He hasn't quite mastered the art of walking on the paths yet! so supervision is the name of the game when Buddy comes down to the allotment. Here he is admiring my dwarf beans. I have planted some purple '
Royalty' (I liberated some seed pods from the compost heap at the Lost Gardens of Heligan a few years ago). The other beans are a white and pink variety '
Poinciana' (Which I liberated from George Washington's garden at Mount Vernon last year)
Runner beans are racing away. You can never overwater runner beans. These are different coloured flowers, peach, yellow, white, red and purple. You can just about see they are underplanted with French marigolds.
After my success last year with my first crop of sweet potatoes, I managed to overwinter some cuttings from last year's crop. Here growing in a pot in the greenhouse. I will have to give it something to climb up.
I just love the silver mottled markings on these courgette plants. I grow '
Defender' as they seem to be resistant to mosaic virus and they are extremely heavy cropping. I ate my first courgettes yesterday.
Beetroots '
Detroit' and '
Perfect' are coming along nicely. These are just about golfball size and ready for thinning out. Growing these varieties for the first time this year. Up till now just out of habit, I had always grown
'Boltardy' till I read that there are much, much better varieties. Let's see!
Well of course it's raining. It's Wimbledon! that can be guaranteed! This morning I tended to my strawberries. When the plants have finished fruiting you must cut off ALL the foliage. Commercially they do it with something like a lawn mower. Strawberries have two sets of leaves each year. The leaves which grow after fruiting are the set that will feed the crown of the plant to produce strawberries next year. If you do not cut off all the leaves you will not get such a good crop next year. The foliage dies back in Winter and the second Spring leaves will grow next year. This time of year give them a high nitrogen feed to get the green leaves growing well.
I thought I would have another go at growing cabbage this year. I suffer terribly with slugs and cabbage white butterfly and anything I grow ends up like a paper doyly, a crochet blanket, a fishermans net... you get the picture. When I was little I remember growing January King cabbages which were the size of basketballs! I am going to build myself a little fort knox this year and no sucker is getting in there. I'm talking CCTV, electric fences, guard dogs, motion detectors and the full monty this year!
The courgettes are doing well. While the plants are still fairly small I do not let the courgettes grow too big, the plant cannot really support too much fruit. Later in the season I will let them grow bigger. These are just perfect and you can eat the flowers too!
