Im very excited that for the first time the allotment looks like a proper allotment – things are actually growing everywhere and there are yummy things to pick and eat for dinner.
I put more work in at Springtime this year, and even before that I started growing seeds at home, whereas last year I got off to a slow start.
It’s been hard getting to the allotment since end of July, August and beginning of September due to recovering from my recent surgery. But I’m now back on track and excited about getting on the allotment more regularly again. I feel a lot better when I can get a daily dose!
Bees are everywhere on the plot, which I am very pleased about. They love the borage I sowed. You can eat the flowers and I’m planning on drying some of the leaves to make tea! Apparently it’s good for internal inflammation, which would be great for my Endometriosis.
We are over-run with courgettes, I kept leaving them and picking them while they were pretty large. But now, I’m desperately trying to pick them when they are still small, so there is less to eat, plus, they are more tasty when tiny.
I found a courgette cake recipe from My Goodness website which is wheat and dairy free (but includes eggs). I don’t eat too much sugar these days, so it was sweet enough for me, but my other half wasn’t too keen! Here’s the recipe if you fancied giving it a go, it’s got a really nice soft texture, and is pretty healthy as far as cakes go, I’ll definitely be making it again this week.
I’m still eating the strawberries picked in early summer. I froze the ones we couldn’t manage to eat, which I’ve used in smoothies with bananas, coconut milk and mint leaves. Plus, you can freeze the smoothy mixture to make a sugar free sorbet – yum!
We up cycled this wooden palette with netting on the back for squashes to grow up (bit of a strange experiment), and added these recycled bottles to grow salad out of. It also added a bit of height to a very flat plot earlier on, and a little feature for pots to live on.
We have Autumn fruiting raspberries on our plot, my Dad gave me some canes the year before last I think around September. Last year we had maybe a handful of berries, but this year there’s been loads – enough for us and the birds!
I want to make another section for these raspberries to replant some of the new suckers coming up. I found this RHS post on when to move the new canes, which is a good guide.
I’ve tried growing sweetcorn this year. I didn’t do well with the seeds, until I was told to soak the seeds first, then sow them. I only have about 5 plants!
The beetroot has done really well this year, particularly as I almost killed the young plants. Really they are too big now, but they are lovely roasted (our fav).
I was quite disappointed with broad beans, again first time growing them, but they got black fly, and even the younger plants got decimated. I did spray with a more organic treatment (watery washing up liquid) a couple of times, but they were quite far gone already.
Unfortunately the tomatoes haven’t done well quantity wise, I’ve only had a bout 6 cherry tomatoes and they are only just turning orange. Last year there was some sort of blight going on. Fingers crossed for next year!
Pumpkins have done a lot better than last year, and Im quite proud of this one, the biggest in the gang.
I still haven’t dug up all the potatoes yet, Im hoping they will survive not being dug up for a little while longer – all the leaves have rotted down now, so I think I need to dig them up very soon.
First time growing onions, and loved the ease of growing from sets. I will definitely get some to overwinter.
French purple beans, these haven’t grown as tall this year, but theres still quite a lot to pick. I like how they magically turn green when you cook them.
This is the first year for the rhubarb so I have tried to not pick much. I did have some stewed the other day though with a tiny bit of maple syrup and it was divine!
Runner beans are doing very well – here’s Juls getting stuck in to hunt out all those that are hiding.
Jobs to do now are: Weed weed weed! Tidy up the strawberry patches and plant new runner plants in a new patch, build at least one more raised bed, dig a row/patch for new raspberry canes, dig up all the remaining potatoes and harvest the veggies.
Here’s a shot from earlier on in the Summer on a very beautiful day.
I hope you enjoyed this allotment update, if you have any comments or advice on growing any of these better, please do comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks and bye for now, Sarah x
