Back on the Allotment

I just had to add these gorgeous pics from down the allotment even though they have nothing to do with food, they keep the bees very happy.

The arches have collapsed so many times I dont think they'll hold on much longer, especially when the sweet pes cover them .

How many peas?   Many nights of depodding to come.

Losing my onions amonst all the Calendula that just reseed themselves every year

There's more lettuce , rocket, spinach and beetroots than a sane person knows what to do with  !

Hopefully I'll get some cherries this year before the birds, ( my biggest expense at the moment - nets, you cant have too many)

14 tomatoes plants, I know,  I just cant help myself, looking forward to making lots of tomatoe & chilli jam again ( 11 chilli plants! )

I've never seen cucumbers growing before - there's something very cute about them when they are diddy little things.

Here's how I'm coping with my glut of strawberries

Drying them is so easy - they turn into little sweeties

Strawberry Queen

We are well into the strawberry season now and we've been eating them day and night, this is the third year I've had my allotment and I've been bringing back a whole carrier bag everynight - I even dream I'm picking them in my sleep !!

So far we've picked 56 punnets of strawberries since may the 29th, yes I have been measuring every load I bring back ( sad I know ) - just to prove to my husband that the allotment is'nt just an expensive hobby , espec. since I bought the poly. Anyway there's lots more to come, the freezers already starting to fill up and all the cream that goes with them is'nt helping  my running so I've just bought a food dehydrater - can't wait to play!

More pretty pictures of my strawberry / fairy kitchen

Even Fudge has started eating them

I just love the new colour of my workshop, yellow is such a happy sunny colour, something we don't get too much of up here in Cumbria

Last week ws a busy week for dinosaurs, this week for some reason it's rockets

Allotment time

What a difference a few weeks make, compare these pics to the ones further down this page!

Everything is just romping away

Time to get the nets out, my least favourite job, trying to unravel them in the wind takes a long time !

I've got so much to net , 3 stawberry beds, about 50 raspberry plants, 7 blueberry bushes, redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes, cherry trees and of course all the brassica's

I've managed to sqeeze onions in every spare bit of space , this year I am determined not to buy a single onion, we only ran out of last years crop in march

Lots of apples on my 3 apple trees, My 2 plum trees are also covered in plums but only 2 of my 5 cherry trees are producing lots of cherries? lots of patience is needed when growing fruit

All the sweetcorns in - about 100 this year, all grown myself from seed, shallots and garlic are nearly ready, wont be buying any this year

Strawberry bed 1 , I now have 3 ,one for every  year, I'm picking about 5 punnets everyday at the moment so we're all putting on weight with all the cream that goes with them

My big dilema is do I dig this bed up now as its 3 years old now, I dont think I can make myself do it as it producing so much fruit?

The poly is still standing, we've had a few gales since we put it up, one with 80mph gusts and it did'nt even flinch, its full of tomatoes 12, peppers 11,cucumbers 4, courgettes,melons,kiwi , I wish I'd got a bigger one now as it's jam packed full, I'll put lots more pics on next weekend - things are moving so fast I cant pick fast enough !!