30 September 2009 - Harvest shmarvest

A busy couple of weeks on the plot, aided by beautiful autumnal weather and punctuated by energetic communal effort on reinforcing our site with Council-donated fencing. Hard work from the various willing volunteers with just a bit left to do. We at last have made a noticeable impact on protecting our site - by ourselves.

N took some pictures last week of an artistic bent so they will be appearing in their own gallery in a separate posting. Meanwhile, we have been consuming broccoli (yes, still - even though most are now uprooted), cabbage (white and red and they are huge), beans, beans and more beans, courgettes, raspberries galore, corn (yummy when eaten raw - how sad that we have only just discovered this), parsnips, onions, tomatoes, chard, carrots and of course, potatoes. It is truly astonishing how much produce one small plot can supply.

We are beginning to do the autumn clearing bit by bit. It's odd how one day is broadly summer and the next - just by a hint - declares the beginning of the end. The courgettes have slowed down and are covered with downy mildew. We have cleared away one of the squash plants and its fruits for storage. The other is going great guns and has produced 12 offspring. One lot of beans is finished and we'll leave them up to get pods for next year. We've left the maincrops in the ground still but one of the beds is half empty and covered with good manure. On the right is a picture of one of our compost heaps with the leeks on top that we left to flower. When we pulled them up they had little bulb thingies at the bottom.

We're very pleased with the late sowing of runner beans which have been prodigious and the lovely apples about to be harvested. A triumph of hope over adversity. Also with the emergence of spring cabbage seedlings in - where else - the carrot bed, which we think we will make into the strawberry bed next year, as they are hard to weed in the Pagoda. We have cleaned and prepared the seed bed to accommodate overwintering onions - a red variety - and we are doing these as sets for the first time as an experiment. And, just to keep us on our toes, the old strawberry patch we think will be the new seedbed. This means we won't have to run the gauntlet of the raspberries to get to the seedlings next year - currently I have scratches all up my arms as they are very prickly.

What is so good about our plot is that there is always an answer to the question "where shall we put X". Often we come up with something quite unexpected (see above paragraph). Why should the seedbed always be the seedbed? Why can't the strawberries move? N is contemplating making a new carrot bed at the top where we now have green manure, rye grass. We are lords of this plot and we can decide - always observing where possible the primary laws of crop rotation.

While the summer crops are beginning to doze, the winter crops are beginning to look more feisty. The leeks are definitely improved as are the kale and winter cabbages. We think that we should be able to leave the few carrots in situ until needed, a lesson sadly learned with our parsnips, which have not stored well. It is at this stage that we realise that our winter crops do not include brussels sprouts which N loves with his Christmas dinner. We shall have to barter.

On the home preservation front, we have made another lot of chutney and pickled red cabbage. The neighbours have kindly donated some apples from their enormous tree so we will no doubt make some chutney - that's Christmas sorted then. The garlic is all plaited and neat and tidy looking, and has already received commendation in addition to the mighty victory in the Show. We endeavour to use our produce as much as possible, for example, in a beautiful minestrone soup or braised red cabbage and apple. Mostly we manage to keep on top of it and nothing is wasted which is the main thing.

12 September 2009 – Dig for Victory!

The 2009 St Stephen's Gardening Club Show drawn to a close, leaving us contemplating a strategy for next year.

We entered seven categories:

• parsnips - our finest three from those we dug on the weekend
• courgettes (zucchini) - three of our yellow variety
• garlic – our five best, out of 180 or so bulbs harvested this year. Entered in the 'Any Other Vegetable' category; it seems to us that garlic deserves its own category, but we think the categories must be those hand down by the Royal Horticultural Society
• jam – which K boiled down from several pounds of strawberries
  
• tomatoes – five of our greenhouse variety – in the Novice category, Novice entry being an option for those who have not previously won a Novice category
• raspberries – 12 on a plate, again Novice
• hand-knitted garment – K's birthday jumper for her sister, borrowed back for the show.

No doubt you'll be anxious to hear the results. On tenterhooks, I imagine.

Parsnips: overshadowed by other entries. Not even the courtesy of a Post-It Note. Ours were thicker, the winners were longer. To each his own.

Courgettes: we knew our three weren't very precisely matched in size, but we thought they seemed fresher, more exciting than their fellow entries. Result: Third Prize. No shame there.









