Looking Good. 27th May 2020

The plot is looking good with everything apart from French and runner beans planted out. It’s not been an easy few weeks though as we have had some heavy frosts and had to cover things like potatoes and strawberries with fleece (you can still see all the hoops and bricks we used on the photo). Crops on many plots have been devastated and although they will recover to an extent, probably yields will not be good.

We are already picking our first strawberries. They are early due to the crop being an early variety plus the generally mild winter weather. We inherited them so don’t know what they are. They are however not a suitable commercial crop as the stalks fall out as soon as you pick them and the stawberries soon start to disintegrate as they are so soft and moist, but what a delight to eat. We will eat fresh stawberries each day and any excess will go down in the freezer for adding to stewed apples or rhubarb or using in smoothies.

I still haven’t mastered growing coriander. It has bolted again so I need to plant more as I also do with the rocket which has also gone to seed. I made lots of pesto with the crops and having cut them down they will produce again before they need to be pulled up. Hopefully by then my new planting will be shooting.

The courgette I planted early is doing well. I grew it on the windowsill then planted it out surrounded by a plastic ring and covered with glass and fleece. It already has some little courgettes and I’m willing it on as my husband thought it wouldn’t work. He’s no doubt willing his later plantings to catch up and only time will tell if I have won.

We have made our usual nettle and comfrey fertiliser which will be used on all the vegetables. We filled an old pillow case with nettle and comfey cuttings, tied the top then lowered it into a barrel of water. The plants rot down releasing lots of nutrients into the water and although the mixture smells revolting it feeds the vegetables well. We add about 1/2 pint of the liquid to a watering can filled with water.

Lockdown has meant that my husband has spent a lot of time at the allotment so it is looking really good with hardly a weed in sight. We are now starting to reap the benefits of all his hard work which is wonderful.