That allotment looks pretty good. I keep having to remind myself that it’s only been five weeks and given the limitations of time and money and equipment and knowledge, I’ve done pretty well.

It rained a lot this week and was warm. On Monday, I was watering because it was so hot and on Tuesday the heavens opened. So everything looks green and has had a growth spurt.

This week, Ma and I got a bit more of the weedy wasteland under cover.I did a quick hoe of the weeds on the beds that do have things growing. The big courgettes have baby courgettes, although, this weekend’s heavy rain has given them a bit of a beating and knocked some of the flowers off! The little ones, may not make it but the aubergine and sweet pepper are surviving, no flowers but alive. All the tomatoes are the in the same state, the cherry tomatoes that Ian gave me and the romas I planted last week. Some of the tiny marigold seedlings I planted survived, others not so much, but the ropey looking sweet peas that I bought because they were reduced to £1 for 12 plants are still alive and starting to climb up the netting. The peas haven’t come up yet, although the french beans I sowed straight into the ground last week to replant the ones that died have and so has the salad, spinach, rocket and nasturtiums sowed last week. All the herbs are still alive.

Last week I took about 4 pounds of rhubarb off the two rhubarb plants that were going a bit mad. The raspberries are in dire need of weeding and tidying up but have set fruit and the three or four stray strawberry plants have produced about 6 strawberries.

There are tiny plums on the plum treeand lots of gooseberries on one of the gooseberry bushes.Ma was threatening to dig up the afgan poppies unless they flowered and this week. Ma doesn’t mess around and they obviously knew she was serious so flower, they did.This one is my favouriteThe california poppies are still looking good but also took a beating from the weather this weekYou can see that although Ma did a bit of weeding by the lavender, the area around the plum tree needs some attention. The lavender plants are still alive. So I’m calling that a win!

And check out the giant rhubarb!

Tasks for the next two weeks are going to be all about the weeding. I want to get more of the ‘wasteland’ under cover, sort out and weed the raspberries (that’s going to hurt!), get the paths mowed and sort out the weeds at the front of the plot where the poppies are.

I want to get as much of that done before the open day on the 25th June, because it’s good to have things to aim for.