Another good harvest.

We had a little rain this morning, which was a novelty. In the evening I fed and water. I watered the potatoes. It turns out I should have been watering them better all this time. I do have some potatoes down there though, as the blackbird likes to keep showing me.

The random cosmos seedlings that I put in Bed 10 and which have been growing horizontally ever since suddenly looked ridiculously healthy, so I have given them supports and tied them in.

There were enough tomatoes to take home a little harvest. The tomato season has begun!

I’ve finally ripped up the dumb lettuce and discovered carrots growing below. I’ll fill in a little seed if necessary, but they’re doing surprisingly well for having been sat on by other huge plants all this time.

The volunteer gourds have really rather taken over the place, sitting on the tomatoes and crushing the flowers. I’ve finally sorted them out now, cutting back yards of vine and lots of foliage. I’ve no idea what I’ll do with the gourds, so didn’t hold back from cutting off flowers.

I propped up the cornflowers in Bed 7 after sorting out the vines and discovered that the pumpkin I’d planted in there is still there. It has one female flower on a not very good vine, so I’ll see if I can feed it into success before summer is over.

I also propped up the poor French beans and discovered that one has gone rogue and defaulted back to a climbing flat podded bean, which now needs a taller stick for support.

I gave my grass and the bit outside my plot a mow today, which made the step count on my health app look hilarious; an awful lot of back and forth. I also finally got the thistle out of the baked ground, which was very satisfying. The coreopsis got a long-overdue deadhead too, which took a ridiculously long time.

The big white everlasting pea had fallen down, but was re-erected in the afternoon. Other flowers are doing well though and the first sunflower is now open.

The tomatoes are starting to ripen now. I’ve harvested all the garlic now and rearranged the gourds in the back bed a bit. I’ve also pulled up expired poppies, so the bed looks neater now.

The onions are starting to dry off and I pulled up four to continue to drying at home. One was rotten at the bottom, so went in the bin. Then there were two good ones and one that left its middle behind, so will be used sooner rather than later.

A watering visit in the evening. Tomorrow is meant to be very hot – high 30s for sure.

I fed the tomatoes and runner beans and watered the vegetables. I left the onions and the gourds. I put a dish of water on the shadiest, most protected path, between Beds 6 and 7. Hopefully someone will find that useful.

I did a mammoth deadheading session. The flowers are looking pretty good, having moved on to the midsummer blooms. A couple of gladioli have turned up, but I guess it’s been too hot and dry for most of them. This time of year is when the plot looks its best.

I rearranged and tided up the gourds as best I could. I thought for a moment that the yellow one that is in Bed 7 and in Bed 1 might be a pumpkin, but then I remembered that the pumpkin plant in Bed 1 had died, so no, they’re all blooming’ gourds.

I thinned the foliage of the tomatoes a little. Anything to try and keep the air flowing a bit. So far it looks good for an actual harvest!

The garden is doing surprisingly well in the heat, apparently not minding that it’s not getting much watering from me. The onions are just starting to dry off and it looks like I’ll actually have a reasonable harvest from them.

I took home more garlic, chard, a couple of beans and some salad. I really need to rip up the crap salad plants that we don’t like and resow them.

Another watering trip in high temperatures – there’s a horrible heatwave on the way. The blackbird has been making a mess again and like last time I had to cover up a potato.

The gourd in Bed 1 is getting rather big and starting to climb over the tomatoes. I need to sort that out when I have more energy.

The kalette is also getting big now, though there’s no great sign of the sprouts yet. Harvesting is in November.

The lobelia has been a lovely border in front of the runner beans. I’ll have to think about them next year, where they could add some colour and not be overwhelmed.

More rusty garlic has been picked, along with a few runner beans.

Aaand Covid. I’ve been at home worried that the plot might be half-dead from lack of water, but when Mum and I were able to drag ourselves down there today to do a round of watering, everything was fine. Nothing was dead, it just all looked a good bit bigger than last time I was there.

The garlic is looking quite rusty now, so I’m going to start bringing it home in case it spreads to the onions. One I pulled up snapped off its bulb, which wasn’t a good sign.

Bed 5’s flowers are looking very nicely, including the volunteer nasturtiums.

The tomatoes are doing really well and there are lots of green fruits on the plants.

A perfect carrot thinning (smelled great) for the American visitors before they went to the airport.

I’m running about a month behind on my diary and my notes don’t really kick in until mid-July. This was the day after the wedding and there was just general tidying going on. I almost always see the spitfire when I’m in the plot, but today two went over together.

The  allotment has kicked off properly now, with early summer flowers blooming and the veg beds filling up. I keep cutting back the ridiculously huge lettuce, but it’s intent on flowering and being huge (and not very nice to eat). I harvested the first carrot thinning to see how they’re doing for size. The row looks really good.

The onions are doing pretty well, but one that looked good was actually a bit soft and had gone rotten at the bottom.