OK my plot is looking somewhat empty, I've pulled all the onions, new pots, early carrots and broads. My leeks died in roottrainers, dont know why but they did. I have replaced the onions with more carrots in the bed to the right below, and the bed in the middle I have put in Italian turnips, they grow flatter and wider therefore suiting my stoney plot.

This is one of 12 broccoli plants I have in, took out the centre stem a couple of weeks ago and now producing nicely.




Some peeps think my cucumbers looked nice last time, well I've had one from them and the pic on the left that's the same one that was growing last time ! It's been fed and all but not really happening. The pic on the right below shows the plant producing but it only has 3 cukes on it.

I have sprouts ready to pick and runners not ready to pick, someone please tell me what has happened to the growing season ?

At home still waiting for spring cabbage and chard to germinate but only been in a few days so not expected yet. Cabbage can take almost 3 weeks.

I have a row of beetroot showing now which will please Mrs and a row of spinach under the soil somewhere, yes I forgot to mark it. Oops.

Now Mrs doesn't like hot chili's, little does she know my chili plants have gone mad and one has 7 upgrowing chili's on it and the Apache has 9 down growing.

Harvested some but not many runners, lots of calabrese, carrots, Cara potatoes, and unbelievably sprouts. No idea why they are ready, but some are - strange year.

Cleared one of my onion bed of weeds and set some more carrots in it. Cleared the other which will be used for some Spring Cabbage which I set at home in modules.

Set some Bright Yellow Chard, at home to start with else the slugs just murder them before they can establish.

Swede's really struggling with slug attacks and also weeds, should have weeded properly before I set them.

Kale growing really well but also getting slug damage, seem to be coping though.

Did a little digging where couch was starting to get too well set and spent the rest of the time weeding the rest.

One cucumber plant doing well and setting well, but the other has one fully grown cuke on it but none set, looks as though will die off but I dont know why.

At home have loads of chili's on my two plants now, going to get a massive crop from them. Will dry most of them and freeze the rest. Tomato plants are full of green tomatoes, but none that have ripened - hoping the nice weather we are due this week will help.

Lifted the last of my early carrots, most of those left were not doing well at all.

Picked two massive bags of broads, chopped the stems down and composted them and dug the roots in.

Since the floods everything is getting munched by slugs and my Savoy's had several large caterpillars on them so discarded. The swede's are struggling with slugs and the Kale are also getting stripped of leaves. Put some organic pellets down as the only recourse.

Dug up the first main crop haulm to see what was under and found a nice crop of Cara. Still a little small so will leave the rest for a while yet.

Runners setting nicely now but not growing all that fast yet.

Sowed a row of perpetual spinach and a row of beetroot. Had some carrots to sow but it started
to chuck in down so will have to wait for the weekend now.

Harvested some calabrese and beetroot and along with the spuds, gave to George who was clearing up his 2 allotments after flooding. He has lost everything.

Harvested Broads, pots, carrots, broccoli and at home courgette.

Checked the runners and I can see a few pods forming so looks like I'll get a crop. The feed obviously did some good.

Only got 4 early potato plants left and told my brother to harvest them all at the weekend. I'm away for a few days and they need eating the slugs are really tearing into them since the rain washed them all onto my plot.

Covered my Savoys as the cabbage whites are laying on them, even though they are still very small.

Cleared some more eggs from the brassicas and a few small caterpillars. Not been too bad although quite alot cabbage white fly. They are established enough now not to worry too much and I'm getting a massive crop from the calabrese. Sprouts are now forming on the stems but only just.

Cucumbers, which I planted in a spare grow bag by the shed, and growing on a trellis I made from canes and build a balls. They look great, about 6-7 inches and will be harvesting the first of them fairly soon.

Broads still cropping well and the choc spot has not affected them at all. Some pods showing the brown but beans are fine.

Main carrots looking really good now, will need to harvest some as earlies to make room for the others to grow. Been eating Early Nantes now for about a month and still loads left.

Kale is starting to grow well, spaced them a little close together but we'll see how they do. Leeks almost ready for planting out and once the pots are gone, I'll stick them in.