Garlic: the competition included a giant pumpkin, sweetcorn and several squashes - eight entries overall, so the most competition. Result: First Prize. "Yes, we can!"















Jam: No prize, but a Post-It Note saying: "tastes good but a little stiff". Again, it must be pointed out, to each his own.














Tomatoes: First Prize! K's twice-daily watering has paid off! Now that we have the greenhouse, ready for a full season next year, nothing can stop us from Tomato Supremacy.














Raspberries: A respectable Second Prize.
















Hand-knitted garment: Third Prize. We feel the judges have a weakness for frou-frou over Vision and Execution.


We feel that The Future Belongs to Us. We're ready to take on the Big Boys. Bring on next year's show.

6 September 2009 - Bumper crops threaten to engulf house

Phew! We just can't keep up. There's so much to do at the moment with the harvesting, the pickling, the decisions about who to dispense to and the freezing. The overflow freezer in the attic is already nearly full. We have donated veg to various colleagues, friends, neighbours and family and still we can't keep up. Last weekend was our camping Bank Holiday and we provided the main ingredients for the camp curry.

We were visited on Friday by K's sister and godson, L, who was extremely helpful on the plot, particularly when collecting beans. He had an amusing distaste for two courgettes which I cut for him which were not quite perfect - so much so that he attempted to repatriate them under the plant of origin. I relieved him of anxiety by taking them on myself. The visitors went away with a bag full of potatoes, broccoli, beans, courgettes, the first red cabbage (albeit a bit sluggy) and raspberries. It was lovely to see them enjoying the plot.

We definitely have more varied produce this year. The challenge is to find new ways of cooking - beans beans beans and more beans. The garlic is now fully dried and cleaned and ready for the dreaded plaiting exercise. It took 4 hours to clean it all - you have to cut the bottom thingy off and scrape off the dirty top layer so that the bulb looks like it does in the shops. They don't tell you about that.

We've also had the challenge of cooking a pumpkin that we rashly purchased from another allomenteer a few weeks back. Very lovely soup (enough for several days), a pilav and lots of cooked pulp to add to the groaning freezer. And we have the gigantic monster on the bank which is looking to be our very best yet. It has been christened it Fat Boy. The picture on the left is N with our very first parsnip, dug a couple of weeks ago. This was a random seedling in one of the beds. It has an interesting structure. Imagine our joy and surprise this morning when we tentatively dug up on of the pampered parsnips to find it long and true - and eminently show-worthy. We displayed it to Jan who let out a little shriek of admiration (and no doubt envy). So the nasty thing that ate the carrots from the inside out didn't destroy our parsnips and the special treatment worked. We dug them all up and have three worthy of The Show. The others can be stored. Woo hoo. I dream of a whole bed of parsnips next year. We will take a special picture of all the produce we will put into The Show, still a closely guarded secret, so you can see our lovely parsnips then.

Other news - we've dug up most of the second earlies now. They are a bit disappointing, in that they are big and nearly all have little holes. But edible nonetheless. After watching Gardeners World, we take off the blighty foliage of the maincrops and weed the whole bed. We'll leave them in until the first frost then dig 'em up. We also harvested the rest of the onions a couple of weeks back. Most of them are like spring onions and are not what we thought they were going to be. This is where the greenhouse will help - getting a head start and starting them under glass is, we realise, the way forward for good big onions.

We ponder sowing green manure on an empty bit in one of the beds and then I realise with a shock - that we have to have a plan for next year to know what to do with the beds as they finish this year. It may be better to leave it depending on what we intend to grow. You really have to think ahead. It's already the start of autumn and you can see the first signs of it on the plot. Two of the three apples on one tree have dropped, leaving one enormous fruit. The coxes are probably ready to pick although some of them have "issues".

The butternut squash is doing fine. The fruits are hardening up and we did some trimming off the shoots that aren't going to produce anything new. The leeks are still looking a little unhappy but we remain confident that their time will come. Next year we will experiment with leeks that come into their own earlier in the year. We discover to our surprise a rogue courgette plant amongst the squash which is harbouring what can only be described as a marrow. We had our first corn last week - very nice if a tad underripe.

Beans are still coming from the main patch and the runner beans on the wigwams are really getting into their stride now, as are raspberries. We were too tired to strim today - having weeded the beds, harvested and tidied up we have just enough strength to lug home our produce, whereupon we had to make instant managerial decisions as to its fate.

