I have done a fair bit up the allotment though - or at least for the time that I have available, I feel like I've done a fair bit :-) I am sure that Mr. Perfect Allotment next door doesn't think so though! I haven't got any up to date pictures, but I'll try to be good and post some soon.
So a quick update:
- I put my tomato plants into the ground a little too late. They were tiny, but they grew well. I like the bush variety, as I didn't have to do any other work to look after them. I hoed a few times, and that was that. There were lots of tomatoes on them, which was good. Unfortunately, our summer was again wet and non sunny, so they stayed green. I left them on the plants too long, and they were going rotten on the plant. The once that weren't rotten I brought inside, but they didn't ripen. I ate 1 tomato! It was tasty though! I have not given up on tomatoes though - next year has got to be sunny!
- I planted potatoes as a weed suppressant - that didn't work! The potatoes didn't grow, and the weeds were just as hard to dig up!
- My pumpkins went in the ground too late and got slug munched again. Not sure if I'll try pumpkins again - it would be nice to carve up a home-grown pumpkin on Halloween though.....
- Sweetcorn is growing well - a good few cobs there. Not sure when to harvest them - must do some research!
- Leeks are growing - they don't seem very big to me. Hopefully they have time to grow yet.
- Strawberry plants are settling in well. Had some tasty strawberries off them! Next year there should be lots of strawberries!
- The 2 blackcurrant bushes provided me with a cupful of blackcurrants this year - better than the handful from last year, but still not many! I made some syrup out of them, which I was going to use to make gin with, but my big gal suggested having it with porridge, which we duly did - mmmmm!!!
- There are 2 blackcurrant cuttings left after various tramplings etc. They seem fairly healthy, and it's interesting watching them grow. Think that I should try some more for next year.
- After all that prickling, the gooseberry bushes decided not to produce this year - grrrr. Maybe they didn't like all that cutting.
- The raspberry cuttings that I was kindly given last year are looking healthy, but no raspberries this year. Hopefully they should be alright next year.
- The onions & garlic did OK, although I was kindof hoping for bigger bulbs from both. Not to worry, at least they grew and I got something for this year!
- The rhubarb I planted unsurprisingly died. A fellow allotmenteer though dug up one of her plants and gave it to me, which was very good of her. That is growing and looking OK - hopefully there will be some rhubarb in the spring! She has a large row of rhubarb, all very healthy, and she gave me a ruck of rhubarb for eating too. It was very tasty!