Some General pictures below of the plot.

Weeded for ages, I've neglected that a little bit so paying the price now. Dug up all of the Spinach which had all gone to seed as usual, no point trying to salvage it I've had enough. Mrs wont be happy but not much I can do. Perhaps plant some perpetual under my runners and see what happens...

Harvested alot of new potato's as the slugs are really taking a liking to them now. The foliage has completely died back, frost speeded this up. Need to harvest the remaining half a row quite quickly before moving to my second earlies. I am going to replace half the row with Leeks and the other half with Christmas potato's. Well in fact they are main crop's but I'm going to plant them now and cover them as advised by the dad-in-law. Not much else to put in that space so worth a go.

Also harvested early carrots, calabrese, broad beans.

Swede's growing well although I wish I'd started them in roottrainers as I normally do. They have all germinated and thinning them out is a real pain.

Cabbage have been gotten by the slugs but seem to be growing ok.

Sprouts and in particular the calabrese are starting to get eaten by caterpillars. Spent half an hour checking the leaves and squashing eggs and removing 1/2 inch long caterpillars.

Runners looked weak so fed with a soluble general purpose feed.

Planted some beetroot.

Kale is growing well, next visit down I'll net this.

Next job is to put some more carrots in.

Didn't get much done after work, spent half the time in the shed sheltering from the persistent rain. Did see a fox about 20 feet away eating something and strolling around the site, so had a cuppa and watched him for a while, no camera unfortunately so no pics.

Had the last potato plant from the first early row so decided to plant out the Kale in it's place. No time to cover it but I will net the next chance I get.

Dug up half the Spinach and binned it, once I had the leaves off.

Planted the last beetroot for this year in place of that I have taken and a few elsewhere also. Pinched out the runners.

Harvested carrots, broads, spuds and some broccoli spears. Noticed the cabbage whites have started to lay on the brassicas so will keep a close eye on those, crushed the eggs that I could see. Also noticed alot of very small white flying things around them, too big for whitefly so will investigate. The only thing they seem to do is leave a small white circle on the underside of the leaves, dont look like eggs so not sure yet.

Couple more weeks and the onions will need lifting, starting to die down now but not quite there. Lifted a garlic to see what was happening, growing nicely but not splitting into sections - not really suprised as I planted them very late. Boy did it smell strong, I put it next to my latest carrots to put the carrot fly off the scent... In fact I will sacrifice my garlic if no good to this cause and will plant a couple more rows of late carrots..

George's allotment has risen in water again after the downpours we've had. My guess is his whole plot is now gone for the year. Cant believe the council have done nothing to help him. Had a walk around the rest of the site and still alot of untended plots, masses of onions bolting on a few plots and 5 or 6 still under water. I think most are fair weather gardeners, or those that have been put off by the recent break in or floods.

Harvested some more early carrots, a few broads, beetroot, early spuds and some spinach.

Spinach really suffering now, still bolting like crazy and I'm not really getting a large amount of leaves from it, seriously considering digging it up and putting it down to experience. Could use the row to plant my Kale or some more carrots.

Runner beans flowering away and have reached the top of their 8 foot canes. Will pinch them out later in the week.

Harvested my first broccoli so removed the central stem. Will now wait for lots of spears. Have grown far too many but hey ho.

Put it some beetroot "speedy seeds" as we are using quite a lot of the few I have grown.

Cucumbers now about 3 inch long but growing like boomerangs even though the plants are tied up. Doesn't matter though, they will be nice.

Had my first courgette and got lots more growing. Only got 1 plant as the wife doesn't like them.

Onions very large now, Bedfordshire Champs from memory, another few weeks and they'll be ready for lifting and drying, assuming we ever get some sun.

Not sure what the garlic is up to, will lift one and see next visit.

Poor guy who was 2 feet under water is still 2 feet under water and no signs of it going anywhere. Worse than this it flooded his shed and took the petrol and oil from the rotovator and spread it around his plot. Looks like he may lose the lot, pots already rotted. Feel sorry for him, next time I see him I'll dig him some veg from mine.