weeded through them.

The Blueberries I have been picking most mornings as they ripen and not only making pies with them but having them for breakfast with yogurt. Yummy.

Blackberries too have been in abundance, these we have grown from very young shoots. But Blackberries if you are not careful take over, so you have to keep them cut back and pull out new shoots which will root themselves quickly into the ground.

The home garden has also suffered from the lack of rain.. I have been watering and also using washing up water on shrubs etc to help save on using water. Here is a slide show of some plants. 

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And my little hedgehog family have exciting news too, one of my hedgehogs obviously likes his new hedgehog home. He has been sleeping in the hedgehog box in the day.. and only today I have footage of him carrying leaves back and forth about twelve times to his box to make it cosy for Autumn and when the time comes to hibernate.  He or she.. has been collecting the bamboo leaves to line the inside. I put a little hay in their too. So I am very pleased he enjoys our garden enough to feel safe to hibernate.. Fingers crossed!..  Below you will see the box and him going in and out over the last few weeks.  Some of the dates were not correct as I had to reset the dates. 

Hope you enjoyed  and wishing everyone abundant harvests. 

Happy Gardening! 

 

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