Tighten Up

It was a drenching day yesterday and today has been showery and windy. We only visited the plot to pick some veg and water in the greenhouse. I'm pleased to see that the sunflowers are managing to stay upright now they're attached to the frame I grew them under.

The four at the front are meant to be shorter than that though. They're Big Smile and are nearly as tall as the Russian Giant at the back - they're rather swamping the Asters and Eschscholzia which are in that bed too. It's a shame as they're very pretty - I need to sow them closer to the edge of the bed if I grow them next year.

Sadly four of the purple dwarf bean plants have now snapped off completely while in full flower due to the windy weather, such a shame! The beans are just appearing now so we've added extra ties in an attempt to keep them from moving too far from their sticks. The plants are taller than we thought they'd be and probably could have been grown up canes.

More security has also been added to the cucumbers and squashes on Plot46a. We've got various supports for the plants to grow upwards...

And then the idea is that they'll spread across the wires and partially mesh-covered roof to provide us with a ceiling of hanging squashes - won't that be fun, if it works!

A couple of tiny Tromboncini are on their way but these are close to the earth so they won't be hanging far... I could (should) remove them to encourage the plant to grow fruits higher up, but I can't bear to do it!

And talking of tiny, here's our first redcurrant tomato - full size. Sweet and tasty, but you really need more than one at a time :-)

The excellent title song is provided by the Black Keys.

Backdoor Man

One of the main topics of conversation over the last couple of weeks has been how the runner beans aren't setting. We figure the windy weather hasn't helped as there are less pollinators about, but there is another issue...

A lot of the bees and wasps take the nectar from the back of the flowers, rather than through the front door for pollinating - this animation is a bit more obvious (but the red flowers make for a more dramatic top photo).

Another obvious topic of conversation is the weather which over the last week has been decidedly changeable which is most unfortunate as I'm off for the week and we've only had one hot day.

But this kind of weather helps things grow and we've been picking potatoes, fennel, carrots, cabbage, beans, courgettes, courgettes, courgettes!

These yellow courgettes have been the most prolific. The stripey Goldmine ones are good too but unfortunately half the plant got snapped off - I think it got too big and couldn't support itself. Even that hasn't stopped it producing though!

These are our Tigerella tomatoes - rather pretty, but this is the only truss so far.

The purple dwarf beans also fell foul of the wind and two plants snapped off, but the others are looking pretty and healthy and are just beginning to set. We've secured them and also our sunflowers to supports as more wind and heavy rain is expected.

A lot of us have found our onions have succumbed to rot - even these that are sold as resistant. I've pulled some of the largest ones so they can dry off for the Horticultural Show on 19th August, but I'm not expecting any prizes. Perhaps this little cyclops could have been included as a funniest veg, but we've eaten him :-D

The Doors provide the title track - referring to the bees antics (I know it's spurious, it's hard work finding suitable song titles along with songs I like!)

White Rabbit

Do you say "White Rabbit! White Rabbit! White Rabbit" on the first of the month? I don't, I say "Pinch, punch 1st of the month" but maybe that's because I was the youngest of 5 children and it's more fun to pinch and punch :-) Anyway, it's May and a bank holiday for May Day is always welcome. The sun even shone for us (some of the time).

The May blossom is just beginning to open up on our hedge and the dark clouds provided us with a huge downpour in the afternoon, so the earth looks a much healthier colour now.

I was mostly washing up old pots today. We (HAHA) have a plant sale on 3rd June so I transplanted the chard seedlings to sell there; there are far too many for our plot. They should look a bit bushier and colourful than this in a month's time.

I also did some sowing: Parsley, 3 Speedy french beans (as a special early sowing) and Early purple sprouting broccoli - this seems to do so well with other plotholders and it'll be nice to have something else to harvest early in the year. Something else other than rhubarb that is...

Our giant rhubarb plant has a flower on it - it has gone to seed like this in other years but doesn't seem to upset the plant particularly. I chopped it off, at ground level, and popped a pot over the cut stem to avoid it filling with rainwater and rotting the plant. Jamie says this is a myth, but it seems reasonable to me.

While I was fiddling about with these various things Jamie was digging the area on Plot3 where the broccoli will go. We won't need many plants as it seems to get pretty huge. That should mean that there are a few spare plants of that to go to the plant sale too - I'm hoping it will have germinated and grown a bit by then.

Those plastic cloches are covering the parsnip seeds

So, I'm sure you can guess the title is courtesy of Jefferson Airplane.

Making Tracks

These interesting marks are left by a snail (or a slug) that enjoyed eating the red algae that had formed on one of our outdoor storage bins. And while reading about this I also discovered that mollusks have kidneys (as well as most other mammalian organs) - ha, who knew? well, Snail-world.com obviously!

The bargain hibiscus plant that I bought earlier in the year finally flowered - such a pretty shrub! There were 3 buds but two dropped off - possibly eaten :-( Maybe next year there will be a few more...

This was the first of this year's sweetcorn that we shared yesterday - so sweet! After the fretting that they weren't going to cob-up they're doing well - a couple of cobs on each stalk.

Shhh, the magpies don't seem to have found the sweeetcorn under the Jack-Be-Little pumpkin growth so far! But the pumpkin leaves are beginning to die back, so we're having to have a cob each tonight and probably every night..

Look! We've found a second loofah. It's not as big as the other one, but still not sure how we managed to miss it! 

There were large flocks of house martins overhead throughout the afternoon. They weren't sitting on the wires, just flitting and flying around. Amazing numbers and very impressive - clearly miles better than this photo shows, hence the fancy effects! They're preparing to head South, so maybe we'll see them in Tenerife in a few weeks time!

At one point they were joined by a kestrel. We haven't seen one on site all year, so were pleased to see its return - as long as it leaves all our friendly little robins and the wrens alone!

Today was grey but last week we had a sweltering start to the week (when this little cirrus cloud appeared), followed by torrential rain (21mm) and a huge thunderstorm that reached Newbury but just managed to miss Hungerford. I wonder if that marked the end of Summer...?

September - Cooking and Growing

Mmmm, if you could only smell this cooking!

French bean chutney, one of our favourites! We use the same recipe each time we make it. Only once did we make it with runner beans, that were a bit old. Eurgh, we won't make that mistake again! Stringy bits in your Christmas chutney are most disappointing!

Turmeric, mustard, cornflour in vinegar

We went to the allotment earlier - it was pouring with rain, but we wanted the onions and Speedy Dwarf beans for the chutney and the other veg for the halloumi meal tonight.

I'm pleased that the peppers changed colour as intended. The red one is halfway there, but just the orange and yellow ones for tonight.

The Indigo Rose black tomatoes haven't had enough sunshine to completely turn. Their green backs have turned reddish. They're not as tasty as the red plum Aviditas tomatoes, which would be my tomato of choice next year. It's prolific and delicious!

Talking of prolific... the Disco Patty Pan have come into their own. These two were particularly beautiful! Several have grown huge so I've been taking them to work - but even my colleagues can't face any more Summer squashes! They are delicious stuffed.

Our largest sunflower is now seeding up. I may take some of the seeds for nibbling, but most we'll leave for the birds. Our cucumbers have also had their day, but Rocky performed brilliantly as always.

And soon it'll be time for the Winter squashes....

Jack Be Little

Jack of All Trades

We picked one of the Lark sweetcorn cobs yesterday. The kernels were very small and not quite ready, but we ate a lot of it raw as it was so sweet. Looking forward to them in probably a week's time...

Bank Holiday Tuesday

I'm not sure why we get an extra day off for the August Bank Holiday, but I'm glad we do! It was a beautiful sunny and hot day so Jamie and I had a barbecue on the plot.

We had a nice plate of heart-shaped cucumber, mayonnaise-y carrots and pickled garlic-tomatoes while we waited for our Quorn burgers and onions to cook on the little bbq. The garlic is still rather strong - not to be eaten at lunchtimes at work!
The tomatoes were all Orange Paruche. Very tasty but split too quickly to be used in anything where you want to keep them whole, or for cooking with where they fall apart.

I'm still managing to pass on plenty of courgettes and cucumbers at work so they aren't going to waste and we cooked one of the patty pans on the barbecue - it was quite tasty, but better cooked as part of a meal at home to be honest - like we had last night; baked and stuffed with a Bhuna curry, yum!

The Speedy dwarf beans (sown on 2nd July) are just getting big enough to harvest. We hope to make some chutney with the first crop at the weekend. They have timed really well this year as the runner beans have just about had their day (and we've had enough of them).

A little way to go yet...

We've had some really hot days with sultry nights and yesterday we got the storm. I didn't see any lightning but heard thunder rumbling around. The sun and rain are encouraging everything to grow but our sunflowers are shorter than previous years.

Sunflower peeping through

We've been to the plot to harvest and water each evening. This is our one loofah that's formed - it's about 30cm long. The plant is now producing quite a few flowers, but there won't be time to make any more loofahs at this stage.

The peppers are colouring up now; 2 peppers per plant is rather weak. I hope they taste good, we'll wait till they get their full colour before they get eaten - maybe stuffed peppers, mmm.

We've been alternating between courgette-based meals and runner bean & potato meals over the last couple of weeks. The runner beans are beginning to get a bit stringy on the edges now. The potato has been grey-purple because we've been using the Salad Blues- still tasty, but not very pretty! We should have emptied them out of the potato bag earlier then we could have had them as boiled salad potatoes.

All that (apart from the cucumber and raspberries!) went into a lovely roasted vegetable and halloumi meal.
That was the first of the patty pan summer squashes. We think it has a bit more flavour than the courgettes. They were really slow to get going, but look like they're going to swamp us soon! The courgettes I take to work keep disappearing from the kitchen, so they won't go to waste.

The tomatoes we're mostly eating are Aviditas, I think they're more tasty than the Orange Paruche, which split as soon as they're picked. The Indigo Rose are still on their way to ripening... I've tied them up in an attempt to get the green ones and green parts to see more light..

Our sweetcorn has finally formed some cobs. They aren't very big, but hopefully they're still going to fill out. Looking at previous years (aren't blogs handy?) we normally start harvesting it in September, sometimes late September, so we seem to be pretty much on track.

The Jack-Be-Little plants are producing loads of pumpkins and clambering all over the sweetcorn, the trellis, the courgettes.... And the Speedy dwarf beans which are just forming, so we'll have them to replace the runners in our diet.

A mackerel sky