Too Much Too Little Too Late

July has arrived! A lot has happened since my last blogpost but I've been too busy to post. Lunches have got more interesting, with radishes, broad beans and mangetout joining the salad leaves.

We've had lots of visits to the plot, with too much to do, but we have managed to get a lot done and watering each day. Finally we've managed to plant up (most of) the remaining courgettes and squashes and the Double Red and Glass Gem sweetcorn, which germinated within a week of sowing in the hot greenhouse.

We pulled out all the poppies and dug holes, filled with manure, for the squashes - pretty sure that won't be the last we've seen of those poppies!

I planted out the globe artichoke and I've protected that, plus the squashes, from slugs with coffee grounds. Not sure whether they work or whether the dry weather has helped keep the slugs at bay, plus our resident frogs.

Our Kestrel potatoes have their first flower.

We've had some lovely sunshine and very high temperatures - too high to work on a couple of days, but we planted out our HAHA competition sunflowers. They look a bit weedy compared to other people's!

We've watched a robin parent feeding its young and now the baby is feeding itself, but it hasn't got a red breast yet.

Jamie's planted the Lark sweetecorn on Plot3.

These mullein moth caterpillars are enjoying the ragwort on Min's plot - they are stunning to see, especially the big ones.

All the different beans (Yard Long, Gigantes, Speedy, Pickwick) have been planted out and seem quite happy. The Pickwick (dwarf runners) are in flower.

The pak choi and rocket plants went to seed a while ago, so I've filled the gap by sowing more beetroot and salad onions.

The carrots are happily growing under their enviromesh cloche - they've got a while to go before we're going to be able to eat the thinnings.

The strawberries continue to be delicious. Certain areas of the site are full of the scent of them - fabulous!

Our raspberries are on their way - though the birds are happy to eat them before they're red enough for us - we really need to get them under netting.

We have some gorgeous blooms on show.

But our french marigold and snapdragon seedlings are too small to produce a show for the Hungerford in Bloom allotment judging on Saturday! They'll be beautiful in a couple of weeks though - just too late for the judging and the fete :-(

All involved are busy preparing for our fete (have I mentioned the fete? This Sunday?) and I enjoyed a little break from that preparation, work and life-in-general by making a pretty tea light holder, for the allotment, at a craft session as part of the Hungerford Summer Festival - pretty and so easy to do.

The song refers to how my life is feeling at the moment. Luckily I have Friday off and then Saturday to finalise everything for THE FETE! And the sun is going to shine and England Ladies won't be in the final for the Women's Football World Cup, which I'm not pleased about ...but...