Seed update…..as you can see everything is starting to do quite well (Let’s not mention the chilli’s and peppers in the green house that have done nothing at all!;))  But the sweet potato are growing, we’ve had to move three to the greenhouse as no more room on the window sill and the tomatoes are getting larger.  4 tomatoes from out of date seed have also come through.  Looking forward to some dill with a nice piece of fish!

Close up on the wonderful sight of fruit and veg growing!  Things are really starting to come through now, our first potato is peeking its head out- maybe we weren’t to late after all!  Can’t wait to eat the raspberries, blueberries and particularly the gooseberries, none of us have had them in years!  Back to eating local!!

Good day down the allotment today, we got the sweetcorn in (fingers crossed it will work we’ve never tried it before.)  While we were at trying new things we sowed a couple of lines of swede to see if they work as well.  We know its a really funny shape, but really starting to love our allotment even more now. We also got the runner beans in today, lets hope there are no frosts, the French beans and maybe the sweet potatoes will hopefully go in next weekend, weather permitting!!

Seed update……sunflowers are doing well along with the dill and lavender.  A couple of our tomatoes have come up very small so far, but a kind neighour gave us 6 nice ones!  Nothing happening on the chili front!  We had a spare greenhouse cover in the shed so on with the new!  Finally the sweet potatoes seem to be starting new shoots!

Seed update,…….the strawberries are doing really well and the spinach has just started poking its head through!  We marked out with string in case someone thinks its grass and tries to weed it!  No sign of the carrots or potatoes yet but hopefully they will pop up soon.

Lots of work down the allotment today, real team effort.  The side got cleared of stinging nettles, weeds and stones, wood chips put down and pots arranged.  We also dug over the remaining earth, planted 50 potatoes, cara and desire and had a tidy up.  Still loads to do as always, next job tidy up the other end and put the swede in.  The beans, sweet potatoes and sweetcorn will follow shortly!

Still need to do a lot of work though, one year on and we are still tidying a load of rubbish away that we find on the allotment, much of it buried deep!  Today we found a pair of pliers, a pair of sheers and grossest of grossest a disintegrating mattress full of yellow foam!!  Will be sieving all the nasty foam out of the earth tomorrow - the perils of urban gardening!!

We got a lot of work done today, as well as digging over a whole lot more we also moved the strawberries, made the spinach bed and planted it, planted the carrots and got the sticks up in preperation for the beans.  We also managed to squeeze another 16 potatoes in - the mystry veggie box kind!  The Desiree and Cara should hopefully be ready to go in next week - its late but at least we will be harvesting later!  The rhubarb is starting to look stronger and the bed has been prepared and covered for the sweet potatoes…we’re slowly getting there….

Down the allotment today as finally a day with no rain!!  And who should we find when we were tidying up?…No, not a snake as we first thought, but…….a Slow Worm!!  Apparently Slow Worms “look superficially like snakes, but are actually legless lizards. One way to identify them is to see if they have eyelids. Lizards (and therefore slow worms) do while snakes are lidless” BBC  Nature.  They really like slugs so keeping him/her down there to help with the pest control.  This one is a juvenile according to its colourings, hopefully we will see it again as it matures - apparently they can live up to 30 years old in the wild or 54 in captivity!!

Seed update…..so just over a week on and the sunflowers are doing really well, there’s also a sign of lavender and dill.  But what is happening to the chilli’s?  Not the weather for them.  This year first go at sweet potatoes, Can they really be grown in the UK..lets wait and see.  So first step, they need to sit on the windowsill for the next three weeks until the pots fill with roots - we’ll keep you updated…

We managed to get the blackberries that are finally starting to grow up to avoid foot trampage and also got about 20 potatoes in.  These were old ones from the veggie box, fingers crossed they will work (they did last year) the Desiree and Cara should be on there way (We ordered 2 weeks ago) and will be the next to go in, the weather is just sending us so much behind!  Sweet potatoes and sweet corn too - can’t wait…..

We managed to get down the allotment today for an hour in between the stupid amounts of rain we have been having here in England since the hose pipe ban!  Everything that is in seems to be doing OK, the fruit bushes are flowering or re shooting leaves and the garlic seems to be coming on its way too.  The elves have also been out in force and all the beds are now turned over. We did manage to get a little work done in the time we were there in between downpours - see next post to find out more…..

We know, we are really late!  But seeds have gone in today, let’s hope our mini greenhouse helps them along quickly!  Today we have put in Tomatoes, 3 Different kinds of sweet peppers, 3 different kinds of chili peppers and dill, lavender and giant sunflowers!  We’ve added an opened bottle of water in there to hopefully stop it ending up like a furnace!  We scorched some plants in there last year.  Fingers crossed the seedlings will be up in the next 7-14 days, we will keep you posted.

Elves have been hard at it digging again!