Allotment Corner

Saturday morning, and I took myself off to the allotment.  I'd not been for a few weeks on account of it having been so rainy lately.  With a warm weekend forecast I thought I'd get over there and get a few jobs done.  I'd bought a couple of bulbs of garlic the day before and wanted to plant the cloves, do a bit of transplanting, sow a few seeds and tidy around a bit.

It didn't look too bad on the surface when I got there but on closer inspection all the tomato plants had caught blight so had to be removed.  I took off all of the fruit that didn't look affected, green or red, but I know from previous experience the blight can show in the fruit later.  We'll see.

I harvested the remaining 3 cucumbers and cleared out those plants too as I doubt very much whether any new fruit will grow now.  I also pulled up the aubergines which hadn't got as far as fruiting and aren't likely to now.  I harvested a couple of small cobs of sweet corn.  A couple of others had been half eaten either by foxes or squirrels.  Not sure which.  I left some small cobs on the plants, but am not certain they'll grow anymore now.

The green lettuces had nearly all gone to seed and tasted so bitter I had to compost them.  A few small green lettuce plants seemed to taste fine so I harvested them for use in salads.  The red lettuce looked okay though so I transplanted them into other gaps to give them plenty of room to grow.  I also transplanted the kale.  They all look a bit droopy in the photo, but will hopefully perk up once they settle in.  I then dug over the main bed to leave it tidy and ready to sow some garlic into when I get the chance.  I didn't this visit.  There never seems enough time as I usually only have a couple of hours to get things done when I visit and it just goes so fast.

I also began to tackle the far bed which was a bit overgrown, as I had to remove tomato plants from here too.  I cut down the hollyhocks which were all going to seed.  If I don't, they just self seed everywhere.  I harvested some seed so if anyone out there wants any mixed pink hollyhock seeds let me know and I'll post some out to you.  I continued by cutting back all the comfrey and nettles coming through the fence, removed the infected tomato plants and any weeds and dug over this part of the bed.  There was one solitary raspberry cane, which had self seeded from the plants on the next door plot, and it  proffered me a couple of berries which I ate for sustenance.

By the time I left, it was looking reasonably tidy, although there is still quite a lot of work to do.  Before leaving I harvested a bit more rhubarb, a few tiny spring onions and some spinach and then headed home with a small bunch of sweet peas as a treat.  They're not the best specimens, but smelt divine and were enough to put a smile on my face.