The Verdict

Whilst not a total disaster the plots haven't quite escaped the blight and the slugs whilst we've been away but then given what we heard about the continuous, torrential rain, that can only be expected.

Rescued the tomatoes off the bedraggled looking plants and sorted into 2 piles - blighted and not-yet-blighted. Looks like a bumper year for green tomato chutney! The tomato plants at home are still blight-free still so I'm hopeful of some proper ripe tomatoes to eat.

Although very mildewed the winter squash have been very productive and there are a lot of fruits of almost harvestable size. I'm particularly impressed with the 'Thelma Saunders' Sweet Potato squash from http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ as it's been prolific! And in the photo above you can see that there is new fresh growth on the courgettes but I think this might be their last encore of the season.The slugs have been quite well behaved for slugs...but they've removed any trace of what should have been my get-them-in-quick late sowing of dwarf french beans (you can just see a couple of seedlings hanging on in the bottom left), desecrated the pak choi seedlings again... and they've started attacking the red cabbage although they're of a decent size to withstand a fair amount of munching.

And the best homecoming 'present' was eating these 2 lovely specimens...

At least the dismal weather stopped them from ripening too fast whilst we were away and means we can eat all the rest (another 10) yeay!!

It's a jungle out there!!

You turn your back for 2 weeks and things go crazy.
In fact you can hardly see the two pepper plants behind the tomatoes. Unless you delve a little deeper behind all that lush greenery and see these...And there's one more the same size (about 4/5cm long) on the other plant and lots more just beginning to show. So a difficult decision to make. Do I remove these green peppers to allow the others to develop quicker or let them ripen on the plant??
As yet the tomato plants in the back yard have only got a few fruit on them but they're producing lots more flowers now.
The tomatoes on the plot however are different beasts.
They are dripping with green tomatoes and my only worry is that we're not getting any hot 'summer' weather to get them ripening. I suppose green tomato chutney is always a tasty Plan B.The sweetcorn is looking lush and healthy.
I'm really excited at the prospect of harvesting super-fresh cobs, as the plants I grew last year didn't come to anything.
And as you can see from the photo above the plants are showing their telltale greeny-yellow tufts of cobs in the making. Knowing my luck though they'll be ready whilst we're away on holiday next month....come on sun!!
The squashes planted at the end of the sweetcorn bed are definitely on a mission of jungle greenery and I found some volunteer dwarf beans (don't know where they came from) at the other end so I've got an accidental 3 Sisters happening.

I remember reading somewhere that in August weed growth is supposed to slow down but that hasn't happened yet! Although the greenery on the right are the Pink Fir Apple potatoes (no signs of any blight yet).

So I think you can just make out the courgette plants, which are still churning out fruit but I'm afraid our lovely neighbours, who we asked to keep an eye on things whilst we were away, didn't pick any so we've ended up with these monsters.....ooops!!The smallest ones are 'normal' courgette size with the heaviest being a whopping 1.3kg.

More planting out

Finished digging a bed next to the courgettes on Plot 86 and put the sweetcorn in it. Figured that since they're only a couple of inches high then they shouldn't get too battered by the really windy conditions we had yesterday and not too big that their growth gets checked by transplanting (as I think that's what happened last year). Just in case they get attacked by the slugs I put some pellets (organic ones) down around them.
We also attacked the weeds that have taken over the paved area around the shed and now have quite a nice 'patio' where we can put the deckchairs and maybe the barbeque if the weather picks up (I'm writing this whilst the rain's throwing itself against the window).

Rain stopped play...

..but still managed to have a very productive bank holiday weekend. We went up to the plot on Friday night after work but sod's law the heavens opened just as we were getting the tools out of the shed.....!

However Saturday dawned fine and sunny so we managd a full day's pottering and got the following done (long boring list I'm afraid).

• planted the reamining broad bean plants
• dug and weeeded another small bed
• sowed 3 types of carrots - Giant Red, Large ????, Large 1/2 Long into the small bed
• sowed 2 types of beetroot - White and Bolthardy in to the small bed
• MJC started digging another large bed and put woodchips on the paths - very professional looking!!
• planted the horseradish next to the artichokes
• weeded what was the strawberry bed and rescued another 3 plants from the clutches of the couch grass
• cleared around the artichokes and one of the blackcurrant bushes
• mulched the new red gooseberry plant and the cleared blackcurrant bushes
• installed the 'Greencone'

On Sunday it was too wet to do any digging so instead I did some sowing at home and managed to finally sow some other beans - 12 borlotti (Lingua di Fuoco), 12 purple climbing french (name?) and once I find the rest of my supply of toilet rolls, 12 yellow dwarf french. Also sowed 18 sweetcorn (Golden Nugget) and most of the winter squash varieties - 3 each of Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash, Buttercup XXX, XXX Acorn Squash but still got Baby Bear Pumpkin to do.

Monday we went up for a visit with our next door neighbours to show them our vegetable 'kingdom' but we didn't really have time for any serious digging.

Just wish I had the rest of the week off as the weather's supposed to be lovely....sigh!