Mostly pictures on this blog entry. Jean has been in a frenzy of planting out, and I’ve been doing a bit of strimming and cultivating (with much more to do, I know, I know). But the damp warm conditions have been ideal for seedlings, so we’re optimistic for this year. Here’s a walk round our allotment sites:
The “new bit” is almost fully planted now
Peas are under the net near the fence, rhubarb to the right, and climbing and dwarf beans on the newly planted bed
Courgettes and squash have been planted through the paper, to suppress the weeds
Sweetcorn newly planted, with broad beans coming on well in the background. The cordon tree is a Worcester or Discovery. We pruned it drastically, but it’s recovered well.
The broad beans are flowering well. It’s good to see that there are still a few honeybees about, even on a cool day.
Moving up to where the chickens are, we have brussels sprouts in the foreground, summer sprouting broccoli in the background
On our original plot, we at last seem to be getting some damsons this year, although the tree has some form of leaf curl.
Russet apples
These artichokes need to be eaten young. If we wait for them to get much bigger, they flower!
In spite of vigorous pruning, we’re going to get plenty of lovely Fiesta apples this year. The next door tree, a Peasgood’s Nonsuch, is almost bare of fruit, though.
We’ve neglected these roses, I’m afraid, but their perfume is still lovely.
These are Czar plums, which are a deep purple colour when ripe. They often suffer from the “June drop”, but so far, at least, so good.
We got one or two fruit last year from this young Vranja quince tree. It has had some lovely blossoms this year, but not all have set.
An Oulinns Golden Gage. It’s still a very young tree, but we may get a small crop this year.
We’ve just started putting the tomatoes out. The planting is obviously here catching up with my strimming!
Plenty of strawberries, but, alas, also plenty of slugs in this warm damp weather.
Cabbages just planted out, and leeks in the bed on the left. As usual, we bought the leeks in Desvres market on a recent French trip.
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