Despite the excessive heat, we have had to visit the allotment on a regular basis to water the produce and harvest stuff before it spoils. I didn't feel very well towards the end of last week and Friday turned out very, very hot. I felt almost overcome with the heat and was grateful when our daughter suggested (whilst talking to her on the mobile phone) that I go and sit in the community garden where it's cooler and eat my sandwich. Oh boy...it was a place of cool, calm respite 😎 This is the view seated in the shade on one of our folding chairs. Someone has kindly donated an old patio table so I could eat my food, and drink my chilled water in comfort. I soon felt much better; more relaxed and very much cooler.....
Sunday was so much better weatherwise; cooler both during the day and at night so that I could sleep. Today, Tuesday, was overcast and cool and we again visited the allotment to water as we still have had no rain, only to find that the badgers had eaten all our sweetcorn overnight 😨It was almost ripe too. This is the second year they have stolen it. It appears that they used claws and muzzle to reach in and take it. What they didn't eat was broken and ruined 😭.....
Despite losing out on the corn, we have been really pleased with the yellow peppers grown at home. So far we have harvested 8 and there are 3 more to ripen on the plant, making 11 in all. We will certainly buy Lumos F1 again next year......
In Sainsbury's peppers cost 65p each ie £7.15 worth of fresh, crisp, tasty peppers.....
Similarly, we have had 19 cucumbers off our one plant and there is one more to come, so 20 in total @ 69p each = £13.80
We will definitely buy Passandra again next year !
We are also harvesting:
The last French beans
Runner beans
Carrots
Onions
Beetroot
Radish
Raspberries galore
Bramley apples
Dessert apples
Butternut squash
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Thanks for popping in. Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,
Angie 💗
Shame about the lost sweetcorn (one of my favourite vegetables) but you seem to have lots of good food from your allotment.
ReplyDeleteWe have been incredibly lucky with lots of other things growing to excess. Our family and a lovely neighbour have shared our bounty :)
DeleteIt’s definitely worth growing your own. I might try those peppers next year as we love peppers. I hope that you are feeling better now. The heat made me feel quite ill too! Sal ( Sal’s Snippets blog)
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is, Sal. I think we paid about £2 for the pepper plant and it has grown happily in a pot in the greenhouse.
DeleteSo sorry you have suffered from the heat too. It really does make us feel ill, doesn't it. We long for the sun but too much is bad for us!
I always used to think how interesting it must be to sit on a dark evening and see badgers moving about - but your story and hearing similar from a friend has put me right off that idea!
ReplyDeleteYes, Sue, they can be fascinating to watch but they get into the allotments every evening and really do quite a lot of damage both to food crops as well as fences, polytunnels, greenhouses etc. They are not popular creatures at the allotment! We have paid to have metal fencing put in but they simply dig beneath it to get in.
DeleteThe savings always helps, but it's the taste which drives me to grow my own.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly does taste so much better, Marlene, doesn't it. Well worth the effort.
DeleteThat's a pity about the badgers taking your sweetcorn. All your other crops must taste delicious nothing like home grown, and money savings as well. It is so dry here the ground is like concrete and everything needs a good long soak, oh for some rain. The trees are looking decidedly droopy too with lots of early leaf drop. The community garden looks lovely and tranquil, that's good it helped you to feel better. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Sue, we are desperate for rain, aren't we. We have started giving our trees some grey water now too. They are suffering from drought and the big trees at the back of our house ( not belonging to us) have already starting to shed their leaves. It looks like Autumn has arrived early.
DeleteOur community garden is really lovely. One of our plot holders created it from scratch as well as working on his own plot. He is a very talented and enthusiastic gardener.
Lets hope it rains soon x
I admire anyone who works an allotment.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard work but so worthwhile, Kirsten.
DeleteLumos made me smile - our lab's proper name is Lumos - so we called him a variation of it - Moss. His whole litter was named after Harry Potter spells. Sadly, he doesn't like peppers!
ReplyDeleteOh how lovely! I like the name Moss very much!
DeleteI agree, this heat has been quite debilitating hasn't it. I have been keeping as cool as possible throughout it all and now I'm relishing the coolness of the last two days.
ReplyDeleteWe had huge badger sets in the woodlands alongside our first smallholding when we left the farm, they are not very nice creatures really. They actually killed one of my cats and Ginger's brother. Between the badgers and the deer we did not get as much of our planted crops as we should have. Luckily our chickens were safe behind their electric fencing.
Oh, what a shame that the badgers ate your corn! Even with that fence in place! Last year, the birds started to eat my corn. I was going to make a scarecrow, this year, but, haven't done so, yet! Sounds like you've harvested lots of lovely produce from your allotment and garden.
ReplyDelete