Plenty for the pot!

I have spent many happy hours this week at the Hill, because it has been dry all week! Not a lot of sunshine, but – hey – let’s not jump the gun here!

When I went down on Saturday, I had a lot of company including Barry (on his own this week) & Reg-next-plot. I was quite surprised to see Reg sporting a pair of ipod earphones – although he doesn’t seem to have grasped the volume control. He spent a good couple of hours shouting at everyone without realising.

If I heard him tell various allotment holders about his recent coach holiday in France once, I must have heard it 4 times – starting with Chrissy about 5 plots up, & working his way back down.

Indomitable Fran arrived with Alan – Fran on a stick after her recent knee replacement op, but she still managed to sit on a bucket & prune & strip their redcurrant bushes whilst dispensing her nuggets of advice. It was soon apparent that David-other-half – having been on holiday himself – had not heard about neat neighbour John, so there were further commiserations all round on that score.

Barry & Reg-next-plot dug some of neat neighbour John’s potatoes for his wife, & there was protracted discussion about which ones were the earlies – I still think that he would have planted the rows in order of when he wanted to dig them up…

I planted out the swede seedlings in plot A where I’d lifted some turnips a while ago, & picked & picked & picked the peas! Also the gooseberries, & I did a great deal of weeding (but not enough in the misc. plot B!)

In the week I got to tackling making a ‘tent’ for a late sowing of peas – & very pleased with it I am too – I used some of the heavy duty plastic square netting that Barry’s young charge, Jody gave me – & the 6’ canes I bought half price from Wilko, & string & topped it off with coloured ball cane protectors.

I sowed some PEAS (kelvedon wonder), & on the rhubarb side a couple of rows of BEANS (black turtle) & on the other a row of BEANS (sungold).

I must say that the cabbages are looking good in the cage, & although the courgette here at home is sloooooow, the Prize Pumpkin is looking fab – the first pumpkin is now the size of a grapefruit!

With the foliage dying down on the POTATOES (rocket) it’s been high time that they came up, so I over a the course of a couple of evenings I had all of them up, dried overnight on the bench at home, then squirreled away in a hessian sack in the garage where it is dark. Weighing the sack, there are about 20kg of spuds there – & acres of second earlies & main crop still to come – a reassessment of sowing quantities needed for next year, perhaps?

With salad picked tonight – & peas, of course – there’s plenty of home veg for the dinner table at the moment, the next challenge is successful storing – pea pickle, anyone?