Friday 11 July 2008

After the rains......

My first rain dodging visit to the Lotty this week was on Tuesday evening. The sun was shining and the ground was wet and muddy, but things needed checking over! I checked it all - onions, beetroot, parsnips, lettuces, more onions, spring onions, tomatoes, chillis, peppers, brussels, brocolli, leeks, rocket, more baby spring onions, pumpkins, courgettes, butternut squashes, runner beans, cobra beans and more tomatoes along with a variety of herb plants, the sun flowers (3 surviving) and not to mention Tatty & Hilda - all seemed ok, all seemed to have survived the downpour! Just a little "Tweaking" needed here and there, but nothing major.

I met Mavis down there - I gave her one of my baby "snacker" cucumber plants (see picture below) and in exchange she gave me the above pictured marrow which I told her that I had spotted the other day! How kind of her. I took it home and the next day I made Qara baghli mimli bil laham - a Maltese dish that I remember from my girlhood days - Marrow stuff with seasoned minced beef. It was SO lovely and smelt so devine when it came out of the oven that I forget to take a picture of it - next time eh?





This is my first Brocolli head - I will be having this for dinner tonight along with some baked fish. It's a shame the tomatoes are ready yet - we need some sunshine for them to ripen first.

I picked another Brocolli head and gave it to Mavis as I didn't think a baby cucumber plant was a fair exchange for such a huge and delicious marrow.





This is one of the flowers on my Butternut Squash - I just had to take a picture as it looked so beautiful in the sunshine. I have now put this as my computer wallpaper, so when I am not at my Lotty I can look at this lovely flower and wish I was there!!


Last but not least - my Butternut Squash has grown since last weekend - it must be all the rain that has helped it along!!

After all that picture taking and tweaking, I decided to put in my baby cucumbers and peas. I put them in where my earlies had come out.



There are still more peas to go in, but I will have to wait until some more spuds come out.



I have only put in little canes to start them off, as I didn't have anything else to hand, but I will of course change these as the plants grow.

1 comment:

Valentine Low said...

Ali,

Thanks for your kind comments about my book - very glad you have been enjoying it!
I am very excited to discover another blog, too; I love reading about other people's allotment experiences. Inspirational list of vegetables...

Val