1st - 4th June, 2002

Forget the jubilee, the world cup (except for the England-Sweden game - which didn't particularly grab the kids and let me catch up on some ironing).

We've spent virtually every waking hour up in the allotment.   Four days!   The kids have pottered and played, and cleaned up their beds. I've cleaned up a couple of beds, cut the grass paths, cleared out spring cabbage, and sowed whatever came to hand in the odd patches of bare earth - more peas, squashes and courgettes, more carrots/salads/french beans.  

But what's really grabbed the kids this time has been the scythe - we've talked lots about "the grim reaper", "olden times".   All because it looked as if it would be showery yesterday, so I thought I'd clear a couple of wild patches and be back home by lunchtime.   Dreaming!   The kids really got into being mediaeval peasants, following the reaper, gathering the cut grass, "pitchforking" it into the barrow, and carting it off.

I ended up scything round my own two half-plots, most of the main site paths, and THEN two allotments which were going wild.   All the nettle, thistle, dock, and willow herb, just about to flower and cast their seeds to the better worked plots, - they're all cut down.   A whole day scything; and once into the swing of it, with a beautifully honed blade, extraordinarily satisfying and fast!   I'd a stiff back by evening, but nothing a hot bath didn't sort out.

I can think of no other allotment job which acquires an audience - people by the outer fence standing and watching, older folks remembering, younger kids a-gawp.   And people come up and tell you their memories of scything in the past.   You don't get that with a strimmer!

We also produced huge amounts of cut grass - much of which went into rebuilding and reinvigorating the compost heaps.   The main slow heap has doubled in size!

The long dry spell has slowed a lot of my plants down - but the last week's rain has got them growing again.   The radishes and turnips haven't done well, the carrots have been eaten off half an inch above ground, but apart from that, the beds are looking good.

Saturday, 8th June, 2002

First strawberry this evening - picked as I put over the net!   Gorgeous.

Warm dry April, followed by cool damp May, hasn't done any harm to the peas, beans, brassica, beetroot, spinach, leeks, onions and shallots.   And the potatoes are positively thriving!   Touch wood, despite the cool damp weather, hardly any slugs or snails to be seen - even the lettuce sown between the brassicas is coming through; something I've not seen before.

A cool damp May, however, has not been good for the sweetcorn, the squash or the French beans - of all the rows planted, only ONE french bean plant has germinated, no sweetcorn, no squash.

Went up tonight to water the plot, afraid that the light rains of the last week had not been enough - but the upper crust is dry with lovely wet soil below.   So I cut the grass paths on half the plots instead.

More asparagus to pick tomorrow - it'll be the kids turn to taste it this time!

Sunday, June 9th, 2002

Does this even look like a summer afternoon, just a couple of weeks from mid-summer?   Heavy low cloud; cool, soft, seeping rain - some rain is much wetter than others, and this is WET.

The broad beans like it, behind the tree, and the peas, on the far right.   The French beans "in the long bed, with string webbed over it" - well that looks like a bit of over-optimism!   The seeds are probably rotting in the soil - we'll see; there's still time to resow, just.

It does brings out the gentle, fresh-green colours of early summer; every leaf seems to have a different shade.   But no use for getting out to the allotment!

My sycamore is recovering from my butchery in December - and I might indeed get a stock of pea sticks in a couple of years as I'd hoped!

Sunday, June 16th, 2002

I'd never seen ladybird larvae until this week.   Wish I'd had a good enough camera to capture it.

We found a bright yellow "bug" stuck by it's tail to a piece of stick.   It gradually unfurled from it's curled up "c" shape, stretched, and over the next two hours changed colour to a deep purple with orange splodges (rather than clearly defined spots).   It came unstuck, and crawled away - beautiful and fascinating.   To think such a large and ugly bug would become a tiny ladybird

----- except I didn't then know what it was, and as soon as it was fit to crawl I squashed it.   Won't do that again - in fact I probably won't ever see this again. Serves me right!

If you'd like to avoid my mistake (it's the larvae which eat most aphids), and if you're prepared to meet hugely magnified monsters, there are pictures and information on the London and Essex Ladybird Survey, and UK Safari.

Sunday, June 23rd, 2002

Well the wonderful summer so far has had its effects.

• Sweet corn?   Nothing apart from two very tiny, scrawny shoots - so that bed's going under winter brassicas!
• French Beans - a huge bed, and only two small plants; so they were resown this weekend.
• Brassica bed - I'd the flu bug going around at the moment - and by God the brassica and the weeds have taken advantage of my couple of days off!   Beautiful brassicas disappearing under weeds; and the lettuce planted to divert the slugs and keep them busy? Untouched - whatever we've been doing to control slugs appears to have worked - no damage at all!
• Everything else thriving; even the coriander, this year - but not the carrots (again).

Special day to day - the first of the strawberries we planted in autumn!   And the wild rasps are ripe too.   The kids' picnic was a swift gulp of bread - and gorging on fruit.

I did Ayman an injustice a couple of weeks ago - he wasn't really sailing to North Carolina, but to Zululand - the New Zulu Nation dance troupe who visited his school have a lot to answer for.   All the questions I'd to try and answer!