One of the questions to ponder is - whether to grow more of the crops next year that last over winter (roots, potatoes, kale, cabbage, leek) and less of the more ephemeral stuff (beans, courgette). We're hopeful that the transplanted winter cabbage and kale will be OK but will they be enough to keep us going? Another question that we have been actively addressing is our consumption of meat. Without really discussing it, we have drastically reduced our meat intake - partly because we have so many other things to eat, partly because red meat is a prime contributor to global warming. It's odd to think of meat as a sort of special treat but it's surprisingly easy to get used to.

And we had our second Allotment Association barbecue this weekend too which was great fun. Doesn't time fly when you're drowning in vegetables!

8 & 15 August 2009 - What a pickle

This blog is going to focus on Outputs rather than Progress Reports. But before we get onto that, we know you'll want a quick roundup of progress.

These two weekends have been extremely busy - we are in the eye of the storm in terms of harvesting, tending, weeding, etc, and we are truly tired by the end of each session. Courgettes and now beans (french and dwarf) are regularly picked. The recently planted runner beans have swarmed up their poles and the opportunistic peas also recently sown have come up strong. Raspberries are beginning to make themselves felt and more potatoes dug up (second earlies).

The pumpkin (spreading amongst the potatoes on the bank) managed to surprise us with a large hidden fruit and the butternut squash are beginning to throw out fruits - though the ones in the main bed seem to be getting got by something. The old original peas have been taken down and regular broccoli has been harvested - note to self - do not sow so many broccoli next year. Mind you I said that last year. The transplanted leeklings are still not great but at least they are upright. We hope that they are late winter leeks and just need lots of growing. We've also had a second, mighty tasty cabbage and on-going carrots, and dug up some of the onions. Rainbow chard coming up strong too. Opportunistic sowing of spring onions and pak choi. So, as you can see, lots going on.

But what do we do with it all? As last year, we realise that we have to run to keep up with the amount of produce. At the top of the blog is a typical harvest from a week's growth - more than we can eat. Harvesting and storing are the main reasons we can't leave the plot at this time of year for longer than one week. Here is a list of Outputs.

General excess - veggie bags to our Neighbours and miscellaneous visitors. Nobody who visits the plot goes away empty-handed. Usually consist of broccoli, potatoes, carrots, courgettes and very special one-off gifts of garlic (as we have a shed-load).

Carrots - quite a lot have been frozen. Mostly kept in storage for home usage or munched directly from the soil after washing.

Potatoes - stored in garage, kept in storage for home usage, general excess.

Beans - some frozen and kept in storage for home usage.

Broccoli - some frozen, general excess, fresh consumption at home.

Shallots - kept in storage for home usage, pickled.

Strawberries - munched, fresh consumption at home, jam.

Courgette - fresh pickle, general excess, fresh consumption at home, chutney, have just found a recipe for courgette cake (deep joy), help - running out of ideas

Garlic - kept in storage for home usage, one failed garlic in oil experiment (YEUCH), pickle

Peas - some frozen, fresh consumption at home.

Cabbage - fresh consumption at home.

We wonder about whether we should weigh everything, so that the end of the year we can say grandly that the plot produced 100lbs of produce (and that's probably just the courgettes). It's very interesting how differently we have to treat each vegetable once it is harvested. For example, soft fruit can be frozen but it's delicious eaten raw in situ. The maincrop onions and potatoes, when they are dug, will be stored for winter usage. Shallots on the other hand which keep just as well we decide to pickle. Courgettes are so versatile that we can do all sorts with them, though making chutney from one recipe means that we have to buy 1.5kg tomatoes, etc. We counter the expense by blagging free apples from The Neighbours. But still there is something inherently satisfying in cooking a huge batch of chutney from one 1.5kg monster courgette - even though when we made it yesterday it took 7 hours to solidify (which is probably the reason I decided to share the experience with you today).

Freezing is another option but we have been more choosy about what to freeze. Courgette though willing is not quite up to the mark (ahem) when it is defrosted, though peas and beans are fine. Carrots are OK, but nowhere near as nice. So there are limitations - and of course, we are both eating more vegetables than we have eaten in our whole lives.

