Allotment Update No. 18
Follow the allotment series here.
Everything is growing really fast this month. After a relatively cool and wet July in Bristol (16.9C compared to the 30 year average of 18.3C along with 18% more rain) August seems to be a little warmer. Here’s the crop from the 13th August:
These are the first of our carrots along with lots of squash, courgettes, blackberries and chard.
Of course we can’t hope to eat this much squash, though we’ve had a good go! Most of this load was given away at a BBQ last week. The variates here are Parador courgettes along with Sunburst, Sunshine and Turks Turban squash. We also have some Crown Prince, Harrier, Confection and Harlequin on the plot which should all keep fairly well, along with a prolific pumpkin. The carrots are Jaune Obtuse de Doubs’ Yellow Carrot, a non-hybrid from Real Seeds. These carrots were planted on 26th March. The squash plants are mostly growing in front of the sweetcorn:
Sweetcorn and Squash
Our monstrous sweetcorn! Dave’s a handy 6 foot rule so these 55 sweetcorn plants are around 9 foot. Looking at other allotment plots and commercial fields our corn is exceptionally tall, however, it seems to have fewer cobs forming than we’ve seen on other plants. The seed was another non-hybrid, called Golden Bantam Improved.
The leeks are continuing to bulk up
We're letting this one grow!
We sowed more carrots on 10th July. These should be ready by the end of October, thanks Amanda and Dave for weeding!
Yellow carrots planted 10th July
Here's our haul from 2nd August 2011
A few photos from earlier. This is the first half of the plot, as it looked on 17th July:
Chard, leeks, rhubarb and squash in front of the sweetcorn
We're eating the turnips much smaller than this... but it's fun to let one grow!
The kittens are curious and enthusiastic creatures, not often helpful though!
Your allotment looks very beautiful – a very strong contender for the ‘Best new allotment’ category.