Watering and Weeding most of June

The last few weeks have been general plot maintenance with some cropping too. Watering and weeding plus plenty of early potatoes and strawberry picking.

On a recent visit I weeded the onions on the top allotment and grabbed a couple of the bigger ones while I was there!

The sweetcorn seems to be doing ok but I've still got one butternut in the greenhouse to put in that bed:

The new cabbages are doing fine


The Wondermesh is doing a great job of keeping the birds off. I found another piece and covered some of the strawberries next to the path on the top allotment too.

and I've actually got some courgettes coming now - at last!:

Shouldn't need to water this weekend, the forecast has plenty of rain!

No watering while we were away - typical UK Spring Bank Holiday

Got back from holiday on 1st June and guess what? - my parents didn't need to water the plot the whole week we were away. Apparently the weather was awful!

I had last week off work as well so a few trips were made sorting out the weeds and doing more planting.

The first thing I did was to dig up my first early spud and got a great crop. It was a bit difficult finding them in all the muddy manure and soil!

Here's the second lot I dug up later in the week:

and I found these 'volunteers' on the top allotment - they were just showing a bit of green foliage through the soil, amazing how you can always miss some spuds from the year before but I've never missed this many before! Should make some good jackets:

I've put the rest of the sweetcorn in at last along with one of the two butternut's I'd been growing on in the greenhouse:

My cabbages weren't doing very well so I purchased (shock horror!) 10 from a garden centre to add to the few of mine left that might survive. They still look a bit lonely!:

The main crop potatoes at the front of the bottom allotment and coming along well now. I've earthed them up again. I've covered up the strawberries on the bottom plot with the Wondermesh as they are starting to go red now. I've got some pea pods coming but the french beans could be better. The rest of the plot is looking a bit tidier:

On the top allotment, I've got rid of most of the weeds for now and the leeks, onions, courgettes, butternuts and squashes all look ok. The runner beans at the bottom haven't grown much and 2 of the 4 different kinds of beetroot haven't done so well:

Finally, the other main crop potatoes at the front of the top allotment have been earthed up about much as I can are are looking good. Still plenty of pears coming and some apples and plums too:

Went up again on my bike on Saturday to give the potatoes a bit of water and to weed the beetroot. I need to pick some broad beans too as they are ready. There's only the carrot bed on the bottom allotment to attack now. Haven't needed to water since then as it's been a bit wet!