Bed #5 / Harvesting

So, put in another bed at the allotment - this time for strawberries and lettuce (and probably other things) - same drill as usual except this time we have a cover:

By a happy accident the covers are about 3m long and our beds are ... 3m long. Harvesting wise we've been getting lettuce slightly faster than we can eat them - one from yesterday:

As well as many cucurbits - cucumbers and courgettes / summer squash mostly - and yellow ones from the funky veg kits which make a nice change:

Turns out we left these a bit long on the plant - crystal lemon cucumber - but they are still pretty good - have many smaller ones which we'll harvest smaller next time. We also have regular cucumbers (burpless tasty - look like snozcumbers!)

And of course the dreaded courgettes 🙂which we're harvesting at the rate of a couple a day...

Plot Update - picture heavy for later reference

Into peak allotment season now, started to get a lot of salad coming through, so lettuce is a common accompaniment to meals at the moment 🙂- also peak weed growing season too, so went to do some ho-ho-ho-ing this afternoon. Before that took some pictures of the plot in general:

Strawberries, in new cage:


Beans #1 - Orient Wonder (we think) from Florida:


Beans #2 - Black Turtle (also from Florida) but looking unhappy:


Beans #3 - Purple Queen:


Courgettes, Pumpkin:


Shallots - had to weed around these - not sure where weeds from 🤔:


More lettuce, under mesh to keep pigeons off:


Cabbages in #1 bed - TODO back-fill with some compost:


Raspberries, going great guns, flowers starting to appear:


Likewise, blackcurrants, laden with fruit so branches bending:


Quite dense with fruit, but very much green:


Garlic (not entirely sure what variety) look close to ready:


More salad!


First crop of peas now uncovered as will be flowering soon:


Second crop of peas getting established:


Apples coming on #1 apple tree:


Meanwhile, back at the ranch strawberries now have their ... straw and cucumbers reaching for the skies:


All things being equal doing OK, though the other side of the plot (the new side) is currently home to rather a lot of buttercups so still much to do...

Dodgy Constructions

Growing the tomatoes in the greenhouse creates the perennial problem of how to support them - last years solution was a complete bodge, so this year decided to do something slightly more ... proper. Fixed some spare brackets:

 (IKEA ones, which you are supposed to tie your furniture to the wall with, like anyone does that!) and fixed some canes to the apex of the roof and the tops of the walls - to these tied string, and to the string tie the tomatoes - in principle should do the job, but we shall see. Advantages: doing it before the tomatoes are too tall means it was relatively non-destructive. Disadvantages: banking on the string lasting & being strong enough...

Tomatoes doing well, and enjoying the weather.