"Winner is weeds"

It was The Wife who mentioned these words. This year the only winner is the weeds. The recent rains and floods has sent the weeds into overdrive. Also the fact that we've had to cull a lot of the beds due to the blight has meant that the weeds have pretty much taken over. We have a very poor harvest this year (apart from courgettes) but if we were growing weeds commercially then we'd be rich.

But the weeds are not what we want. We want food for the table and flowers (to make The Wife happy), so the weeds have to go.

Three of these beds were to tomato beds. I'm going to dump a barrow full of manure into each of them over winter and use them for beans next year.

The Chillies in the greenhouse are also suffering. They have only just started flowering, so they are way behind this year. I don't know if they'll have time to actually set some fruit, let alone actually ripening them.

And then there is the apple tree that is absolutely bursting with loads of luscious red fruit... until you get close enough to actually see the fruit up close and then... meh, not so good.

They have the usual maggots in them, but also this year they appear to have some sort of disease of blemish on the skins of them all. I suspect the rains has also had an impact on the tree. But once you cut that off and cut out the good bits they're pretty tasty. It's a shame that they're so much work to get at the very small edible portions.

The 2021 Courgette Tally:

36

A gift from the Fox?

Looks like Foxy likes us and left us a gift in the middle of one of the beds.

In actual fact it's pretty common for foxes to grab leather gloves and run off to chew them. After all they are opportunists and will try and eat whatever they can. The leather of the gloves tends to make them think that there is something tasty in there. Unfortunately this turns out to not be the case so they'll leave it lying around. Much to the consternation of the allotmenteers who lose their work gloves. So make sure things are kept out of Foxy's reach.

The chillies are somewhat stagnating in the greenhouse now. Although they have a few flowers on them, I don't think they'll actually manage to produce any fruits before the "summer" is over.

This years summer seems to have been pretty much a washout. The recent floods have proved that somewhat. I'm not sure what this bodes for the future of the plot. Especially as climate change seems to be having a detrimental effect on growing.

But the recent rains have kicked the Buddleja into flowering and the bees are swarming all over it.

I just wish that it would have kickstarted the chillies.

The 2021 Courgette Tally:

26

Blight

So the worst has happened. After all the recent rains I was wondering if it would trigger a blight outbreak. Sure enough all of our tomatoes are turning black. 

We've grabbed some of the green tomatoes off the plants with the hope that they can ripen at home, but to be honest, I'm not expecting much. We pulled out all the plants and put them into old compost bags to be thrown away rather than be put on the green waste, as per the allotment instructions.

It's a shame when this happens, but on an allotment site it's kind of common. Unless everybody all works the exact same way, issue likes this are likely to occur from time to time. And the weather has certainly not helped.

As it stands the plot is still a bit squidgy underfoot. But according to the weather reports we may be in for a spell of dry, sunny weather. That will certainly help the chillies somewhat.

The 2021 Courgette Tally:

18

There's a hole in my wellie...

...and I found it by stepping into a quagmire.

So we've had more rain. Downpours that blocked roads and caused a bit of unrest this morning has once again turned the plot into a bit of a muddy puddle. Right outside the greenhouse is a low part of the plot and once i had my wellies on I thought I'd be safe to step into the greenhouse. Nope. My wellie has a hole in it and I got a soggy foot.

Hey ho, well I've had these almost a decade and they've done me proud, so I guess it's time to get a new pair. Looks like The Wife's has also got a bit of a hole in it as well as she complained of a soggy foot as well. Anyway, wet feet or not there is still work to be done.

Well we can't get to the far bed to dig out the weeds, but our aubergines have been growing in the greenhouse and need a little more space. So we potted them on into bigger troughs, as well as put out the last of the tomatoes.

So now the only remaining plants we have in the greenhouse is a single pot of mint, and the chillies.

This year has been somewhat of a mixed pot. The early heat wave and then cold snap threw all the germination into a spin and then we've alternated extreme heat and intense rain. Not sure what's going to happen to the rest of the year, but at the moment we have to go swimming to get the latest courgettes.

The 2021 Courgette Tally:

15

A forest of canes

 They've all fallen over.

In the recent downpours, all of my outside tomatoes have fallen over. OK, I always knew that I should support them, but they've been growing straight and true for a while now and I never got around to putting in the support canes. But now they have all flopped and need the support.

The Chillies this year are not doing as well as previous years. Not sure why, but they did seem to have the same germination problem that all of the other plants had this year. I'm wondering if it was the starting compost, the weather, or just the way the year started. Anyway, instead of putting them in the separate large pots that I normally do, this year, I ousted the remains of the Pak Choi and put my chilli plants into the troughs.

Hopefully they'll put on a growth spurt (if the changeable weather lets them) and we get a few chillies on the plants. I can only hope.

The 2021 Courgette Tally:

11