I finally got round to harvesting my Caledonian Rose maincrop potatoes today, it's a good yield from a 3 sq m bed but they're well scabby due to the drought, so jacket potatoes are unlikely to be on the menu. #allotmentlife 🌱

At one end of the bed, lovely looking Radicchio (completely unscathed), at the other end Napa Cabbage (shredded), if even the slugs won't eat the Radicchio then I'm not so confident about its suitability for human consumption. #allotmentlife 🌱

Another harvest of cav nero leaves from the allotment for tonight's dinner, they're absolutely pristine with no trace of whitefly or aphids thanks to the deployment of our tailored heavy duty fine mesh cover, I'll change it for standard bird netting to allow more light through at some point soon. 🌱

Plot second anniversary post 🎉 In September 2023 we took on the abandoned plot next to our first one, we cleared weeds, dug out and rebuilt beds and remade paths. Yesterday I planted up a new strawberry bed with plants raised from runners, the view is from shed at the top end. #allotment 🌱

Dahlias looking good in the late afternoon sun with a new allotment cat visiting, this is always the danger if you plant catmint.🌱

Another post repurposed and published in a gardening magazine, a full page of premium content and a lovely picture of my hand with my crumbly raspberries all for £25, I guess it beats paying actual gardening journalists, don't forget, you saw it here on Bluesky first for free #Allotment 🌱

We had a slight ground frost in S Cambs (UK) today, note the crispy leaves on this dahlia, other flakey stuff was also damaged. We had a really late ground frost on the 23rd May this year, so we basically only had three frost free months which makes our climate sound colder than it is! #allotment 🌱

We’re away for a while so I picked these tomatoes to ripen at home, there are 6kg in the box with plenty left on the plants and we've already had about 15kg. Considering the price of fancy tomatoes they're potentially a valuable crop, sad that most just end up as fancy passata though. #allotment 🌱

Today at the allotment I picked some nice things, deadheaded flowers and chose some good cloves from the garlic stored in the shed to plant next month, but mostly I just sat drinking coffee and enjoying the view because it's that time of year where there's a bit less to do and I for one am glad. 🌱

More autumn/winter veg, here's our kale at the allotment, it's been grown under ultrafine mesh as usual, so no aphids or white fly & we don't really need to wash it. The cav nero we're growing is cobra F1, it's alleged to have narrower leaf ribs than standard cav nero which would be handy if true.🌱

Some "Czar" runner beans from the allotment to use as butter beans in a salad tonight, we harvest these regularly rather than letting the entire crop dry out, they only have to be boiled for a few minutes from fresh and they're probably tastier than if they've been dried. 🌱

Autumn/winter allotment veg round up: probably my best brussels sprouts plant ever, red cabbage starting to heart up, plenty of carrots (so much easier to get going from a late summer sowing than in spring), finally a test bed of three different parsnip varieties to see which grows best on clay. 🌱

A colourful bed of phacelia, mustard and buckwheat full of bumblebees on a sunny day. Since we got more growing space we don't have to cultivate quite so intensively and we were able to relax and sow green manure in this bed after the climbing peas instead of carrots. #Allotment 🌱

Celeriac and red cabbage growing at the allotment with clover as a living mulch to avoid bare soil, When I cut the clover down there are spiders and beetles moving around and the clover leaves have been nibbled by slugs, maybe they're acting as a decoy for the veg, hopefully all good signs. 🤞🌱

This is how it looks in our kitchen most days now, tomatoes coming in thick and fast from the #allotment, this is the kind of glut that we enjoy. 🌱

Some views from and of the seating area behind our shed, it’s mostly flowers, only a few nice looking vegetables are allowed to be seen when we're having a break, absolutely no potatoes, brassicas, pallets, netting or mesh, that stuff is all down the other end of the allotment! 🌱

Some of the big tomatoes are ripening at the allotment, not all colours are available yet, but these orange and green ones make a plate that tastes as good as it looks. The orange one is Gourmansun, the green one is Emerald Brocade. 🌱 @snnybnny.bsky.social

The sweetcorn fortress has held again as expected and the score so far is Tony 3, badgers 0. There are badgers about at the moment, they’re digging deep holes in the wood chip paths every night, they must be finding it difficult to find worms to eat because it’s so dry. #Allotment 🌱

I just can't help myself, I've been eating way too many of these plums, I can't make my mind whether they taste better warm straight off the tree or cold out of the fridge.

Onion harvest completed, the brown onions and round red onions came from one 3 sq m bed, the shallots (top left) & the long red onions (top right) were from four rows in another bed. This is why I like to grow onions from seed. There will now be no more onion-themed posts until 2026. #Allotment 🌱

I harvested the first of our Bulgarian Giant early leeks, they're a bit small and later than usual because of seed compost issues. I like to grow early leeks, it's a good way of getting some harvested before the allium leaf miner hatch in September. #Allotment 🌱

Cooking tonight, second early potatoes and chard, I have a theory that chard could be the UK's most composted allotment veg due to a lack of good recipes, but Croatian "Blitva" with plenty of garlic and olive oil is an excellent way to use up chard along with potatoes.🌱 @nicamsterdam.bsky.social

Here are some of the big tomatoes we're looking forward to, some have even been tied up to make sure the trusses don't break, I think the size is due to a particularly potent (judging by the smell at least) batch of comfrey feed, varieties in ALT. @snnybnny.bsky.social. #Allotment 🌱

