My allotment over the summer

I have been really buy over the wonderful summer watering my crops and digging out weeds in a couple of beds in my garden and tending crops.  Now the autumn has suddenly hit - it was 28c last week! - I have different things to do but before I start I want to show you what I have been up to in my allotment since the last blog ending my new purchase yesterday at the bottom.

Go on holiday for a week and I have giants invading! I am really please with the onions.  I grew them from seed two years ago but they only made pickling onions and sets in my shaded garden but this year in the sunshine of my allotment they have grown huge.

The largest beetroot I have ever seen!  It actually cooked beautifully and wasn't woody at all.

Some more of my beetroot.  I have never been able to grow beetroots before in my garden - lots of leaves which are great for salad but no roots.  The allotment is paying off :)

My beetroot all vacuum packed and ready for the Sous Vide.  They freeze well in these bags and are actually easy to separate after.

More of my harvest just 2 days after.

Statice plants ot attract the bees with my courgette plants behind and my runner bean plants hiding behind those!

My broccoli plants have grown too big for their covers but it still keeps the pesky pigeons off.

The last of my beetroot fattening up.

My allotment yesterday.  One new HotBox compost bin - fill to the brim with weed tops and mess of my inherited compost pile to the right.  I have just begun digging where the onions and beetroot were over the summer to plant spring cabbages and leeks.

On the right where the black plastic has been killing the weeds all summer will be laid with paving stones ready to house my shed.  Exciting times!

Garden blitzing and finding my flower bed

Today I decided that as it cooler but not raining I would just dig out the geranium that had overgrown in my flowerbed and was in real need of digging out and replanting.  After a while I realised that the whole bed really needed sorting as the Ivy from next doors had crept in over the last year while it had been too wet for me to notice.  So, despite the temperature rising and rising I carried on digging and digging.  More and more pieces were cut away and dug up and I could begin to see my long lost flower bed again.

My flower bed at the beginning of the day - a mass of overgrown geranium and ivy

All this cleared out plus a bin full of roots. Shredding al this ment I could fit it in my compost heap.

So much clearer.  I can even see my flower bed edging!

Some of the many plant labels I found in my clear-up.  Many of the plants are long since no more.

The start of the replanting.  I repositioned the Phlox that had been suffering under the bush and planted the buddila  that I had bought last year when it was FAR too wet to even trad on the garden!

All clear and the tiny pieces of geranium replanted.

After a rest I decided to plant out the plants I had in pots into the bare bed The poor Cosmos was still in there seedling pots but the ones I had planted earlier in the month had doubled in size so there is hope for these too.

All in all a very productive day despite it ending up at 30c I seem to have got a lot done.

Harvesting and watering!

Today I went down the allotment to water my veg and to see if any veg was ready.  I seem to have done OK with 2 medium courgettes and loads more on the way.  Take note Pete, prepare for a glut!

This is todays harvest.  Yummy dinner for me today.

To prove Pete has been down the allotment.  He only comes when I don't have a spade in my hand!!

My Broccoli growing like mad.  The envionmesh is to stop the pigeons helping them selves.  

My tiny plot of mixed veg.  In the centre I have just sowed some french beans

The courgettes last Friday.  They are almost double that size now and I have harvested the above 2 courgettes already! In the foreground I have sowed some runner beans a week ago which today have already got two leaves.