We had breakfast – lots of raspberries, straight from the canes – delicious! Shop-bought berries really pale in comparison.

Potatoes are looking healthy, plenty of time to go before we dig them up though.

And we planted a row of beans (Cobra) – the seed packet was very scruffy and out of date, but you never know!

Then it started to rain, so we legged it!

The potatoes were probably ‘over-chitted’ to be honest (four or five inch sprouts must be too long??) as they didn’t really have enough light while they chitted (aka as ‘sprutting’ apparently!), so it was quite difficult to plant them properly as there were roots sticking out in all directions! Not the best of starts, but we’ll see what happens!

We got most of the Swift earlies in, but there’s still loads left and still the Epicure to plant too. The potato plot may end up a bit larger than anticipated!!

Lisa’s pink t-shirt and the cotton bag (re-usable & washable – ooooh!!!) are available from our shop

7 sweetcorn – though some were not quite ready, so we need to make sure the ends are really brown and manky before we pick!

6 onions, including the red one!

Several beans – yum! We like these raw, often they don’t make it into the pan.

One little courgette – unfortunately two courgettes had been chomped.

3 tomatoes.

The onions are great and at the moment we’re pulling them as we need them rather than doing a complete harvest. We may need to harvest them all soon though, so we need to think about the best way to store them.

Tomatoes are looking a little sickly, but we managed to pick three… well, two, one fell off!

Our beans are really tasty – the Cobra seem to be doing the best.

And, of course, there are the courgettes!

We’ve started to stake the ‘Cobra’ beans as they started to trail along the ground, unfortunately only two of the plants made it, but they’re looking strong and have started to flower.

Talking of flowers, the courgette flowers are fabulous! And it’s so exciting to see four baby courgettes looking so healthy… and there’s more to come by the look of it.

The sweetcorn too is fantastic, such a growth spurt in just a week – we’re hoping for six sweetcorn so that we can share them with The Gang (you lucky people!!).

Onions and leeks are also standing proud and getting large, funny how one red onion has appeared in the middle of all our white onions though – we’ll probably fight over that one!!

Today’s wildlife:
An amazing orange and black striped caterpillar
Baby frog
Bloody great pigeon
Several bees

For the frogs we think we need to give them a safe area! So many times we disturb them and every time they make Lisa squeak from shock as they leap out!!

We were delighted to find that beneath all the jungle of weeds our tomatoes were actually growing!! They’re little and green, but hopefully they’ll ripen nicely. Lisa’s mum has also given us some smaller tomato plants so we need to get them in the ground once we’ve cleared a few more weeds (she also gave us a green tomato chutney recipe should they not ripen!).

Also growing well are the sweetcorn, beans and broccoli, so we’re very hopeful of some good crops there too.

The herb garden was very overgrown, but apart from the parsley and the chilli plants everything is doing well, including three frogs, who leapt out of the jungle and looked quite annoyed at being disturbed! We think we’ll have to find them a little Toad Hall to live in!

We’ve been rather neglectful of our plot over the last couple of weeks and we’ve been fair-weather gardeners while the heavy rain has been pouring down.

Today was the day to tackle the triffids!

We made a good start, but there are weeds everywhere… including some massive alliums growing out of our stinky bin bags!!

Siobhan cleared the weeds from around the onions and leeks while Lisa made a pathetic attempt to clear the weeds (including nettles and thistles – ouch!) from around the beans and broccoli.

Another couple of evenings and we should be sorted.

The radishes are doing very well indeed – they desperately needed some thinning out, which Lisa persuaded Tony to do (he refused to have his picture up because he’s “not a girl!”… hehe). The lettuces and rocket will also need thinning out soon.

The sweetcorn is slowing coming along, as is the courgette (his leaves are a little yellow-looking, but he’s growing up fast!).

The beans have grown very quickly, they’re not looking too bad, but it looks like the slugs are moving over from the broccoli…

First part of our ‘allotment girl’ uniform also arrived – some rather fetching overalls that I am sure we will be modelling on the site soon.

There was much hilarity gained from the discovery of the term ‘growing position’ on the instructions of some of the seeds. I think we are developing ‘allotment humour’ – should we be worried?

Planted today:

Applemint
Marigolds
Beans (two types)
Radishes (two types)

We have decided what we’ll be growing though!

In no particular order:
Leeks
Onions
Garlic
Radish
Lettuce
Endive
French Beans
Courgette
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Cabbage
Potatoes
Carrots
Parsnips
Beetroot
Asparagus

and herbs…

Salvia (sage)
Bay
Basil
Peppermint
Coriander
Thyme
Chives
Parsley
Tarragon
and some Lavender, Calendula and Camomile (because we like them!)