Summer on the Allotment (Part One)

July's heatwave seems to have passed and after a week of more variable weather, it's time to rest my watering can arm and take stock of the edible plant I've been growing.

The speed at which some plants can grow never ceases to impress me.  My corn, for instance, grew from seed to almost as tall as me in the space of just three months.

The same sweetcorn, 20th July

Sweetcorn seedlings, 12th May 2018

12th June

Actual cobs are forming on the plants, too.  I actually didn't realise that more than one cob can grow on a corn plant.  I love this.  I'm going to grow much more corn next year.

In early June, one of the four squash seeds I sowed in April came into its own...

...then flowered...

...got pregnant...

...and asserted its right to exist.

Here's the largest baby so far, pictured just this morning, about the size of a plum:

Squash are marvellous.  Have you ever kept one in a cupboard?  You can keep it for weeks, even months, and it's still perfectly fine to eat.  Thick skinned.  Another thing to grow more of next year.

Let's talk about borage, which rhymes with "porridge", I don't care what anyone says.  A lesser known herb, whose seeds I sowed out of curiosity, bolted and blossomed from this, in May:

to four-foot stems covered in striking blue bee magnets and enormous leaves I'd loath to classify as herbs, they were so enormous

I did try eating the flowers, but I wasn't keen.  They're nicer to look at and anything that attracts bees, is, by definition, good.  Speaking of which....

Continued in Part Two, in which I take a closer look at the herb bed, and step inside the shed.





Related posts

Spring on the Allotment
A Shed is Born
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