Rain rain rain

All the rain we should have had in the spring seems to have fallen in the last fortnight. Still, life goes on, which is just as well really. More than enough to eat, still sweet peas and carnations for fragrance, and I'm in danger from falling fruit with all the plums. Thinking ahead I've been sowing chicory, spring cabbage and kale. And this afternoon it even stopped raining.

Carnations

Summer cabbages

Eryngium

I've got one of these on the plot. So blue. Can't eat it but that hardly matters.

Tomatoes

Still going strong. Tomato sauce on everything at the moment.

Chillis

I'd never grown chillis and jalapenos before before so when someone gave me some little plants back in the spring I thought I'd give them a go.

Jalapenos

Plums

In the garden

Sedum changing colour now

Fuschia

Open day

Open day on our site today; the people who visited my plot made approving noises so I must be doing something right.

August must be the most rewarding month on the plot - hardly any work to do but loads of food to eat. I've got blackberries and raspberries coming out of my ears, three kinds of beans, peas, cabbages, carrots, onions, tomatoes and grapes now too. It's a regular garden of eden out there.

Happy staff on the produce stall at our open day.

Autumn raspberries

It might not be autumn yet but here they are anyway.

Grapes

Sweetcorn

This has been going nuts this past couple of weeks, the plants are well over six feet tall and the cobs are coming along nicely. I reckon the red tassels look rather funky too.

Winter tares

This has germinated nicely now so going to the trouble of sowing it in rows rather than just broadcasting it seems to have paid off.

Phacelia

I sowed this for green manure where my manky garlic was. I've already dug half of it in and this patch is about ready for that now too.

Dahlias

Only a couple of these germinated this year because I used old seed. That ought to teach me but it probably wont. Still, they've made fine plants and the bees like them too.

Cut flowers from the plot

Carnations and sweet peas:


Carnations and dahlias:

Cloudy

Cloudy cloudy cloudy. As in not sunny. We've had a little bit of rain, a bit more than taking the mickey but not by much. Still, I'm cropping peas, runner beans, french beans, pea beans, cabbages, carrots, courgettes, tomatoes, gooseberries, raspberries and cherry plums. And picking sweet peas, snapdragons and carnations to brighten up the house. So I can't really complain, other than to say it's cloudy.

Broccoli and trefoil

The trefoil with it's nitrogen fixing properties is benefiting the perennial broccoli which I planted amongst it. I'd like to say that but actually the truth is it was a happy accident. I sowed the trefoil first as a green manure crop and as it didn't appear I thought it had failed to germinate. So I planted the broccoli there instead, which of course is when the trefoil sprang into life. I can't say for sure if the trefoil is benefiting the broccoli as I haven't got a control crop to compare it with but it doesn't seem to be doing it any harm.

Comfrey

You probably don't need me to tell you that comfrey makes a brilliant fertiliser; its deep roots bring up valuable trace elements and minerals. Some people make a stinky feed from it but I prefer to use it as a mulch.

I cut it down just before it flowers, leave it to wilt for a week then spread it between rows:


Spread out:


A week later it's rotting down nicely: