Allotment Update

We have had a good supply of vegetables from our new allotment all summer. We devoted our old allotment to potatoes, sweetcorn, pumpkins and squashes this year and my Husband has been harvesting a good crop of potatoes - hopefully enough to see us through until next year.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the new allotment and harvested a large bucket load of onions.

In their place I planted some more leeks. The first plantings replaced the garlic harvest in the same bed. The dibber is the handle from my Grandad's old fork.

The early-sprouting broccoli is thriving under the Enviromesh.

Sadly this is the only aubergine this year from the 4 plants that I had planted. Also in this bed were Gartenperle tomatoes, which unfortunately got the blight and had to be removed last week.

My spring-planted spinach beet had lasted all summer, but finally it had gone to seed, so yesterday I planted a new crop. I don't know if this is too late in the season, but I thought it was worth a try.

The Brussels sprouts are growing, but are infested with the dreaded white fly! I will have to do something about that this weekend.

We have good crops of beetroot, celeriac and carrots under mesh in this bed. I saw on Gardeners' World last week that you need to remove the outer leaves on celeriac each week to encourage the bulb to swell, so I plan to do that this autumn.

All of the beans are almost over now and we still have a few courgettes. I have also grown some gourds for decorations and the rhubarb is still growing.

Not bad for our first season. :)

Slight drama yesterday - someone got their key stuck in the allotment gate padlock and I was trapped inside! Luckily (?) there had previously been a break-in through the fence and someone was able to get some tools from home and undo the repaired part of the fence to make a hole for me to crawl out of!! :) I didn't go back this afternoon! Instead I worked in the greenhouse - removing the leaves from the tomato plants to encourage the tomatoes to ripen. At least I can't get locked in there! :) My garden has been rather neglected whilst I was decorating, so this weekend I plan to do some pruning and deadheading.

Wishing you all a great weekend, Pj x