So what pickle recipes do you use, we hear you ask? Well, for the shallots and jam, it was Delia. Simple, straightforward and the Goddess Delia is always right. For the courgette pickle, we rely on a somewhat shabby cutout of a Jamie Oliver recipe from the News of the World magazine (I know, I know, you're all shocked - but this is a feisty, "fresh" pickle that is ready in days to eat and very reliable). For the pickled garlic, some anonymous recipe from the internet involving soy sauce and honey (very tasty). For the chutney, we used a recipe circulated by Jan and Pat - it was light on the detail of when to call it a day and how long to leave it before we eat it so we decide 3 months before consumption to be on the safe side. The ingredients were courgette, apple, garlic, tomatoes, mixed spice, chili powder, mustard seeds, sugar and vinegar. The house smells like the pickle factory of my youth. On the right is the sum total so far of the pickling for your admiration.

We are going to enter the jam into The Show but we know there will be stiff competition. Too soon for the chutneys, alas. They and the pickled shallots will be left for 3 months. So they can remind us of summer and our herculean labours. And we haven't even mentioned the produce that we have acquired - such as a pumpkin and several cucumbers from various allotment neighbours.

Weather note: warm but not too warm, rain, cloud, you name it. Good growing conditions (i.e. we don't have to make special watering trips.)

1 August 2009 – End of staycation

Time alone will tell whether today was the best day of the year in the allotment. Perhaps, though, it is our end-of-staycation-tinged view that has made our day seem so rich.

To start, we had an 80th birthday party for Jim, who, we believe, is the oldest Burydell allotmenteer and, it is rumoured, whose father and grandfather had plots here. About 40 people turned up at lunchtime at The Falcon Public House (the pub nearest to Burydell Lane) and Jim was presented with a new bench for his plot. We may all be pitching in to help him in future, as his primary helper is moving house and will not be able to drop in as often. More community spirit.

A natter with the Ladies and a few other familiar faces, then off to the plot, which is in full bloom. Maincrop potatoes still doing well, despite us having had to remove two plants suffering from Leaf Curl. Cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli doing well, although some off the latter sort of going to seed. These stalks removed to the compost, with tender shoots to follow (we hope).

Onions and kale getting on well. Leeks, transported from the seed bed a little while ago, are perking up. K narrowed the deep wells into which they had been moved, because they didn't seem to have the strength/support to bring themselves erect. (We've all been there.)

Apples. Despite good advice from our Hungarian apple expert, the tree I like best has produced only three apples - though fine, plump apples they are. There's something we need to learn re pruning - all the new growth each autumn? Blueberry plant seems to be flagging. Autumn raspberries will explode soon.

Their Fruit Cage neighbours, two leeks, we have left in flower, as the bees love them. We will take a view nearer the Agricultural Show on whether to enter the fine, sturdy beasts.

Original peas dying away, and yet, and yet, newly planted peas are emerging. Too late for a further crop? Who knows?

Various beans and the corn are growing, but seem shorter in general than those of other plots.

Plentiful sun reminded us that a visit by our 3.5 year old neighbour Connor had been postponed earlier in the week due to showers. It turned out that he had a window in his diary (after a nap) and he, Jo and Dave dropped by for carrot-picking and the harvest of a small bag of second-early potatoes from the bank. He has a gift, we think, for spotting potatoes as they are uncovered by the pitchfork. They also left with a courgette (something like our eighth to date), and Dave's growing conviction that he is a Man of the Soil who should become an Allotmenteer.

So far, then, community spirit and conversion.

We left with second-earlies, courgettes, broccoli, carrots, raspberries and blueberries.

Earlier in the week - the second of our two-week staycation - we had a much-enjoyed, and all-too-brief visit from our friend the eminent Professor Jeffery, who had a feast of our produce at supper. He seemed to approve of our plot activities, and kindly carried home the first of our summer cabbages, a monster. (NB. this was one of the Homebase seedlings and turned out to be exceedingly tasty.)

Of the 148 garlic bulbs harvested recently, now drying in our home greenhouse, several have been pickled and, today, one put into herby oil for snacking. As the Radlett deli owner, himself an allotment novice, said, a 148-bulb harvest allows you some scope for experimentation. The drying bulbs could be smelled next door, but we hope to smooth over any temporary discomfort through vegetable bribery.

So it seemed to us, on balance, to have been a fine day, perhaps the day that will epitomise the summer of 2009.

