There was a lovely rain shower when I was at the allotment today. Enough to make me hide in the shed, but not enough to send me home. When I emerged from the shed, the place looked great. Everything has sprung to life now.

I’ve planted out remaining little seedlings that were at home. I did way better with marigolds and cosmos in previous years. I don’t know what the problem was this year.  The zinnias all completely failed too.

I gave the grass its first mow today. It’s still fairly patchy, but looks good under the apple tree, where it wasn’t washed away by the rain some time ago. The new mower is great and you don’t see any evidence of the mulch it drops.

I did a bunch of deadheading and feeding. The blackly that’s on the end of the runner beans got a good spray too.

The fact that the coreopsis is no longer sprawled across the grass is one of the best things about the plot renovations.

The volunteer gourds are all going mad and taking over the place.

I picked the first good salad leaves from the other mix. The huge one in Bed 4 is of no use. There’s plenty of good chard in that bed though. 

Feeding time again – tomato food for everything flowering; general feed for everything else. The first tomatoes have set and the flowers are coming along. Bed 1 still looks a bit bleak, but the beans are growing new foliage now and the pumpkin’s picking up.

The kalette plant has picked up too, though it’s far behind where it would be normally. I’d like to try them again, but would probably sow outside at home or direct.

I’ve cut off all the possibly rusty leaves from the garlic. It still looks pretty good and from I’ve read, rust isn’t too big a deal. It’s just a matter of stopping it taking over the plant. And if/when it does, lift the garlic.

The veg is doing pretty well. I really must sow the last row in Bed 8, but I can’t decide what to make it. More lettuce is coming, which I’m hoping will taste better than the big one.

Bed 7 was meant to be flowers and full of zinnias. But those didn’t work, so instead it’s a wild mix of too many cornflowers, being sat on by volunteer gourds and a huge nasturtium on the other side. This year has just turned into renovate and survive.

The first female flowers are coming on the gourds – whatever they turn out to be. Only two of the plants, which I planted, are guaranteed to be pumpkins. I also now have a  volunteer pumpkin growing in the compost heap.

I’ve tied a couple of big vines up the wigwam that was meant for the cucumbers. Ironically, they’re not the plants that I planted at the bottom of the canes. This is going to be mayhem. I did discover a small cucumber plant at the back of the bed though. Maybe we’ll get a cucumber after all.

The grass is doing really well and I’ve finally put down another lot of grass seed. There’s still some weeding and stone removal I want to do – there seems to be a lot of barrage to get out – but I realised that I’d never get the seed down if I waited until I’d finished all the prep.

Feeding day – while being stalked by the robin. I gave tomato food to everything flowering and general food to what hasn’t made flowers yet. I haven’t put too much on the tomatoes though as they seemed to get rather big and thick last year.

Everything else just got water as we’re not getting much rain at the moment.

After some rain, the grass was looking pretty good when I turned up today. Still pretty bare in the centre of the paths, but it’s coming.

I still only have one potato and a bit, so I dug down in one spot to check what was going on. I found one spud just sat there, with a bug inside. I got rid of the bug and reburied the potato just for the sake of it.

One of the vexatious parsnips now has a proper true leaf.  The damn blackbird has been back to dig around though, so some seedlings had been disturbed again.

The good end of the onion row is suddenly looking thicker. The runty end is still far behind.

I did some great work thinning out all the veg rows at last.

The pumpkin in Bed 1 had pretty much died, so I’ve thrown it out and transplanted one of the many volunteer gourd plants. If we’re really lucky, it’ll turn out to be a pumpkin and not an ornamental gourd. It then flopped big time, but I’m hopeful it will pick up.

The French beans look terrible still, though there are a few flowers.

I’ve planted out all the little marigolds. They should be much larger, but like everything else this year, the seedlings really haven’t grown well at home. They might as well have all the food in the bed to try and grow.

The big lettuce is a bit rough and not great to eat, but it’s also very vigorous, so I harvested a huge handful of it to keep it off the carrots.

That poppy by the gate didn’t last long.

The front bed looks really great at the moment. My lupins were a great investment. The ledge is also growing well and the everlasting peas look like they’re going to be huge this year.

I gave general feed to most of the tomatoes, the beans and Beds 7 and 11. The French beans and three of the tomato plants now have flowers, so I gave them tomato food.

A juvenile woodpecker visited the nut feeder while I was in the plot, which was very exciting.

I spent goodness knows how long trying to make a support for the tomatoes from the remainder of the fencing I bought. Ultimately I ended up making cylindrical frames like Neil’s, with canes to keep them together and to add supports in the middle. Hopefully this will mean that the bush plants can hold up without a million different canes everywhere.

Odd jobs today. I spent the morning deadheading and in the afternoon I opened up Bed 1. The yarrow is now fenced against its will. It was a bit of a struggle, but I think it’ll look better next year if it’s either contained earlier, or I leave the frame in place, so it grow up through it. A few everlasting peas have been propped up towards the fence and a bit of weeding was done. So good jobs jobbed.

The grass has now started to appear, but mostly as sideburns, as the seed was swept to the sides early on by heavy rain. There are also lots of little seedlings in the soil that look like sunflowers.

Half the row of onions has suddenly thickened up. The other end of the row still looks fairly measly, although it’s had pretty much the same treatment.

I’ve had to give up on my own stunted tomatoes, so I’ve bought ten tomato plants for the first time ever. These are 4 Romas, as planned. Hopefully the new fencing set up will be more supportive than the usual rings I use. Another panel will go on the near side of them when they’re bigger.

Most of the cucumbers have failed, which is a shame. I am attempting to hide the failures with transplanted gourd plants. Hopefully they can grow up the wigwam and look intentional instead.

We’ve had an amount of rain, which has splashed lots of the grass seed up the beds, but it hasn’t germinated yet. Other veg seed has got going at last though, as well as the candytuft. Lots of salad is up, which will need thinning soon. I’ve picked the first leaves from the first lettuce to come up. I suddenly have more parsnips coming up from various sowings and the third potato is up.

A couple of the cucumbers have died. I might replace them with a volunteer gourds.

I’ve planted out 8 French beans in an L-shape and put the second gourd behind them. Hopefully it’s pointing the right way to head away from the beans.

I’ve stood the yarrow up – about a week late – but need to find a better solution. I only have 3 cane hoops, so I’ve temporarily used a couple of broccoli cage hoops to help stand it all up off the flowers underneath.

I’ve fed everything that’s not flowering yet with a half-strength dose of general feed. I’ve dug in a few handfuls of chicken pellets for the garlic. Everything else that’s flowering, or is about to has had a round of tomato feed. At home, the biggest pathetic tomatoes have had a weak general feed too.

Phase 2 of the big renovation is now complete. Grass seed has been sown and the ground has been compacted. It’s been pouring rain for a lot of the day, so with a bit of sun after this, the seed should have a reasonable start to life. Once it’s germinated, more seed will be sown on top.

When I’ve emptied the water butts about halfway, Phase 3 can be done: straightening the butts and putting the final slab underneath them.

I finally have more parsnips coming up along more of the rows, so I’ve put down slug pellets to try and protect them.

More runner beans are up, the veg is coming up nicely and the candytuft has finally started to show up in Bed 9.