Desolation on the allotment

The allotment is looking remarkably desolate at the moment. The lettuces had finally given up the ghost, and those remaining had to be put into the composters.

The thin fleece was found to have moved, been ripped and have a mysterious goo on it...suspects include: the wind; the locals; or the fox with the mange.

The beans are still growing by the handful, and are definately the most satisfying vegetable that we have planted, so it's not all bad...although we could really do with some more things put into the ground.

5-A-Day and all that...

Sometimes we go to the allotment and apart from a little hoeing and pulling up the odd lettuce...which were only worthy of mentioning the first time... there is little to report to the blog; on other days, like yesterday, there seems to be 2 or 3 entries worth!

As stated in Monday's entry, we planned to get on top of everything this weekend, and in true David and Emma style this resulted in our strolling up to the allotment at 5pm. Despite this lacklustre start we managed to finally put the shed on the slabs!

Impressive when you consider it was achieved through the my tipping the shed and kicking at the slabs whilst Emma pushed them...very professional.

We also managed to plant some rocket under a thin fleece; this will hopefully protect it from the flea beetle which gave the last lot such a hammering.

So, as we dragged our aching bodies back through our front door at 10pm did we think it was all worth the hassle? Well, we also brought back 5 different sorts of rather muddy vegetables, so we were quite pleased with our lot...especially Emma who has been waiting months to start pickling the beetroot.

Overgrown... or Full of Life??

After a week away - trekking across Hadrian's Wall - we have returned to find the allotment in full bloom despite the hot weather: beans are popping out all over the place; carrots are edible; a whole new lot of radishes are starting to appear; and even the lettuces seem to have held on for a little bit longer.

There is still lots to do though, and the time just doesn't seem to be there...six concrete slabs that were taken up at the start of July continue to lie forlornly around the shed...

...but this weekend we hope to have one last push at sorting out the allotment for this year.

NB:Whilst the pricked out lettuce seedlings grew stronger; we once again managed to leave them too long...oops.