The height of summer?

 Sweetcorn are doing well. Silks are now showing, and I should be picking them in August - badgers permitting! About the only thing to keep them out would be an electric fence, so I will just have to hope that they start somewhere else and give me a chance to pick them first!
In the background are runner beans which I have been picking for about 3 weeks. I dug up all the potatoes (Vivaldi) a week or so ago, and they were quite successful - fairly large and numerous, with little sign of disease and not too much slug damage. One root was however completely eaten by mice! And I've been picking a lot of courgettes, broad beans, lettuce, beetroot, carrots (so different to what you can buy!) plus    some peas and French beans. This is despite the summer being 'indifferent', with not a lot of heat but very little rain to speak of. I've also been        harvesting garlic, shallots and a few onions,           although these are not really ready yet. As usual, there's been a fair amount of weeding, and also watering. Let's hope that we have kind weather over the next few months - a bit more rain but not too cold. I have sowed seeds of beetroot, lettuce, carrots and spinach, where the potatoes were - no room elsewhere - and am hoping for a succession well into the autumn.

Sunshine

 My strawberries are looking good this year, with plenty of flowers. Of course, the harvest will depend on the weather. I have fertilised and watered them, and surrounded them with wood chippings to keep the fruit off the ground, and put some slug pellets round them as well, so maybe I will be picking in 2 or 3 weeks. I shall have to keep them watered of course, as there is no sign of any significant rain in the near future. So far in May we have had about 1% of our normal rainfall, and the temperatures have on the whole been well above average :- 26°C forecast for today, against an  expected 17 or 18°C.

I planted out my kalettes yesterday. These are flower sprouts, ie open sprouts, and they should crop in the winter. They will get to about 4' tall, so I've put some strong stakes in to tie them to later. Like all brassicas, they are sought out by cabbage white butterflies, so I must keep an eye out for them!
Since (I hope!) there will be no more frost until autumn, I have also planted out French beans, runner beans and courgettes. We had frost last week though, and my potato tops have suffered as a result, being turned brown. This will put the crop back by a couple of weeks, but hopefully do no permanent damage. Others were not as lucky - some had planted out beans, but these were all killed. Still to plant out are leeks - I have 3 different varieties growing in pots at home, to give a succession of harvesting - and sweetcorn. Running out of room!

Allotmenteering under lockdown

 Every cloud has a silver lining, and it turns out that Covid-19, which has so badly affected so many people, and which I would not wish on my worst enemy, has a few. For a start, pollution has reduced hugely, and I know many people will not want to go back to commuting every day, and I think this will last a long time. And many people have more time to do things. This is reflected in the allotments. Last year, there were a couple of empty plots - this year there is a waiting list, and many plots have received more attention than ever before! My own plot is (for the first time) virtually weed-free. In addition, the weather has been mainly fine, dry and warm (although we did have one wet week in April) which has meant that everything has come on well, and has also necessitated watering.

The top photo shows my strawberry patch. Quite a lot of flowers already, and each one has been fertilised, treated with slug pellets, and surrounded by wood chippings to keep the fruit off the ground. I have used barley straw in the past, but inevitably this has seeds incorporated, which germinate and give a grassy layer.
The second photo shows the onion plot, with garlic, shallots and a couple of types of onion set. There is also a row of lettuces which should be ready in a month or so, and rows of beetroot and carrots. Hardly any of these germinated though - too dry despite watering - so I've sowed some more at home, for planting out later.

This photo shows one of my 2 hives. If the allotments are not accepted as my 'daily exercise', then looking after livestock certainly IS. Both are incredibly busy, and when I last inspected them, it was difficult to see where any new bees would slot in, but since each queen is laying about 2000 eggs per day - more than her own bodyweight - and since the workers are bringing in lots of pollen and nectar, it might be a good honey harvest. That's if they don't swarm, which they inevitably will do, and half the workforce disappears! At least we know that all the flowers on the allotments will be properly pollinated!

Wet, wet, wet!

This winter has been characterised by lots of rain and strong gales. Many trees have been brought down, and there has been significant damage up at the allotments. My mini-plots are all covered with mesh to keep off the birds, and the corners of this are supported by posts driven into the ground. Two of these were snapped off and had to be replaced. And even when the weather has been dry, digging out the posts leaves holes half full of water, as the water table has come right up. On the positive side, there has been very little frost and no snow - I wonder if we will get another 'Beast from the East' before spring? Anyway, it does mean that some things have come on earlier than expected. I picked my first rhubarb yesterday - two weeks earlier than last year - and it was delicious. It has been covered with a wheelbarrow, which has protected it from most things. And I am still digging leeks (extremely small, but at least no damage as I protected them from insect attack with  very fine mesh) and parsnips, which are of course a variety of very curious shapes, as usual. And we are also picking kalettes. As the name suggests, these are a cross between kale and sprouts. And they're very new and not easy to come by. The taste is mild, sweet and nutty - not like a sprout or kale - and they look like flowering or open sprouts, which grow on stems like sprouts, and can be green or purple. Very easy to grow - I have already planted seeds for this winter - but of course, like all other brassicas, the pigeons love them, which is why I grow them under mesh.
I have also planted (inside) peas, garlic, shallots and broad beans, some of which are coming up already, and will be planted out when they are ready - and when it's drier!