A Touch of Sunshine

Sunshine! That rare commodity this summer.   Isn’t it amazing how a little sunshine lifts your mood?   Been trying to sow my brassicas but beaten each time by a) slugs nipping off the seedlings as they emerge b) pigeons stripping the tender leaves before I get chance to fleece them (okay that is my fault not the pigeons) c) just the lack of warmth/light.  But ever hopeful sowed another batch and placed them in the safety of our cold greenhouse and.....well we’ll see what happens.     However the under-gardener bought some plant plugs from a seed company, I have a suspicion he doubts my ability to grow brassicas, my grandson visited recently and to him fell the honour of planting them out and checking them today they seem to be holding their own against all comers.

Shame about the sweet peas though, with all the bad weather recently they certainly have taken a battering but they have put on a fantastic show growing up and over my arch.  I had visions of rows  of sweet peas just like those in the Sutton Seeds trial beds – rows half the length of a football no a rugby pitch (well  this is Cornwall the home of rugby) . 



best drying bean ever!



Mine were neatly entwined with the beans

District Nurse            and              Ryders Blue Coco,

good dried or fresh

Think next year I’ll just put beans on the arch and plant the sweet peas somewhere else. 

Looking at my lavender today filled me with shame!   They are in desperate need of a prune but have lost my shears........I am sure there is a gremlin on our plots cause everytime I put something down it seems to disappear.   I realise that my dotage is fast catching me up; the under-gardener is nodding his head frantically here, but I am sure it’s not just that at least I hope not.  

Junior Gardener's area

What pleasantly surprised us when taking on new tenants is how many young families showed an interest in having a plot with us and in total we now have 39 children under 12 on board. A trip to the allotment site is not every child's wish for a good day out but we think we found the answer to the visit not just being a learning experience by having a dedicated safe area where a bit of steam can be let off and an opportunity to make new friends offered.

The very far corner was sown with decent grass seed with the helpful Fullwood children the first year we opened, then a wendy house, many toys, plastic and rubber of course were gradually added. The area is mown weekly and the whole patch is something that we are proud of and very well used by the juniors. In fact one parent told me that their children beg to come to the allotment nowadays instead of having to be persuaded to go.

The committee keep the toys in good order, anything broken or split is removed and we freshen up the choice available usually with donations from far and wide. 2 years ago we were visited by Camilla from the Eden project, who liked what we were doing, donated a lot of rugs and cushions some of which now sit in the wendy house and the small tent which was put up this week for the school summer holidays to give a bit more interest.

Being fenced in on the 2 outside boundaries by the 7' deer fence means the children are perfectly safe and an option for parents to sit and watch the very young is possible by sitting at the adjacent picnic table and having lunch or tea with them.

We've had some negativity with one person's view that children are there to learn, NOT play but in my experience of bringing up 5 girls and a boy (only 2 mine!) a mixture of the two really works and if a child is bombarded with information, they soon get very bored. We intend keeping this feature as it does work and is very popular.

What weather?????

Can the weather not make up it's mind?   Woke up this morning and it's pouring down come lunchtime the sun was shining .......so hotfooted it up the plot and armed with a joblist a mile long, string for tying up plants blown apart by the strong winds and an enthusiastic grandson ready to do battle! What a stange season we're having, lost all but one of my cucumber plants to voles, slugs have decimated my Kohl Rabi and have had to cover all the brassicas due to the colony of pigeons resident on our site.  

My grandson admirably disposed of the slugs found on site today (I don't feel I can divulge the gorey details here though) wish he was here more  often I might stand a fighting chance then!  

 Mind you the plots are looking good despite the weather and attack from 'wee beasties', had a good crop of blackcurrants and whitecurrants.   Put those with the redcurrants from my garden and I see lots of Summer Puddings in the coming weeks.   Trying some new squashes this year, Jumbo Pink Banana, looking good amongst the sweetcorn and climbing beans. Anyone else tried this variety?  Would appreciate some info about them if possible.   I decided to try the '3 sisters' method of growing these 3 crops, not that space is an issue but I thought it might protect the sweetcorn from the strong winds and retain moisture in the ground......not that that's been an issue this year. 

  Sweet peas have done well but put to shame by the flower display on Penny's plot, amazing show of cornflowers!.     Considering the weather and taking on a new piece of ground she produced a stack of flowers for her daughter's wedding next weekend.   Standing back looking at my plot and the others on the site I feel that we've done some good work there, okay we've had some failures but all in all they look pretty good and I've seen many people leave the site with armfuls of produce..........a lot more than some people further up country have harvested.   But hey we are gardeners and  therefore never satisfied we just have to plan for next year and pray for sunshine!