Food Glorious Food

I've been enjoying a few more fruits of my labour this week.

I decided to dig up one of my Epicure new potatoes and found a nice little crop underneath. They were lovely, quite creamy tasting. Even my son, who is not that fond of potatoes, declared them delicious and polished off his share.

I cut a few heads of pak choi. More than I needed really because the rows needed thinning out after putting on so much growth when I was away. We've eaten some in a stir fry and I gave a couple to my mum.

I also decided that I would have to pull some rhubarb since I needed a machete to get through my gate. I used it to make a rhubarb grunt (like a cobbler) for my appreciative partner.

I haven't had a lot of time on the allotment this week so I've mostly been weeding and thinning out crops. While doing so I discovered that a couple of turnips in the first row were starting to bolt (flower) which was a bit disappointing. After doing a bit of research it looks likely to be due to water or weather conditions. They were also the ones that were attacked by the pigeons so maybe it just all got too much for them.

Other things are doing well however. I had my first ripe strawberry today and there are lots more coming. I also noticed that one of my courgettes, a round variety, has small fruits developing.

And my son is especially pleased that his pumpkins and sunflowers seem to have appreciated the feeding and watering he gave them and have noticeably grown this week.

Everything in the Garden is Rosy

I had an amazing time in Canada and was too busy to worry about the allotment while I was away.

I got home on Saturday and yesterday I went to see how things were. I was preparing myself to make a list of jobs that needed doing but found that my babysitters had done a fantastic job. Not only had the weeding been done but I had a new shed roof too!

Old roof with "skylight".......

And lovely new roof......

Many thanks to my mum & dad in-law for all their time and effort.

I can see a huge difference in growth after being away for 3 weeks. The potatoes have put on a good 30cm (about a foot in old money) and some have started flowering. I'm looking forward to seeing if some are ready to eat later this week. My carrots are looking good too. I previously put up a garden fleece fence around them to try and stop carrot root fly which are supposed to only fly close to the ground.

My pak choi seedlings are now plants. They are great in a stir fry and I'm looking forward to finding other ways to cook them too.







The Salad leaves are growing well, as of course, are the radishes. Although my son's hope of growing the world's biggest radish has been thwarted. The early ones that we left to grow on have just gone misshapen and woody.

I'm very pleased with my American land cress, an easier alternative to watercress. It has put on lots of growth and tastes lovely, very much like watercress.

My dwarf french beans are coming along nicely as are the turnips which seem to have mostly survived the attack of the killer pigeons. I had planted 6 different courgettes to see what would grow well and for a bit of variety. They have all survived, though a couple have not grown on so well. The outdoor cucumbers are struggling a bit too. It was a bit of a rush to get everything hardened off and planted out before my hols, but hopefully they will catch up.

Before I went on holiday I finished filling my second Bokashi bin and drained off the liquor that can be used as a plant food (diluted). Yesterday I got my son to water this solution around some of the plants to give things a bit of a boost.

One thing that is doing well is the rhubarb that I rescued from being chucked on my neighbours compost heap back at the end of march. It was a double crown but I didn't divide it because I wanted to see how well it did. I planted it next to my gate, which was the only place I could think of at the time. I'm now having trouble shutting the gate it's so big. I didn't intend to pull any stems this year to let it build up strength, but I'm going to have to, which will please my partner who is a rhubarb fan. In the autumn I will divide it and move the crown nearest the gate elsewhere.

Finally, here are my son's giant sunflowers, which have also grown about 30cm. He gave them and his pumpkins an extra good watering with the feed solution yesterday so we're looking forward to some whoppers.