We’ve had some reasonable rain and I’ve fed the sweetcorn its general fertiliser now. It’s still behind, but looks healthy enough. Meanwhile the pumpkins are growing in front of my very eyes 🙂  

Two of the pumpkins have started growing the wrong way, despite my best efforts to set them in the right direction. They’re heading out of the bed with signs of good growth and female flowers, so I need to work out how to redirect them.

The first carrot came up – with a bit of digging as it had gone into the clay.

Everything’s been watered and all the fruiting/flowering plants have had tomato feed. I just need to give the sweetcorn some general feed in the next day or two so I don’t get out of kilter.

The runner beans have been nipped at the top and we’ve tied in all the vines that were failing to climb. Overall, netting is better for beans, so I’ll try and remember to use that next year. I’ll need new netting.

First runner bean – more to come soon.

We’ve had a little rain in the last week, which was a relief. The good downpours continue to avoid us though. There were some good developments in the plot. The first 3 pumpkins have arrived. It looks like on the plants is heading straight out of the bed. I need to plant them further in next time. One pumpkin was starting to squish itself against the wood, but I think I’ve saved that now having raised it up on some straw.

The first zinnia is open. It’s nice to have good zinnia plants again after a few years of failed plants. The self-sown candytuft in Bed 10 is huge.

I did lots of weeding and deadheading and pulled up lots more finished nigella. It’s made a few spaces in the beds, which is my usual problem at this time of year. I’ve done a good job of tying up the everlasting peas – in the trellis bed in particular. It’s made a great difference.

In the afternoon I put about 50 litres of compost into Bed 3 to bring the level up a bit and cover the exposed bulbs. I’ve now finally planted the petunias that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I’ve fed them too, so I hope they’ll get a bit bigger and give some reasonable colour in the bed.

The grass hasn’t grown much, which is a big relief and I strimmed all the edges, so it’s looking smart again.

The first harvest of the season: a few overdeveloped French beans and some chard.

I’ve emptied Bed 3 of the finished plants – lots of nigella and poppies, plus more bulb stalks – and then watered the dry soil a bit. There’s still no sign of the sparaxis and the coreopsis is much smaller than it used to be.

Two of the missing everlasting peas in the trellis bed have now arrived and will need guiding back onto the trellis.

Just as I was about to go I straightened the tap on the single water butt, which immediately started leaking. So I had to spend 20 minutes emptying the butt into buckets and the jerry can.

There’s the possibility of pumpkins ahead, with a few fruits forming. Hopefully they won’t fall off. Something is still running circuits through the straw. I don’t think a blackbird would be making a pattern like this. I dug up a few weeds from the bed and discovered that the soil beneath the straw is pretty damp. So it’s worked well so well.

The French beans and runner beans are now showing their first beans. The runners have blackly, but I’m just trying to spray and squash as many as possible.

The two cucumber plants that went in as seedling are looking really strong. They look very different from the former strong seedlings I grew at home. Clearly direct sowing is the answer and some of the seeds I sowed as backup are now showing. Might we actually get some cucumbers? 

I gave tomato feed to the tomatoes, beans and pumpkins. The sweetcorn is catching up, but is still behind. I’ve given it some more general feed. The tomatoes by the shed were leaning because their fence was too far away, so I shuffled the fence in a bit and only lost a couple of  tomatoes in the process.

The everlasting peas on back fence have now caught up and are flowering well. A lot of the plant has gone over the fence next door though. I wish I had a walled garden. 

I’ve chopped down all the flowers on the annoying orange geum and it looks so much better already. The plant needs dividing, but I might just replace it with a red one anyway. 

The verbenas have now opened, along with blue cornflowers, so there’s a new splash of colour at the front of the allotment. The verbenas are often at the front of the beds though, so they’re good but with a caveat. One of the verbena plants has a weird twisted stem, but it’s not clear why. I kind of want to dig up my boundaries and reset them all, but that’s not really practical.

In order to try and keep on top of the grass for a while, I’ve now done a mow on level 2. I sprayed the blackfly, on the beans and flowers. The tomatoes and pumpkins have had tomato feed and other things got a little water. I’m still hoping for more than 2 drops of rain.

I did deadheading after work. The whole place looks pretty good at the minute, if not as lush as it should by now. There are weird little things, like the everlasting peas not growing as they should, or heading straight through the fence to flower next door. I’m wondering if some netting on the back fence would stop them doing that, while still giving them something to hold on to.

The apple tree looks good for its haircut. I’ve taken off a few sprouts from the trunk and there are going to be more shoots to be removed. We’ll see if I can manage that, but clearly the hard cut didn’t hurt it.

The pink lupin was one of the biggest things to be deadheaded. The leaves are still looking all droopy, so I gave it a good watering to see if that helps. There’s no sign of damage or infestation.

The grass was so awful yesterday that I came back this evening and strimmed every edge and did a level 3 mow. That lopped off all the long stalks and made everything look so much better.

A watering visit after work and after the heat had reduced a little. Nothing had particularly suffered in the heat and somehow the grass has thrived and was ridiculously long. Everything got watered, including the less established plants in the borders.

The tomatoes are now showing that they have set, although their first flowering time was when they were hanging out in the grow house.

The cucumbers that were put in when they just had seed leaves are thriving so far.

It’s going to be super hot over the weekend and we’re unlikely to get any of the thunderstorms. I managed to get down after work and did as much strimming as my arms could take and then fed a few beds and watered others. I’ve all but emptied the left of the two butts. I just need to give the pumpkins something this weekend and then I’ll reset to  feeding everything in two weeks’ time.

Most plants looked ok for having not been watered for a while. A few cornflowers could do with some water, but I didn’t have much energy to do that. The French beans look rather yellow, but are also making lots of new green leaves, so hopefully it’s not a terminal problem. A bit of nitrogen wouldn’t hurt.

The sweetcorn still isn’t very big, but definitely looks thicker and healthier. There’s also a flower on one of the Jack Be Littles. just lots more water and feeding needed.