July 2009 - Staycation Bumper Edition

Three long weeks without blogging doesn't mean that there hasn't been lots of action. And now we have a chance to catch up as we are having a Staycation - 2 weeks holiday, most of which we will spend at home. Not because of the credit crunch but because we cannot leave the allotment for a 2 week period in the summer time. Note that the search for something to provide shade is over - a £4 beach umbrella from Marlows.

So much going on and to do too. Much of the time on the plot has been spent weeding. It takes up so much time and energy, even with a fully charged wacker. And there's the bank now too. End of wingeing about the weeding.


Far more exciting headline news - we have harvested a grand total of 148 garlic bulbs on 24 July. We could probably corner the garlic market in Hertfordshire. Consulting the blog, we think we planted around 100 cloves - but that may have been an estimation, and 148 might be slightly out as quite frankly we were giddy with garlic fumes in the greenhouse (where they are drying). This picture does not do the sheer amount of them justice. We anxiously think about what we are going to do with them as this is roughly 3 times as many as last year - a few of which we still have. Lots of garlic pickling coming up and our friends can expect to receive garlic gifts. Enuff garlic already. The bag next to the garlic contains our shallot harvest, the majority of which we will pickle. The picture on the left is the same bed now populated with leek seedlings, transplanted from the seedbed. I am very proud of the expert way I did the dibber thing to make the hole and confidently placed the leekling inside. Quite different from last year. And they are not too big to move either (as last year's were according to some). (Philosophical note: perhaps the excess of garlic makes up for the dearth of peas.)

To the left is the remainder of the first earlies. The plants looked bitten and as we had already dug up quite a few we thought we'd dig up the rest. They are exceedingly tasty and no doubt our friends will benefit from a few presents of these too - as of course we have the joys of the second earlies to look forward to. To the right is the empty space on the bank where the first earlies were - now sown with green manure in a possibly vain attempt to keep out the weeds. The shadow is the Pagoda (mighty fruitcage which has received some remedial treatment to its structure).

Other breaking news from the plot.

Bed 1 - rainbow chard and a few late sown carrots coming through and an empty space where the shallots were. We think we'll go for a late sowing of peas, given the disappointing show of peas in bed 6 which got got by pea moth. This rendered half the crop inedible. The peas that were given to us by neighbours etc were much better but not enough of them. We have only frozen 2 or 3 small bags. The rest of the bed contains onions including the giant ones. There are no pictures of bed 1 or 6.

Bed 2 - as reported, garlic now pulled and replaced by leeks. Butternut squash also in residence looking happy. This was only meant to be a temporary measure before moving it to the bank but we've decided to let it be.

Bed 3 - various kinds of broccoli happening. We have frozen a fair bit and our pregnant Neighbour is scoffing quite a lot. It is delicious. The summer sprouting (?) stuff looks particularly nice. The red cabbages moved fairly recently have suffered badly from either slugs or caterpillar, but the other ones (sown in situ) look fine. Not sure what that means. The summer cabbage is also quite bitten but hopefully will be ready to eat soon as they are bloody huge. The winter cabbage also sown in situ looks good. As you can see, the nasturtiums have been a great success and make the bed look really "on trend".

Bed 4 - maincrop potatoes looking good, except for 2 which have leaf roll virus which is serious. The book says that they can be treated but apparently the chemical is no longer sold according to the garden centre. This leaves us with a moral dilemma which we have yet to resolve. As the virus affects the yield, maybe we should dig these plants up to prevent others getting infected. Or maybe the aphid that spreads the virus has gorn orf somewhere.

Bed 5 - now here's a bed that's going places. Lots of growth over the recent period. The corn and french beans are now well established whilst the squash is getting itself sorted. The main attraction though - of course - are the three courgette plants. They are already shooting out courgettes and we are now back in the familiar territory of excess courgettery. The yellow one is fab, though the courgettes look a bit like bananas. And yes they are yellow all the way through. The runner beans optimistically planted recently have come up and are climbing up their poles. I heave a sigh of relief - a plot without runner beans cannot be right.

Bed 7 - carrots are doing well and we've had and frozen lots. We've also sown some more with a view to overwintering. The parsnip plumage indicates that all is well with them too, though we don't know when to pull them up.

