"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:57:32 +0100, mogga
wrote:

On Thu, 9 Aug 2012 08:15:46 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I
can't

Or an easy year.
If everyone's stuff fails it's a rubbish year for growing. If it's
just you ...

My plot is stuffed with beans, courgettes and bits of stuff.
Son is fed up with beans already.

and us with marrows.


remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with Blight
coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and Onions have
done
as well as usual although other things seem to have started growing
normally
now the weather has normalised.

Our shallots were grown for pickling. They are too big to fit into a
pickles jar.

Didn't grow shallots, but the onions look very impressive.
I'm making curried courgette soup tomorrow.
Runner beans doing great, first pick the other day from the ones planted
over the water-retaining trench, the others are behind them but that will
just give us a longer season. If it works well we'll probably do the same
thing again.
My dwarf french beans were nearly destroyed by the hailstorm we had in June
(estimated 150 million quids worth of damage for the insurance companies to
mop up..) but they perked up and have a few beans on them that will be ready
to pick in 10 days or so.

Heavy rain predicted for tomorrow. An inch in a couple of hours, so they
say.

All in all, it was a very difficult start, I did get discouraged, but even
if my carrots went woody because the weather was so bad they couldn't grow
and my spinach gave up the ghost, I intend to do it again next year!
(We so seriously need a petrol strimmer or mower for the paths between the
beds and more importantly down to the tap)
It's out of our price range atm.
I geared myself up with big thick trousers and covered my arms to get down
to the tap the other day to do a little bit of watering.

It's actually a bit dangerous for me. Thank goodness the Olympics are over
so my brother might have some time off to take some share of weeding and
picking courgettes before they go wild.
I'm going to visit my aunt on Thursday and she is happy to to accept a very
big marrow ;-)

Tina