Beans ready for drying

Nearly 2lbs of beans ready for drying. The top and bottom left are Borlotto Beans and the bottom right are Runner Beans

Borlotto Bean Harvest

I have picked half of the Borlotto Bean Lingua di fuoco I planted. I'm allowing them to dry before shelling them. The under mature green beans will be be blanched and frozen to be used as a flageolet bean. The mature beans will be dried and used in soups and stews as well as on their own with sausages.

Tongues of Fire and Autumn Raspberries

Borlotto Bean - Lingua di Fuoco

Lingua di Fuoco literally translates as Tongues of Fire. They are in effect a climbing French Bean and can be eaten young in the pod, either raw or cooked. Alternatively they can be shelled and used like a flageolet bean or shelled and dried and used as a haricot bean. Unfortunately the red speckling on the pods disappears when they are cooked.

Autumn Raspberry - Fall Gold

Only three or four ripen at a time but it is only their first year. They taste sweet and there are no pips. Hopefully next year the harvest should be pretty substantial.

Beans and Pickled Onions

Two Runner Bean varieties, White Lady on the left and an unknown, probably Painted Lady due to its red and white flowers, on the right. Those at the front are the dwarf French Bean, Sungold.

The smallest shallots have been turned into pickled onions. These should be ready for the best meal of the year, Boxing Day cold meats and mashed potatoes.

Pink Fir Apple Potatoes

The three Pink Fir Apple potatoes I planted on 3rd May yielded 2 and 3/4lb. Lots of little ones but I suspect that was mainly due to growing them in a bag and not having regular watering.

First peas harvested

First peas harvested, lovely and sweet.

Spuds, Peas and Gooseberries

Just over 5lb of potatoes harvested from two of the three growbags.

Hope that the Pink Fir Apple in the other bag are just as plentiful. 

The peas are coming along nicely

2lb of red Gooseberries and over 11lb of green beat the 13oz or so I had last year.

Pruning and protection from birds certainly does the trick.

After the storm...

After the most spectacular thunderstorm last night, with sheet lightning illuminating the sky in all four directions every couple of seconds followed by torrential rain and hail, I ventured up to the allotment expecting the worst. However, apart from a few broken stems and leaves, it appears to have managed to escape the worst of any damage which was evident in the surrounding gardens and roads.

Broad Beans looking a bit battered and bruised

Strawberries ripening nicely

Apples 

Mid June

Everything's looking good down on my plot. Keeping on top of the Horsetail is an almost daily chore though and some rain would be welcome,

Rainbow Chard

Beetroot - Cylindra

Spring Onions

Potatoes

Scarecrow

A pretty scary scarecrow...even if I say so myself.

The design for the scarecrow needed a bit of modifying as the central section was too weak. However, a six foot metal pole to support it appears to have done the trick.

Planting time mid-May

Looking West towards the compost heap

Vegetable patch looking North

Mixed lettuces and shallots are coming along nicely

Gooseberries starting to swell

Dwarf French bean wigwam with Climbing French bean and Runner bean 'A' frame

Water butt and strawberry barrel

Planting time early May

Brussel Sprouts

Spring Onions with Leeks behind

The compost heap is filling up nicely with the help of a few bags of horse manure 

Nestlings

Only two of the four eggs hatched but they've grown very quickly...this time last week they were still blind and only had little bits of fluffy down covering their naked bodies

(Edit: By 29th April, both birds had fledged and had left the nest. One was seen on the compost heap and the other in the rose bordering my plot. The two un-hatched eggs could not be found.)

Signs of Spring

 Now that the vegetable bed has been dug, leveled and raked, it's time to start planting...

Apple blossom

The asparagus shoots are beginning to show...it's a shame I can't pick any until next year.

Mixed lettuce and shallots at the far end with rainbow chard in the nearest cloches.

Gooseberry bushes in full bloom

Easter Eggs

A Blackbird has decided to build a nest in my compost heap. If I'm quick, she'll stay on the nest but if I have to open both covers, she quickly hops off and returns as soon as I've retreated.

Digging, digging and more digging

Christmas and January saw little work due to family commitments, illness and wet weather. Most weekends since have seen at least two hours digging and weeding as well as removing large rocks which are about two spade depths down in a layer of sand and clay. This layer creates waterlogging and abundant growth of Equisetum arvense, the field horsetail. I have taken bucket loads of it's creeping rhizomes out of the soil and I think that, for the next few years, I'm going to have a problem with it but I will get on top of it in the end.