Pagoda - strawberries, alas, now finished but they were much better than last year. We must pot some runners for the greenhouse. The summer raspberries have yielded their first harvest but to be honest, people, we don't rate them as highly as the autumn brigade. The fruit is not as big or firm and they seem sickly compared to their exuberant autumn relatives. The blueberry has been getting into the swing of things and we've had quite a few delicious helpings. The seedbed has been cleared of leeklings and a strange broccoli (don't know, don't ask) which just seemed to sprout and bolt in about 10 minutes. Now we have kale and (I hope) some more winter cabbage seedlings left in there. There are 3 leeks left in the seedbed from last year and we decided to let them flower to see what happened. As you can see, Mr Bumble Bee finds them delicious.

Bank - two asparagus thingies have come up and the rhubarb is looking magnificent. We have spoken already about the potatoes. The pumpkin is having issues. While it is spreading, any nascent pumpkins have been spoiled by The Slug. We have sprayed it and put pellets down.

Weather note - warm, rainy, sunny, downpours, storms - usual English summer really

Good points - opportunity to reflect on last year's experiences compared to this year and thinking "great, now we know how to do X better"; courgettes; carrots; garlic; broccoli; strawberries; potatoes; shallots; nasturtiums

Bad points - opportunity to reflect on last year's experiences compared to this year and thinking "bugger, these (X) are nowhere near as good as last year"; peas; leaf roll virus; gaps appearing in beds with no back-up plan (e.g. bed 1).

So let the pickling begin!!

27 June 2009 - Hot hot hot

Blimey, it's hot. As I type, we have officially entered into a Heatwave. There's swings and roundabouts associated with heatwaves - swings are that crops like corn and beans get plenty of incentive, but roundabouts are that you have to water and be extra vigilant for things drying out. We try not to do it too often so as to encourage a proper spirit of sustainability - for some crops (e.g. parsnips), it's actually better if they are not watered so that the roots go down really deep. On the left is my first ever attempt at strawberry jam - 1.8lb of strawberries = 1.5 jars of jam. It's a very messy and tense business but tastes delicious. This is because we have that most joyous of things, a strawberry glut, many more fruits than last year. We even had the Neighbours over for a summer bbq and plied them with strawberries so as to use some up (and to see them as well of course).

Other developments include harvesting of the first broccoli and freezing it; removal and composting of both the noble chard and spinach as they had given way entirely to the reproductive urge. In their place we have sown rainbow chard (a rainbow of chard) and overwintering carrots as an experiment.

Overwintering onions, sown so long ago now, were harvested. A few of them (4/5) were of decent size but otherwise they are tiny. We decide to pickle these. Perhaps starting them in the greenhouse in the autumn will give us a better result next year as the yield is quite disappointing given their long gestation. Likewise some shallots, though we are not sure whether it's time, to see what happens. All laid out in our greenhouse, a far cry from last year when Jan and Pat kindly lent us their.s

We have reluctantly concluded that the various sowings of peas in the dodgy bit are not yielding the required results at all, so dug them up and reconfigured that area into two runner bean wigwams. After anxious consultation of the authorities, we conclude that it isn't too late to sow them direct. Orthodoxy be damned.

As you know, we dug up some new potatoes a couple of weeks back and have decided to leave the rest for a little while longer. The second earlies are definitely looking healthier as plants, so maybe the bank is not the best start for first earlies (this is about yield not quality).

But - other bank news - the giant pumpkin however is doing well and there is one baby fruit already - not bad. The rhubarb seems to have got over its teenage angst and has produced truly majestic leaves. And there is ONE proper asparagus spear.

The courgettes are showing their first flowers, though the plants are still fairly small. The other - main - peas are so nearly ready to pick. Someone already has sampled them to assess readiness. They are not quite there yet. But very soon will be. Carrots and parsnips are blossoming (well not actually but you know what I mean).

The brassicas are doing well, though the transplanted red cabbage still look not entirely comfy in their new home. We inspect the last remaining brassicas (excepting kale) in the seedbed and see that they are now summer purple sprouting broccoli. Yikes. Other recent sowings of winter cabbage (yes I know there are some already in the main bed but I like to be sure) and kale have come up. Summer raspberries are also beginning to ripen and one majestic loganberry is daring us to pick it. Blueberries are still an intriguing shade of green rather than blue.

The corn is definitely having a growth spurt and we hope that the french beans will catch up. They are in the game but seem a little shy. The onions have rallied and are getting weekly doses of magic juice. We have great hopes of rivalling Mr G in this year's show.

We have been experimenting with making a shelter to provide shade over our bench, as it is very hot in full sun and there is no shade elsewhere. The search for Sir N's perfect shade solution continues.