You win some, you lose some.

It sure has been a hot week here in London. I've been nipping down to the allotment in the evenings when it's been a bit cooler, to water and harvest crops.

My beans are still going for it and I've been freezing more as well as eating them. The courgettes are also pretty much continuous, good job I love them.

I tried making the courgette cake. It was really easy to make and it was delicious, quite like carrot cake. The recipe used mascarpone in place of the usual cream cheese for the icing and that made it even nicer.

One good thing about the hot dry weather is that I was able to lift my shallots and garlic last week and leave them on the soil to dry out.

Today I brushed off the soil, rubbed away the papery outer skins and transferred them to trays to continue drying.

I'm really pleased with the shallots but my garlic is pretty pitiful in size. I can hold the entire crop in one hand whereas my neighbour's garlic bulbs are each as big as a fist! I did plant it very late and hoped for the best but I will definitely be planting next years crop in the autumn to give it a longer growing season.

In the same vein, last time I promised a tale of woe about my failures. My biggest disaster has been my turnips. First came the pigeon attack, then some bolted (ran to seed) and when I pulled up the remainder their roots were miss shaped and bug damaged. I didn't get to eat a single one.








My pak choi initially did well but eventually succumbed to attack by something and had to be composted. I have planted more but the seedlings are being nibbled too and I'm not sure by what.









My salad has also been under similar attack by a discerning pest. First the little gems were munched and the rest ignored. Then when they had been decimated whatever it is started on the mixed salad leaves, which have a more bitter taste.

I don't think it is slugs causing the trouble since I have found no evidence of them, it looks like bug damage to me. I think it was flea beetle that got the turnips and the stems of the pak choi, but I don't know if they eat leaves?

Since I do want to be as organic as possible I have realised that I need to invest in some kind of barrier protection for my crops next year and I will be looking into this over the winter.

To end on a success story, my son is thrilled with his sunflowers, the tallest of which is 223cm (7 '4'') as of today. Here he is watering them last week when the tallest was 201cm (6' 7'') , it grew 22cm (9'') in just 4 days!

And his pumpkins are also doing brilliantly. We have had to extend the bed because the vines are getting so long. I've also been teaching him about the sex lives of pumpkins. To ensure pollination we've been taking male flowers and using them to fertilize the female flowers (easily spotted by the small potential pumpkin behind the flower. The results speak for themselves.

Bean there, ate that.

Finding time for the allotment, let alone to blog, has been a bit tricky recently. However, now that the baby I'd been fostering has moved to his adoptive family I have a bit more free time.

I'm always sad to see children go but I'm taking a break from fostering over the summer so I can look forward to spending more time at the allotment and with my son.

I had only been managing one or two short visits per week to keep things ticking over and harvest ripe crops, but since the little fellow left last week I've spent 3 days getting the plot back into shape.

The whole plot has been thoroughly weeded, especially the paths which were a low priority when I hadn't much time. We finally had a delivery of bark chips from the council so I've been fetching barrow loads up from the car park to start covering the family/work area at the back of the plot. And today I painted my shed, cleaned it out and organised the inside.

My trug has gradually been getting fuller as more crops are ripening.

4th July - pak choi, carrots Parmex (round) and Royal Chantenay, Land cress and my first courgettes de Nice a Fruit Ronde.

13th July - Blue salad potatoes, Ulster Sceptre new potatoes, carrots, spinach beet, french beans and courgettes.

18th July - Spinach beet, Epicure new potatoes, carrots, courgettes and french beans.

I hadn't been to the plot for 5 days during the adoption introductions so there was quite a lot of picking to do when I got back. In particular I picked about 900g (2lb) of assorted courgettes and 1.5 kg (over 3 lbs) of french beans.

I've frozen most of the beans, which introduced me to the joys of blanching vegetables, although there is a debate on the net about whether blanching is always necessary with modern freezers. Therefore I've also frozen an unblanched pack as an experiment.

As for the courgettes, so far I've made roasted baby veg, courgette soup, spicy courgette veggie burgers and courgette frittata. And today I had to pick a few more so I'm thinking about trying a courgette cake recipe.

Not everything is going well however. I've had some crop failures (more about that in my next post) and one night last week the allotments were broken into. About 80 of the plots were searched and some vandalised. Mine was targeted but fortunately the only damage was to a section of fence which had been kicked in. They obviously took one look in my messy (as it was then) shed and left it alone.

Not much was taken, nobody keeps anything of value there, but some people had the contents of their sheds turned inside out and their crops damaged. I can't write what I really think of the selfish idiots that did this, it's not printable. But I can write that the Allotment Association and plot holders have been fantastic. Many have seen it all before unfortunately, but everyone helped out their neighbours. It's one of the things I like about having an allotment, the friendliness of other plotholders and community spirit.