July

We were in the Chatsworth garden centre on Monday and saw that they had some bags of white onion and shallot sets reduced down to 50p a bag. It is a bit late for planting onions, really, but for such a small outlay it seemed worth having a go. The Under Gardener has planted them at the bottom of last year's cabbage bed.

The potatoes on the allotment seem to be being hit by some sort of ailment, so we are digging them up as they get struck. I think this means that we will be eating vast loads of very small new potatoes over the next few months but it doesn't look likely that there will be any to store for the winter. Colin is sure they are blight-struck. I am not so sure. It's not behaving like blight. I think the potatoes, which are notoriously thirsty plants, are not getting enough water.  On the other hand, we are getting a good load of peas and broad beans to set by for the winter and, of course, to eat now. We've also been eating some rather nice broccoli from the plants that we were given from Colin on the allotment a while back. We stuck them in a spare bit of bed in the kitchen garden - and there they have been thriving. Broccoli, or calabrese always seems a slightly dull vegetable to me. I much prefer the sprouting stuff.  But it has to be said that broccoli picked from the garden and immediately eaten is an entirely different beast from anything that you can buy in the shops!

We have raspberries a-plenty. And there looks as though there might be quite a nice crop of blueberries from our small and young blueberry plants.  Must remember to give them another feed of azalea food. They seem to like that!