July on our allotment site has been a month of rain resulting in regular flooding. Now as the rain has disappeared for a while things are drying out. Amazingly potatoes are being dug up out of flooded plots and have given reasonable crops but on others crops have rotted below ground. On our own plot we have been harvesting good crops of carrots, beetroot, garlic, cabbages, broccoli, broad beans, peas and salad leaves. We regularly pick tayberries, rhubarb and gooseberries. Strawberries however are rotting before we get to pick them and even the blackbirds are missing out.
We shall as usual start our lottie wander on our own plot to see what is going on and with our new sign, the old one having fallen apart.
Our crops are mostly looking well and the “Bug Borders” bursting with colourful flowers, alive with bees, hoverflies and lots of other useful insects.
But in between the colourful lush plantings of veg, fruit and flowers standing water sat getting stagnant.
And this is our poor grass path.
Things are getting easier though and we have managed to get on the soil without damaging the structure too badly, so we cleared any weeds, loosened up the soil surface and sowed more crops such as beetroot and radish and planted out our seedling leeks.
Now we can start our wander around the site looking at what is happening on other plots and in the communal areas.
The Spring Garden and Summer Garden have come through the terrible weather with flying colours.
Of course the Willow features have enjoyed the wet around their feet and look so green and fresh, but they need a lot of pruning to keep them in trim shape.
The meadows are flowering nicely now and flowers are giving colour on lots of the plots.
I shall finish this wander with a good idea. How about this for an idea for trying to foil the dreaded carrot rootfly – simply grow them up in the air hopefully above their maximum flight height.