Peas and Beans

A good crop of peas this evening, and the first few broad beans.


Fairly sure that the Catriona potatoes have blight so have removed all foliage. Will leave it a week for the blight spores to die then dig the half-row which is still in the ground. Fortunately the Desiree plants don't seem so badly affected so I am leaving them alone for the moment.

The Weeds Strike Back!

Feels like I have spent hours clearing up weeds over the last week, but they are growing faster than I can remove them. At least the compost heap is growing!



'Feltham First' peas are really getting into their stride. I picked half a carrier bag of fat pods this afternoon to add to more potatoes, courgettes, and shallots. The broad beans have plenty of pods now, some of them are getting quite fat, but not quite ready to eat today.

Making a meal of it

Dinner last night was lamb chops, new potatoes, peas, sauted courgette and shallots.

Unfortunately the allotment isn't big enough to keep livestock so the lamb came from New Zealand, but everything else was grown on the allotment and dug or picked less than 30 minutes before being eaten.

Very nice it was too!

The harvest begins

The strawberry plants were the first - several handfuls of berries, which is more than I expected from new plants.

Dug up the first two Catriona potato plants at the weekend, yielding 20 or so decent sized spuds and a few tiny pea-sized ones!

First early peas eaten as Mangetout, first two baby courgettes, and four big shallots. Tried unearthing two carrots but they were disappointingly small and forked. The others need time to grow.

Not a brilliant germination rate, but there are seven sweetcorn plants growing strongly. Planted more seeds in the positions of the 4x4 grid where nothing had appeared.


The weeds were starting to take over so have spent a lot of time clearing them up over the last week. Beetroot, Swede, Turnip, Rainbow Chard, Pea, and French Bean seedlings now have some space to grow.


Feltham First peas, and Broad Beans are now getting very large.

Everything is growing

Unfortunately that includes the weeds!

The two courgette plants Mum and Dad gave me are doing well, expecting to eat the first courgettes in the next week or so.


James Grieve apples are bulking up .
A few russets are visible, but nothing on the Howgate Wonder. The trees all look healthy with lots of new growth so looking forward to bigger crops next year. Anything this autumn is a bonus!

The Feltham First peas are flowering, as are the broad beans, so looking forward to a crop soon.
The second and third sowings of peas (Jaguar) are doing nicely, as are the french beans. Will be a while before they are ready to eat.

End of the monsoon?

The rainy season seems to be over for the time being, but the allotment is in much better shape after a couple of weeks of regular rainfall.

"Feltham First" peas are growing very quickly, as are the broad beans next to them.

Several broad beans failed to germinate, so there is a second sowing to fill in the gaps, just breaking through the surface.
French beans have also been a little disappointing, although some have come up, so another row of "Tendercrop" went in today. The first sowing of "Jaguar" peas have started sprouting, sowed another row this afternoon.

Carrot and leek seedlings, transplanted from indoors a few weeks ago, are doing really well. Apparently carrots don't take kindly to being transplanted - fortunately no one told me or the carrot seedlings!

Second sowing of carrot and leek seeds are now sprouting, as are the purple sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts in the seed bed next to them.

Potato plants are getting really big now:

Rain at last!

Mum and Dad gave me a whole bag full of plants at the weekend. While I was planting them yesterday afternoon the heavens opened. What a result, no need to water them in now!

The shed guttering appears to be working successfully - the water butt is about 1/3 full. Another good thing is that the shed appears to be waterproof as I sheltered inside it during the worst of the storm.