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.

Undisciplined Pak Choi

As expected, our pak choi has run to seed.

They’re rather fussy - they don’t like long days, and there isn’t a great deal we can do about this.

Happily, when we visited Tesco, we found that their pak choi has bolted too. This makes us feel much better.

Health Foods

One of the benefits to having an allotment is that access to a plentiful supply of fresh produce helps you eat more healthily.

So having harvested some of our wild rocket, we made some pizza.

What are we growing?

In the soil:

Potatoes: Jersey Royal (huge) and Charlotte (just come up)
Tomatoes: Sub Arctic, Gardener’s Delight and Brandywine. Covered in aphids.
A marigold: to encourage hoverflies, which kill aphids. Yet to flower.
Pak Choi. Still young, yet looks like it’s going to bolt any second.
Wild Rocket. Started slowly, but it’s started to perk up a bit.
Swiss Chard. Looking good.
Spinach: Tetona. Very healthy. And tasty.
Radish: Scarlet Globe. The first batch was eaten by slugs and flea beetle, but the second batch is looking better.
One courgette plant: Zucchini. Planted without being hardened off. Doesn’t want to stay upright.
Beetroot. I think. I don’t know what a beetroot seedling looks like. A profusion of different plants have started growing where we sowed these, and they surely can’t all be weeds.
Garlic: Cristo. Has many large shoots.
Spring Onion: White Lisbon. Growing extremely slowly.
Onions: Turbo, Sturon, Red Baron, Stuttgarter Giant. All have large shoots which collapse easily.
Carrots: Early Nantes, Chantenay, Paris Market. Still tiny.
Dwarf French Beans: Safari. Sowed today.
Peas: Waverex (Petit Pois). The first double row has germinated magnificently, and we’ve just sown a second batch.
Sweetcorn: Kelvedon Glory. Sowed today under bottle cloches.
Some random lines of lettuce. Not yet emerged.


Still to go in:

Tomatoes (Sungold and Costoluto Fiorentino)
Coriander
Basil
Choi Sum

Our potato plants

We have two batches of potatoes. The Jersey Royals to the right are now the size of trees.

The ones on the left are Charlotte potatoes in April. A few weeks wait, and up they popped.