Early summer on the plot
Summer put in the very briefest of appearances on Sunday & Monday 26-27th June. We reached around 30ºC on Monday! On the allotment it was so hot that you could see the plants wilting! Especially the Sunflowers but even the Beetroot & other plants, like the Potatoes in front of our shed, were wilting! I may not be a plant but I was wilting as well!
On Tuesday we had thunderstorms on & off for most of the day. After which the next few days saw much lower temps.
Gerry has 2 rows of Gooseberries on his plot. A row of 3 at the beginning of the plot & another half a dozen behind the shed. This year they are so laden with berries that the branches are bending over & touching the ground! I’ve already picked some 3 times for myself. Gerry has taken quite a few & we tell other people they can help themselves!
The 6 bushes behind the shed haven’t been watered in the 2 years I’ve helped Gerry on the plots. The 3 near the beginning got watered several times a couple of weeks ago.
I planted some French Marigolds & Tagetes amongst the Tomatoes as companion plants as they are supposed to repel Whitefly. I’ve since learnt that they attract them – away from the Tomatoes!
My Lettuce is now bolting! This one has flowers that will open any day now! Even so we have had many heads from them & everyone has commented on my giant Lettuces! They’ve been quite impressed! Yet I did nothing more than water them after I transplanted them! They have had no fertilizer nor compost or manure nor was that part of the plot treated in any way beforehand!
Lettuce bolting:
The bed of Tomato Mallorquin after tying in & removing sideshoots:
1st Early Potatoes Arran Pilot
My very first Cucumber in the greenhouse!
Onions from seed Alisa Craig:
Rocket 1st Early Potatoes:
The Potatoes are flowering at the top of the plot & they really look fantastic:
The seeds were sown on 28th May. Sunflower bed with wood chipping mulch. A lorry full of wood chipping came to the allotment field on Wednesday 29th June. I got a few barrow loads & covered this bed in them to a depth of a couple of inches! No more weeds in this bed!
Sunflower bed with wood chipping mulch:
This is how my Sweet Peppers looked before weeding:
This is how my Sweet Peppers looked after weeding:
First Black Currants of the year to be picked:
A week later:
Gooseberries:
2nd sowing of Beetroot Bolthardy harvested:
Onion sets Turbo:
The Onions I am growing from seed Alisa Craig:
Three Sisters planting:
As we come to the end of this update of the allotment I share with Gerry, I’m adding the last couple of photos of the plot as seen from inside our shed, they are taken about 2 weeks apart so as to get a feeling for the speed of developments down on the plot:
View from inside shed on 11th June:
View from inside shed on 27th June:
This last photo of this blog is a photo down the length of our allotment taken from the top & looking down to the bottom:
Our 1/2 plot is on the right from the Sweetpeas to the end. The half plot, up as far as the bin & the Sweetpeas, belongs to another lady & her daughter. On the left is a partial view of the whole plot that Gerry has.
Hope you find this blog interesting & I hope to post the next blog around the middle of July. Several more crops are being harvested & I will include them there.
Happy gardening to all.
The King's garden 