We get potato blight

We’ve got early blight on our potatoes. This seems a little unfair, as nobody else on our allotment site has it.

If it spreads to our tomatoes, we’re in trouble.

We eat some potatoes

Tesco, our favourite supermarket, sells an excellent range of new potatoes, but they’re not a patch on ones you’ve dug up yourself and cooked the same day.

They’re growing to a decent size now, although we had to chuck a few green ones out, as we haven’t quite mastered they black art of ‘earthing up’.

Squash progress

We’re growing four types of squash: Blue Ballet, Marina di Chioggia, Butternut, and Butternut Sprinter. We started them off in our living room, and they were a bit annoyed when we planted them out on the allotment, but they’ve now got going. They are, I think, not as big as everyone else’s.

Division of labour

Regular visitors to this blog may have got the impression that Amy does all the work. This is a common mistake. In reality, Amy does everything that requires skill and intelligence (such as cooking), while Dan moves large objects from place to place.

Here, Amy harvests some lettuce.

Water shortage

Summer has arrived! It’s hot, it’s dry, and the nation is outdoors applying sun block.

One of the peculiarities of a hosepipe ban is that you cannot water your vegetables, but it’s entirely legal to hose down your pet cat. The authorities have presumably thought about this, and I’m sure there is a sensible and enlightened reason for this law.

In any case, our allotment society does not allow hosepipes at any time, so we set to work with a watering can and a bucket.

Our potatoes flower

Having survived a tough spring, our potatoes have flowered.

This means that they can now be eaten.

Which, after all, is the whole point of being a potato.