tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15194426.post-1157312614891717982006-09-03T20:11:00.000+01:002006-09-03T20:46:20.326+01:00<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/1600/produce.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/400/produce.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">Indeed, nothing happened at all on this blog during August. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the weather has been rubbish, so we've not be down to the plot as often as we'd like. Then, I've been busy at work, having been made redundant then getting a promotion in the same company (figure that one out). However, finally - and most importantly - I've been devoting my time to building a shed in the garden. This effort has </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >vague</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> allotment connotations, because when the glorious new ab-initio Allotmentboss self-build gets completed, the crappy B&Q flimsy effort we currently have gets moved to the plot. With it there not only can I continue to bang my head on the doorframe every time I go in to get a spade, I also get a spot to drink lukewarm tea from a plastic thermos and listen to BBC Radio Bristol on a crackly, tinny transistor radio every drizzly Sunday morning.</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;">While all of this has been going on the Alotmentboss's Boss has been wandering around the neighbourhood denuding elderberry trees of their fruit (well, actually, I've been doing most of the picking, but enough said). We have jars of elderberry and allotment-communal-apple-tree jam and elderberry and clove cordial - all yum.<br /><br />So, August has been mostly about harvesting things, as the photo at the top of this entry shows. Try as we might, the courgettes have been turning into marrows. We now have a fridge full of green things we haven't been able to eat yet, so much so that we've been passing produce to one of my friends at work. I'm notoriously stingy about giving stuff away, so we must have had a glut.<br /><br />All of the early potatoes are now up, as are about half of the main crop. Both have done very well this year, with good high yields - the Charlotte earlies netted 24kg of spuds from 3kg planted - and relatively little damage from slugs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/1600/sweet%20potatoes.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/200/sweet%20potatoes.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The sweet potatoes are growing on well. They are possibly being a little slower than they have been in previous years, but I don't whether that's down to the poorer soil they're in, the cold drizzly weather, or just my perception. What is interesting is that they're all rambling up the hill of the allotment, despite the fact that the slope faces into the sun, which rises from the bottom left of the plot and sweeps over to set in the top right. While the creepers have ventured, in some cases, over a metre up the plot, nothing more than a leaf has ventured south of where the plants were put in. I'd be interested to hear any guesses as to why...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/1600/aaa%20uchiki%20kuri.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/200/aaa%20uchiki%20kuri.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/1600/aaa%20butternuts.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/200/aaa%20butternuts.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The squash really enjoyed the incredibly hot patch we had in July, and put on lots of fruit. Here we have an Uchiki Kuri and some maturing butternuts. The slightly dumpy Allotmentboss digits provide a sense of scale.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/1600/aaa%20cabbages.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/200/aaa%20cabbages.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The cabbages are doing well under their protective nets. I can't remember exactly what variety this one is, but it's something like January King. We have thus far forgotten to plant any spring cabbage seeds, and it's getting a little too late now. If I remember I might stick some in a tray tomorrow evening and let them take their chances.<br /><br /><br /><br />Finally, as I failed to do one at the beginning of August, here's a general site overview taken on or around the 20th. The first signs of mildew on the squash plants is evident; when we went down there last night the plants looked close to the end.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/1600/aaa%20site%20overview.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8187/1398/400/aaa%20site%20overview.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/15194426-115731261489171798?l=ourallotment.blogspot.com'/></div>AllotmentBosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13308700625074489682noreply@blogger.com1