Mid-July

The Under Gardener has been busy in the garden and on the allotment. He has finally managed to get the grass cut in the garden, and the rain has lifted long enough for him to get in red currants, black currants and some raspberries.  But we are not going to have huge gluts of most fruit this year.  The cherries are all split and are being eaten by the birds before they are ripe enough for humans to eat.  We can't bring them in to ripen indoors because they rot along the splits before they are ripe. Next year we will lop the top branches off and net the trees.  In the meantime - it's quite funny watching magpies, blackbirds and sparrows trying to balance on the branches of the trees, which aren't quite strong enough to support them!!

The greenhouse in the garden. Click on the watering can to reach the full album

Also,  he has planted out the last of the brassica seedlings, which have been being nurtured in the greenhouse. They came from a highly reputable seed and plant company about three weeks ago, in a truly terrible state.  They looked as though they had been packed and then packaged by a particularly dim work experience student. Half of them were broken. The rest were all yellow and limp and sad.  I potted up the not-broken ones and was about to send of a very grumpy email to the plant company when I realised that they had sent considerably more seedlings than I had ordered and that I probably had about as many plants that would survive as I had paid for.  So I didn't.

It therefore came as something of a shock to the Under Gardener when a package arrived yesterday lunchtime from that very same seed and plant company, bearing another 60 seedlings - Brussels sprouts, cauliflowers and cabbages. Where, he asked me, did I intend him to plant them? There is no room at the horticultural inn!  Nothing to do with me.  I didn't order them.  Check the invoice.  So he did - and found not an invoice but a letter of apology from the seed company asking us to accept the replacement plants in place of the previous consignment.  You really can't complain about that - especially since I didn't complain and had in any case already got planted out about the number of plants that I had originally ordered.  So thank you, Thompson & Morgan. We will definitely be back for more.  Next year. Not this!!!!

I have offered some of the seedlings to colleagues who have allotments or kitchen gardens.  And we'll find somewhere to plant the rest.  If we plant them very close together (which we did, accidentally, last year) you get lots of mini-vegetables which are quite fun.

Apart from that, we are keeping an eye out for potato and tomato blight.  The weather is still absolutely ideal for blight. And I have an uneasy suspicion that the remaining tomatoes in the greenhouse at home may have been got - the leaves are turning a funny colour.  I shall keep an eye on them. We have started digging the first/second early potatoes too.  They also are a bit small yet but they are beginnign to look a bit forlorn.
The carrots are coming on though.  As are the herbs, the onions and the garlic.  I might plant up another couple of boxes of carrots at the weekend. I've got loads of seed left and there might be enough time to get a second crop in before the winter.  Plus, of course, boxes of carrots can now be moved into the porch if it snows