The first part of the onion harvest, they were grown from seed sown in modules in February, looks like quite a good yield from a small area (about 1.2 sq m). The tops were chopped up to mulch the bed, the onions will dry and keep just fine in the box kept in the allotment shed.🌱

Looks like high time to deploy some sweetcorn defences at the allotment, so I’ve activated the badger shield. 🌱

This is one of the most striking tomatoes I've ever seen, I hope it tastes as good as it looks. It's a new green variety called "Emerald Brocade" that I'm growing at the allotment for the first time. 🌱

We're still finding nice things to grow, new favourites from last year were Bon Bon squash, Gourmansun tomatoes and Bulgarian Giant leeks, from this year Kamarzyn broad beans. On the other hand, seeds binned after one try include Aztec Broccoli, leaf Amaranth, Kalettes & Gigantes beans. #Allotment 🌱

Clearly three different types of apple to be seen now on the Red Delicious apple tree at the allotment, so you're really going to have to concede that my grafting has worked 😁. (Red Delicious was sent by mistake, I'm trying to change it to other actually edible varieties). 🌱

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The last of the blackcurrants along with a few bits and pieces of summery veg harvested at the allotment today.🌱

We do like to cater for our pollinator pals on plot 20, around the shed we've got monarda, knapweed, lavender and oregano, and echinacea, which are all really popular at the moment. #Allotment 🌱

A “Kentucky Wonder Wax” may sound as if it could be a cosmetic procedure in the lady garden, but it's actually a really nice yellow climbing bean and here are some of ours, I've just picked some. #Allotment 🌱

Our multisown onions are growing well with bulbs starting to swell. Those aren't weeds between the onions, it's a mixture of trefoil, clovers & alfalfa grown as a living mulch, this is the default mode on our allotment now with most crops undersown with some kind of living mulch or green manure. 🌱

A foxglove with a bumblebee on it lit by the setting sun at the allotment yesterday evening. #FlowersOnFriday

The next beans to harvest are from a small bed (25 plants) of pink, super tasty "Kamarzyn", they're ready just after the white "Express" (harvest completed) and before the bed of "Imperial Green Longpod". Note the optimal harvest timing, no black lines and mealy beans for us! #Allotment 🌱

I just picked the last of the quick-maturing "Express" broad beans, they'll be blanched and frozen this evening as if it weren't already too hot and humid in our kitchen; meanwhile two more beds with "Imperial Green Longpod" and "Kamarzyn" should be ready to start picking in a few days. #Allotment 🌱

The Alderman climbing peas seem to have suddenly shot up and pods are starting to swell, I harvested so many in the first pick I even took most of them home! The all-round pigeon defences have worked well, but picking the pods is a bit tricky because I have to do it from inside. #Allotment 🌱

Harvest of first early potatoes from the allotment this morning before it got too hot. These are nice waxy Red Duke of York from two plants, there might have been more if I'd waited longer, but with early potatoes it's not about the quantity and anyway I need the space soon to grow Autumn carrots. 🌱

I’ve never seen our Victoria plum tree so heavily laden with fruit as this year, I don’t usually have to bother thinning fruit out but I’m definitely going to have to this time. 🌱

The first significant harvest of the year today and it looks like a good one, I think these bulbs of Solent Wight garlic are a decent size and I‘ve harvested at about the right time with just the one bulb split open because it was a bit over. #allotment 🌱

It’s started! 🍓🍓🍓😋

A mixture of broad beans in this bed at the allotment, a few overwintered Aquadulce but mostly Express sown in February; it's difficult to tell the difference between the two sorts now, both have grown tall and are laden with pods, so I'll most likely give up on the overwintering approach. 🌱

Strawberries and potatoes literally put to bed with old sheets on them, there’s a good chance of a ground frost in these parts tonight. Sadly, a fair few courgettes, squash, runner beans and tomatoes have been planted out on our site already (as usual), could be good business for the garden centre.🌱

Major #allotment infrastructure project completed today 🎉 This is our new mini greenhouse for aubergines and chillies, made by putting the cold frame we inherited onto one of the old compost bays on plot 2. The only cost incurred was for new hinges for the lid, more in ALT.🌱

Some late blossom on the unwanted Red “Delicious” apple tree at the allotment, these are from a tastier variety that I grafted on last month, I used two-year old wood for a few of the grafts on this tree in the hope of getting some fruit this season and it seems to have paid off.🌱

Fried garlic scapes will make a nice little side dish this evening, this means that the garlic harvest probably won’t be long. #Allotment 🌱

A look around our conjoined allotments, starting from the top end of plot 1 going around clockwise. Plot 1 we started from a field in Autumn 2020. The second two pictures are mostly plot 2, we took it on late in 2023, a different challenge, it was completely overgrown. More information in ALT.🌱

After three weeks nearly all the grafts that I did onto existing apple trees (top-working) have worked and buds are sprouting, with the grafting onto rootstocks it's still a bit too early to say, but 5 out of 7 are showing signs of growth and I'm happy with that. 🌱

I finally got back to the allotment and had a big onion and shallot seedling planting session, about 200 multisown plants so far with more to follow. Soundtrack was mostly yellowhammer (nice, steady) and greenfinch (tedious). 🌱