29/30 August 2010 - All things bright and beautiful

Let's now catch up with ourselves - hold on tight now - you have just left behind all of July and touched on the first of August. We now reach the end of August. Time travel is a marvellous thing! As is the glorious vegetable on the right there, our first globe artichoke (from seed).

On 29 August we attended the christening of Next Door's baby, Henry. A truly heroic day of drinking and festivity, enlivened by a visit to the plot by Next Door's relatives, Norman and Malcolm - and neighbour Dave (who is hoping to get a plot real soon). Our guests commented on the smallness of our plot compared to their vast empires up north where they grew "real crops", none of this fancy corn and that. We put their comments down to sour grapes about the paucity of their own produce.

Today was a day to atone for past sins by putting in a good amount of time on the plot, not just doing the usual stuff. We ponder why we don't appear to have so much of a glut as previous years. We think it may be to do with the fact that we are growing more varieties of things and that N has been working at home, so has thus been able to harvest courgettes, etc, in a more managed fashion.

For some time, I had been worried about possible overcrowding in the brassica bed. So today we took some sluggy stuff out and moved other plants (the winter cabbage, petit posy and kale) into more commodious accommodation. The broccoli is still going great guns and despite the bloody white fly we seem to be holding our own. We have already had a couple of summer cabbages and took another one today.

There are still onions to harvest (from seed). N is not convinced of the need to grow onions from seed, but I am not so sure. They seem to be as successful once they get going. We topped up the eternal bin of comfrey juice which is quite simply foul. But it seems to be doing our produce good.

One of the highlights of the plot is the Leaning Tower of Borlotti. We all know that Italians build wonky buildings; here is the proof that the leaning tendency is not confined to medieval bell towers. The borlottis are very beautiful and we look forward to drying them for the winter. We will also have a fair number of butternut squash. Other winter produce this year will be the parsnips (which look amazing), winter cabbage, kale, petit posy, carrots (we hope), leeks (a bit weedy still). Lots to look forward to.

Perhaps we should finish by listing what we took home today: broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, artichoke, blueberries, raspberries, purple beans, green beans, celery, courgettes, spring onions, rhubarb. We think it is the most varied haul so far, and of course the usual challenge then is - what do we do with it all? Various goody bags have been made up, freezing has taken place and a summer pudding made of all the fruit. A perfect way to spend a Bank Holiday Monday with a sore head.

1 August 2010 - Summer Time

Hi there. Lots going on at the plot, though not necessarily photographed, so this is by way of a catchup. We had a slight hiatus in recording in July due to rockin' out at the famous Latitude festival. Only light maintenance and harvesting was possible, usual weeding chores, etc. We have been dining on potatoes (first earlies) - not a bad harvest but not quite what we had hoped. And lots of corn which has been much better this year, as well as a continual supply of broccoli. The peas kept valiantly going but for whatever reason, they were not happy. The carrots on the other hand were very happy - but so were the bloody mice, who have by and large decimated our hopeful harvest. We have caught around 10 or so to date and remain grimly determined to keep calm and carry on. Beans of various types - especially the little purple ones - made their appearance. Watch out later for a very special picture of our borlotti beans.

There are two giant pumpkins on the bank - huzzah. We have come to realise that only the mighty pumpkin can withstand the onslaught of nature. The green manure has been partially successful, only the blue plants really got the idea. We are sorrowful about the lack of apples, due to the late frost. We know we are not the only ones. As if to compensate, there are blueberries and raspberries galore.

Onto 1 August then when we had a visit from our nephew Luc and his mum (up top). They were duly complimentary of our progress and Luc did a bit of watering too. We also harvested a truly magnificent red cabbage.

I find that we have forgotten - forgotten!! - to record the garlic harvest, or even when we took it up. I think it was in the first half of July. Let the belated record show that all of the duff garlic utterly failed, but the other half was fine. Not overly large bulbs which we think was due to the dry spring. Should be enough to last us, and perhaps even enter in the local show. We haven't yet plaited them up. And four elephant bulbs too. Next year we vow to plant more elephants, as they are great fun. Let's fast forward to the end of the month....