Mid June~ On the Plot.

Here we are in mid June, and we have been busy. While we have had some odd heavy showers here and there, the allotments have needed watering most every day..

We do this from the water tanks that are dotted about every One hundred yards or so.. Thankfully our water cistern is only around twenty good steps from the top of our plot… But when you are carrying two 2litre watering cans back and fourth, which someone told me the other day is roughly about 40lbs in weight in total… Who needs a Gym to work out your arm muscles 🙂

The weather here has been warm and yesterday it reached up into the 30c… too warm for me.. Then today it plummeted down to 14c… with forecasts for thunderstorms this afternoon… I hope we do get some rain… It will certainly take a little of the heavy watering back and forth pressure off for a little while..

From left to right Beetroot Chard Red and green Lettuce Peas Potatoes

Its been ideal growing weather for Lettuce and the neighbours and family have been well pleased with what we have given away.. I spent an hour weeding out the row of Spring Onions, Space is always well used and here you see We planted between the cloches

Spring Onions- Before weeding and After weeding If you click onto the pointer in the image you can slide across.

If you zoom into left hand section, you will see the weeds, while we throw those into the compost bins if they haven’t got seeds formed… The are also edible! ... But make sure you identify anything you eat first to be sure.

We get hundreds and thousands of these weeds growing each season, the seeds get churned up every year from digging and hoeing etc. The weeds you see above go by several names as either lambs-quaters weed, or White Goosefoot. Also know as Wild spinach. A link here for a close image and more information including vitamin value.. If you do not pull up these when small like this, they can grow quite high and then turn to seed.

So many of our so called weeds, can be edible and I will touch upon some in a future posts… In the mean time I will just leave you with a gallery of what is growing. If you click onto individual images they should enlarge.

Gooseberries.

Greenhouse 2 Tomatoes, cucumbers and young Brassica’s cauliflower and winter cabbage.

Greenhouse 1 Tomatoes and Cucumbers

Courgettes

Broad beans on right Sweetcorn left

Brassica Family and Potatoes

Apples forming

Kidney Beans Strawberry bed to right

Weeding out Onions and Shallots Carrots under cover to the right

Strawberries Ripening

Strawberries Under Net

We are delighted that more and more people are taking an interest in growing their own food. And this is the first year in a long while that most of the vacant plots are taken. It requires hard work and people can soon get discouraged as they think they can dig a piece, plant it and leave it… Only to come back and find it covered in weeds again and if they have not covered their tender shoots that the pigeons have eaten the lot…

I have I think a little mouse that visits our strawberries, I saw the tiny hole in the ground beside the wooden frame… and Although netted I saw little teeth nibbles on the ripe strawberries.. You have to be prepared to Give and Take to mother nature and I dare say as food prices soar we usually get a few two legged human species helping themselves too and I feel this year we will see more of that happening.. Its unfortunate, as I would sooner give away than people take… But we grow more than enough for our needs, and we always give our surplus away to family and neighbours . But what ever, we hope they enjoyed what they take, they obviously were in need.

Hope you are all enjoying your gardens whether it be growing veggies or just sitting enjoying your lawn and flowerbeds.

Happy Gardening!

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.” 

– Ralph Waldo Emerson