Sunday 25 September 2011

Not everything on our plot is purple, but...

While we were pulling one of the Kestrel spuds I found this lovely little purple centipede.

Mmm, sweetcorn

Picked our first two sweetcorn today. As you can see, one was far better than the other (sorry Jamie!). They were deliciously sweet and worth the wait. We've watered the rest in the hope that there's more time for plenty of kernels to develop - but may be a bit late in the season.
Still picking courgettes to stop them turning marrow-sized - and have got away with it so far this year, though we have given a lot away!

Saturday 24 September 2011

A bit of clearing

Spent a bit of time clearing up some of the plot today. Pulled the patty pan plant - there were just a few small squashes but others that were just going mouldy.
Pulled out a lot of the calendula - we've collected seeds but pretty sure the whole plot will be covered in them next year, given the number of seeds that we're finding everywhere!
Nice to see the rhubarb chard out in the open and glowing in the sunshine again.


Monday 19 September 2011

Extreme rain!

We decided to walk up the allotment yesterday afternoon to pick a cabbage and some carrots. We badly mis-timed it! We had to shelter under a railway bridge for about 10 mins because there was a torrential downpour. We got to the site just as the skies opened again and ran for cover in the container - the sound of the rain on the metal roof was amazing!

The sun came out soon afterwards and the site looked beautiful, so we quickly picked our veg and went home! Sploshing through the huge puddle that is Marsh Lane after a rain storm :-)

Sunday 18 September 2011

Manure

We're a bit concerned with the broad bean we planted as a test in the horse manure. The leaves are really curled like reported with Aminopyralid contamination. Jamie's doing another test with 4 more broad beans. We haven't got too much manure and haven't spread it across the plots yet so it won't be catastrophic if it is contaminated, but obviously we don't want this additional problem!!