Slog

I spent a couple of productive hours alone down at the plot this afternoon, I really needed to just get on with it and start catching up before things got so out of hand that I just gave up on it all!

I cleared the front bed except for the 4 large potato plants that are from last years leftovers and planted 5 courgette plants, 3 round yellow courgette plants, 2 marrow plants and 1 Tom Fox pumpkin plant (all the other Tom Fox's died in the shed...).

I then cut down some huge weeds so I can actually walk to the back of the plot and the cleared the second bed that was supposed to have parsnips and cabbage in it, but as I planted them at the end of March and neither of them have come up at all I figured I may as well use the space. In that bed I planted the 4 spaghetti squash plants, 4 Turks Turban squash seeds and 3 rows of spinach. I only had 3 spinach plants come up from my previous sowings and they had grown to 3 inches tall and then gone to seed, this bizarre weather is really messing things up.

I cleared the end of the rhubarb bed as well where the spinach had been planted and planted what I had left of the sweetcorn to see if any of it comes up.

I still have an awful lot to do but the shed looks less full of plants and I have planned out the beds again for where things will go, this seems to change weekly though. I need to clear out 2 more beds sharpish so that I can get in the rest of my squash (butternut and Trombolino), my Mars pumpkins and my beans (climbing french and runner) soon as I can. This week is supposed to be in the 60's with rain on Wednesday according to the forecast so I figure I will go down for a short spell on Monday to water everything and try and clear a bit more. I'll have to take Little One though so I will only manage an hour and have to work fast while trying to keep him from destroying anything, but it's better than nothing. I think I will have to make do with an hour here and an hour there with him this summerjust to try and keep on top of things, it was easier last year when he'd sleep in the pushchair for me.

I just really hope that the weather starts to be sane now. Nothing has grown like it should because it's been so screwy and I hate reading about allotments in the South that seem so far ahead of my plot, I have to keep reminding myself that they're 2 weeks ahead even without bizarre weather.

It'll get there, I'll at least have a ton of spuds (unless something horrific happens to them) and some onions, hopefully there will be more to come though!