Gathering pace

On what turned out to be a rather busy weekend I only managed to get to the allotment briefly on Sunday for about an hour and a half. However, it was the most productive hour and a half in terms of harvesting that I've had thus far.

I harvested another handful of peas (pods, not single peas!) - around 15-20. I dug up a few potato plants (King Edwards) and gave some to my in-laws to take back with them. And, I harvested my first ever courgette!! Woohoo. It won't win any prizes, and to be honest I could have left it their another day or two, but impatience won the day. Here's a picture of my potatoes and you can see the courgette at the top of the picture. The yellow ones were given to me by Stuart, one of my allotment neighbours.



The courgette plants have grown enormous - well, to me. I put a watering can in for perspective.



I also had a quick check on the rest of the plot and there are a few areas of concern. The brussels sprouts are growing, but some are showing signs of attack, and others are looking decidedly unhealthy - I've no idea what's up, but I'm sure a quick bit of revision of my many allotment/gardening books will tell me. They're still partially protected by chicken wire, and I think I might have to cover them in netting to give them a bit more protection still. One more job for the list.



The onions are looking swell (sorry, couldn't resist), and some are the size of cricket balls now, and others are slightly larger still - they even drew comment from Stuart. "They might be show winners". I'm not bothered about that, as long as they taste good - was my response.

Also had a quick look at the runner beans, and there are a few small beans starting to develop. Some of the plants seem unwilling to climb, and are spreading out across the ground, but they seem healthy enough, and are producing fruit which is the main aim. Aren't they cute?



I've also planted up on of each tomato plant - plum, cherry and beef, in a grow bag to see how they get on out in the open. I have another of each back in the mini-greenhouses which are growing well and a couple of them have flowers, so hopefully not long now before we get some fruit.



The weather is supposed to be a bit better this week, so I'm hoping for a couple of evenings down there so I can get a few more things planted out. I have some cauliflowers that could do with going in the ground, some cabbages, a few more onions and the carrots are probably nearing the point when they can be planted out.