July 2008

Haven't been here for a while. Have been on Holiday in Brittany, which was a wonderful rest, and we had good weather. It was a novelty for us to go away early in the year, but we really enjoyed it. The days were long and warm so we really took advantage of being out during daylight hours and staying on the beach for as long as possible.

The allotment is holding an open afternoon tomorrow in aid of Mencap. So if anyone is out here and wants to come along please do.

The weather has been wet, wet, wet. and the weeds are flourishing. Spent all of last week-end weeding but only managed to tackle about half of the problem. Crops have been sparse, but last week I harvested 3 of my 4 broccoli plants. These have been remarkable as I have never yet been able to grow this particular vegetable successfully.

Failures this year so far have been the onions that have succumbed to disease ,and beans. The beans have just not taken off and my experiment at growing them between two rows of potatoes was an abject failure. I thought they would be ideal companion plants, but this proved to be a false premise, although I am tempted to try it again but only as a plan B and I would grow other beans elsewhere. The potatoes do not appear to have suffered, fortunately.

Last week I planted out some celeriac plants that Melanie had given me, they looked healthy and strong; I hope they do well ,as I am very fond of this vegetable. She also gave me some seedlings of something else but I have no idea what they are, but I have planted them out anyway and hope that I have given them enough room to develop.

Radishes were a huge success, literally huge as they were enormous, but to date these and the broccoli have been my only successes. I am hoping for better things from the cucumbers and squash, which have not grown all that well so far.

Not much in the greenhouse this year but I noticed one of my pepper plants, grown from seeds collected from one that I bought in Waitrose, had a small fruit developing. It will be interesting to see if it turns out to be anything like the parent or if it is totally different. Watch this space!

That's all for now