Summertime and the weedin' is easy

Slowly but surely

This morning when I went down the allotment it was a pleasant summers day, a bit blustery but warm in the sunshine on the sheltered allotment site. We had rain overnight so the ground was nicely moistened. By the time I left the allotment about two hours later the clouds were building up for more rain. The wind became more blustery and after about another hour of building there was heavy downpour and a clap of thunder. This all blew through pretty quickly and now we have sunshine again for a while. It’s really great to be getting some rain, am I the only one to be so happy about it?!

My Neighbouring Plot

North of the Path

This year's trend

The south side of the path

Holding back the tide of weeds

Down on the allotment things are getting growing, especially the weeds! The French beans are recovering from their sunburn but still not looking as happy as they could be. The results of last weeks hoeing meant that there were only a few small weeds to be pulled out from among the Carrots and Scorzonera. I filled in the gaps in the rows of carrots with seedlings given to me by a friend at work. The Scorzonera can be planted right up until the end of May so as we are running about a month behind schedule I chanced it and put a load more seeds in then covered them with the cloches to keep them extra warm and speed things up. Where the spinach had been planted out there was some space under the chicken wire so I filled in more gaps with new sowings of seeds there too. Down at the Chard I cleared out all the weeds then raked it ready to put in more Ruby Chard on one row and Spinach Beet on the other row. There is still room for the Chard seedlings which are in the greenhouse but not yet big enough to plant out. Sadly it looks like one of the Butternut Squash plants hasn't survived. However there are several pumpkin seedlings growing in the greenhouse so I'll plant them out when they are sturdy enough. It was a brief visit to the allotment today, there is still some clearing to do and the edges need strimming but I needed lunch and I knew the weather was very changeable so I only planned a short visit.

Did I miss the Wassailing?

Once again I seemed to be the only person down there – I say seemed because I can't see every plot from our plot. I don't know when other people do their allotment work because nearly every time I go down the place is deserted! (Perhaps they are trying to tell me something!!) However there are always signs that work has gone on. I took some pictures on the walk back top show you all. You will see that there are still a lot of derelict plots overrun with weeds which makes it difficult in the ongoing battle with weeds that everyone has. You will also see that there is a trend for blue waterpipes to be used as cloches. I'm old school and stick to chicken wire (no not literally!).