Garlic nearly harvested, showing signs of rust and probably rot too, but look at the purple on this!

There I was getting quite depressed about the allotment. Probably something to do with the guilt that I haven’t actually gone down there tonight. It never seems to be as good or as well planned as other people’s, or it lacks imagination and planning (ironic given my job title has ‘planning’ in it). But then I look back at just three month blog posts and go… ooh.. those dried out potatoes have given us our first meal now, those strawberry plants are fruiting now (hoepfully they’ll not all have been munched by the slugs), those raspberry plants are (a bit) deweeded and growing well, and, well, maybe there is hope. And this is despite weather that has been against us. So hopefully when I go down tomorrow, I won’t find my newly transplanted seedlings munched to oblivion, and there will be other hope.

First lot of strawberries from the back garden munched on tonight! Something’s eaten a couple of them, but the netting on them seems to be keeping off the worst of the intruders.

A very early trip tot he allotment – 4:45 – last week got some weeding done, and we’ve got plans for fish and chips and a trip down there tomorrow night. Really ought to take the strimmer too but I think we’ll be down on our bikes instead, its more fun and definitely greener that way!

First peas might be ready to go with our fish and chips too… though not mushy (hooray!)

Spent a productive two hours this morning in the sunshine. Reassured by a more experienced grower who came over to commiserate on the size of my garlic (all growth, no action) saying that its been a really bad year, and the weather has been against us. He lost most of his early garlic – so at least I’ve got something, even if it is tiny. Onoins are looking good.

Round #2 of beans have gone in – this time dwarf borlotti and black-and-white kidney. These were started in the back garden and have been planted with lots of slug pellets. Hopefully this should deter the pests.

The soil really hasn’t recovered from the dry April we had. Despite digging in loads of organic matter, the rain doesn’t seem to stay in the soil, leaving it dry and very clumpy. Oh well.

Dug up the first couple of potato plants, and at least they are showing signs of something, there will be potatos for tea Strawberries are also ripening (hooray) both on the allotment at home.

And finally, I’ve put in my squash and pumpkin plants which were being ignored at the bottom of the mini greenhouse.

On the plus side, whilst untidy, this year at least the backgarden has flowers!

An hour on the plot this evening spent making the most of the rain last night. Earthed up the potatoes, planted marigolds and strimmed the edges before the strimmer ran out of juice. The ground is still desperately hard, I must be one of the few people hoping for a wet bank holiday!

Oh, and signs of *lots* of plums!

Its *so* dry out there. Apart from one sunday morning, it hasn’t rained properly since the potatoes went in early March. So things are really dry at the allotment and consequently things are growing v-e-r-y- s-l-o-w-l-y. Apart from the weeds, the weeds are still there

Still, there’s signs of broad beans, and peas (although these are diminishing by the day, victims of something pest like but I’m not sure what). The over wintered garlic and onion are likely to be small, but there are lots of them, and those potatoes are finally emerging into the light with what rations of carefully conserved water I’m prepared to give them.

But most glorious today (during a rare bit of drizzle which coincided with me having to cycle to Allotment Town) were the signs of what I think will turn into plums. The flowers have gone and left tiny seed-sized but plum shaped buds. We had, I think, four last year. None the year before. But having cut down two trees, liberally fed, manured, and pruned the trees, there’s signs of lots fruit there… now for enough rain and sun to make them grow!

With the help of volunteer slave labour, we now a strawberry bed with matching cage. Planted beetroot, carrots, dwarf beans and more sunflowers, and some pak choi. Fed the plum trees with sulphate of potash and worked blood fish and bone into the garlic.

So much achieved yesterday with a friend and six sunny hours down there. But despite the cracked dry earth, the peas are just starting.

To the allotment this evening, to tackle the long list of jobs to do. Firstly, though, the soil. Where we turned over the soil roughly, without raking it, for the potatoes, it has now baked dry, with cracks. It’s desperate for a good drenching of rain, and is drying out quite deeply now. I’m concerned that the potatoes haven’t shown any signs of life yet and the lack of rain must be contributing to this. But I’m not going to start watering them properly yet, with only conserved water at the site it’s too precious to waste on hundreds of potatoes.

Anyway, got quite abut of weeding done this evening, where the ground wasn’t so dry it was impossible to get a trowel in. Finally gave up on my over wintered brocolli to put some carrots in underneath the covered net. I also sowed some climbing borlotti beans, wigwam style. No signs of the peas, second lot of broad beans or beetroot, but they did get a good dose of water.

Harvested rhubarb-there’s a lot of rhubarb this year, apparently I divided the crowns successfully last autumn. I’m trying to pick it regularly to avoid the monster flowering stuff we got last year. And we’re nearly at the end of the leeks-just about to plant some for next year now.

Finally, there’s just the start of buds on the gooseberries. Which I’m not going to lose to the birds this year, I hope.