Full Metal Wheelbarrow

It occurs to me that it's about time for an allotment update.

The runner beans seem to be about to come on stream - the first of the plants reached the top of the poles a few days ago and the first few beans are getting to pickable size. The first couple of globe artichokes seem to be getting close to ready too.

I've had a few tomatoes from the Gartenperle plants, and jolly nice they were too!

The sweetcorn plants seem to be thriving and the largest of them has its flowers peeking out from the top already.

Rob suggested that some of the reason for my lack of germination success this year might be because things were drying out too fast, and that it might help to put a propagator lid over the trays of seeds while they germinate. I've tried this with cabbage Tundra and borecole and have had much greater success in germinating them than any other brassicas I've tried this year, especially the borecole.

Today's work included rescuing more of the herb bed, which has become horribly overgrown. I managed to break off a huge lump of the purple sage last time I worked on that area - I've used as much of that as I could for cuttings, which may or may not work, but there's still loads of the original plant left. Today I dug out a bit more and am slowly working my way toward the rosemary plant.

There was also hoeing of weeds and feeding of plants with comfrey juice.

One weed was spared however - at least by me - as it was busy being devoured by this handsome little chap :-




Google tells me that he's a Cinnabar Moth larva and dines principally on ragwort, so he's jolly welcome to any weeds he fancies on my plot and can bring his brothers and sisters too, if he likes.

I've had a fair few tyre orders this week, which is undoubtedly a good thing, but has meant I haven't spent as much time on the allotment as I would have liked . So it was nice to be able to spend the morning down there today.

Seems I was a little previous in announcing the imminence of pumpkins, as the first one seems to be rotting away. Perhaps it wasn't really pollinated after all :-(

I spotted this rather pretty little chap on a sorrel stalk while I was working :-


The first of the runner bean flower has fully opened today :-



I got a lot of the remaining contents of the greenhouse planted out today, many of them in the bed near the shed. It was lovely to work up there today because the curry plant was scenting the air.
 
I moved the three lavender plants because they were in grave danger of being eaten by the purple sage. They're now sharing a bed with several chive plants and some oriental poppies, which I hope will provide a nice flower display next year.

Meanwhile there's one of last year's leftover leeks about to burst into flower. I love the way you can see the tiny flowers packed tightly inside the bud :-