Desperate remedies!

 Very few people have grown sweetcorn on the allotments this year. This is not surprising, as the badgers eat everything as soon as it is ripe! But I decided that I would nevertheless try, and have put up defences to try to save them - we will see! This is a battery powered system, which involves a PIR and two LED lights. When anything breaks the PIR beam, the lights come on for about 6 seconds, which hopefully will scare off any intruders. There is also a solar powered battery charger to keep the battery topped up. The sweetcorn will be ripe in a week or so - fingers crossed!

I have two apple trees and two pear trees on the allotment. Last year, the apples were abundant, but there were no pears. This year, it's the opposite way round - lots of pears but very few apples. It must be something to do with the weather at the pollination stage : perhaps next year we will get both apples and pears? 

At last we have had a day of rain, the first rain for many weeks. It was by no means enough of course. We really need at least a week of rain to make up the deficit - we're on a hosepipe ban, and if things don't get better soon, more restrictions may be introduced. In the meantime, we keep on with the watering cans ....

With the continued warm weather, things are growing quickly. we can't keep up with the beetroot - the largest one so far was 950g, or 2lb 2oz! But they've been very tender and taste excellent, so much so that I have made several lots of beetroot relish, which will keep well and should last us through the winter. I am also picking a lot of runner beans (and freezing some) courgettes of three different kinds (again, we can't keep up with them, but courgette chutney is delicious) lettuce, spring onions and I've just harvested my onions, which look good.