First Harvest Of The Year

I dont cover them, or indeed do anything at all to discourage any birds or animals coming into the garden. For some reason, they seem to appreciate it by not touching them. Perhaps as it is a rural area, they have plenty things to choose from that they prefer to eat?

 

I had a lovely lot of cherries growing on my tree, saw a Blackbird picking one, so I went and put a temporary net over, tried one, not ready, net not very secure, he managed to eat the lot, next year I will securely net as soon as I see blossom.
I have harvested a few sticks of rhubarb, and a couple of courgettes big enough to eat, might have those tonight.

 

Well we have just got back from a few hours at the lottie and this is the fruits of our labours.Dont ask me where we are going to put this little lot as I haven't got a clue My pickings are on the left,Mr Kandys to the right If you add his two bowls full to mine then I should think we have just about filled my large container again

 

So I have just added Mr Kandys to mine and this is what we now have.

 

Today's harvest and we have just finished podding the five bags of Broad Beans so Straberries next Also in the container with the yellow raspberries are the first of our Pineberries

 

Wow fab @Kandy! I need an allotment, I'm so jealous of your raspberries!

 

@shiney your rhubarb plants look fantastic,are these from the crowns you split up around five years ago? No good us trying to sell any fruit and veg n our village as the youngsters want everything for nothing and as they all eat out they wouldn't use the fruit and veggies anyway
@Linz,we have had our thirty pole for nearly 36 years and at times I get a bit cheesed off with working the land,we feel like mini farmers always having to work the land as the minute we leave the plots the weeds go mad.I have spent over three hours picking raspberries this morning and had to leave some of them as I had had enough for one day.Luckily they are coming to the end for this year thankfully.Allotments are good for the produce produced but still hard work

 

First of the Aubergines of the year from the plants in the greenhouse -

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was going to make some moussaka, but havent gotten around too it so will have to do it tomorrow. Nothing much else ready at the moment

 

I'm lifting root crops, carrot and beetroot from my covered bed, but the broad beans look a bit of a disaster, small and not many of them, normally eating them by now. Peas are close to being picked, but no French beans yet either.

 

Sorry @shiney i didn't realise that with the rhubarb,just thought these were the ones you split up as they all look nice and healthy

@burnie sorry that your broad beans are not doing too well this year.We had a very bad year last year due to blackfly despite me spraying them three times with washing up liquid/water

Your beans sound like the ones in the fields round us,they were put three weeks before ours and are quiet small plants with small pods whereas as ours are all finished now and we have pulled up all the plants and composted them.

Hope yours inventually get bigger.By the way have you fed yours as I gave mine a good dose of chicken pellets and the soil had been fed with compost earlier on in the year.

This is Mr Kandy picking the last of them yesterday.The ones to the front of the photo have been hit with Chocolate Spot and I have found out one of the causes is due to the plants being too close together so will have to space the rows apart more next year

 

@OxfordNick that is a lovely specimen of an Aubergine you have there and I bet it will taste as good as it looks

 

My broad beans are in my "others" raised bed along with peas, sweetcorn and dwarf and climbing French beans. This bed had soil, compost, home made compost and manure put in during the winter/spring. The corn and peas are going really well, just the beans are lacking something, I added some chicken pellets recently and I have watered the entire bed with the occasional tomato feed just to add a little umph to the whole thing.