My first harvest!

Having spent quite some time now sorting out my allotment plot, I finally had the opportunity of tasting one of my own-grown vegetables. I was thinning some radishes, and popped one in my mouth! It had little taste but I put that down to it only being the size of a bean!

It’s all going quite well though - on the plot my sweetcorn have sprouted, as have my peas, broad beans, pak choi (although all have been viciously attacked by flea beetle), courgettes, beetroot, onions, garlic, potatoes, rainbow chard, butter beans, runner beans, cannellini beans, borlotti beans and french beans.

All the currant bushes on the fruit plot are draped in flowers and look to have a pretty decent harvest too. I need to start thinking about netting/bird control though. I cant afford to put up a fruit cage, so I’ll have to think of other ingenious ways of deterring birds from my fruit bushes.

I have also discovered several rhubarb plants on my plot that I didnt know were there! Bonus. I’ve picked some and stewed it. Delicious!

All of my seeds propogated at home have germinated, with the exception of the Stevia (herb) and Sweet Cicely (herb). I’m disappointed becuase I was really keen to try these out. I have potted all the tomatoes and peppers on, and the cucumbers. I’ve also bought some red cabbage plug plants, and, some aubergine plug plants in order to obtain a faster crop.

Bindweed has been devilishly vigorous on the plot. I can see just how extensive the problem is now that we have had warmer weather. I went after the first few days of warm sunshine, and ended up spending nearly two hours untangling it all from around my onions, courgettes and sweetcorn. It is truly horrid stuff. I’m hoping to get a good handle on it this winter though, with a good, thorough dig over. In the meantime, my fabulous, inherited hoe is being put to VERY good use.