The theme of my week was tidying up and it continued into the allotment. Ma and I re-purposed some furniture from the flat and re-arranged the shed.

Floor space! Looking back we seem always to have a shed tidy at this time of year, it might be because we’re preparing for visitors for my birthday. Whatever the reason, it’s done.

This wasn’t the only thing being tidied up. Ma went to work at the front of the plot and got all the weeds and californian poppies up. We love the poppies but they do start to go over and when the grass gets to a certain point we just pull it all up, lots of the seed pods have already burst so we won’t be short of poppies and it’s nice to see how the day lillies are spreading.

I tidied up the rampant tomatoes and weeded the flower beds. And I watered, which is a massive task right now. The jump from a half to a full plot is huge in terms of watering..

As with everything else this year, the tomatoes are behind, but they are there!

The spare squash in the second squash bed are starting to take off, I planted a summer squash in there too and it’s a patty pan. So while I did not at all manage restraint with the winter squash, I managed total restraint with the tomatoes (35 plants) and the summer squash (one courgette, one patty pan and one crookneck). Bow before my awesome power! Though maybe not too near the winter squash bed, you might not find your way out!

The kale has also put on a growth spurt, as had the bindweed. It’s going to take time to stop that stuff at the top of the plot. As the new beds become free, we’re going to add another row of planks and make them deeper, which will help with control and means another year when all our money is spent on compost! The annoying thing is that is really works, none of the raised beds are very weedy and I’ve been mulching the new flower areas and it works so well. Ok technically, the red mountain spinach is a weed but it looks pretty and I like a bit of wildness in the garden!

Ma is coming down this afternoon to do a bit of weeding, I’ll be there for lunchtime watering but probably not a lot of weeding. On Saturday, the family are visiting so the boys and Ms T can have a look, I need a competition for them, last time it was name all the fruit and veg plants, I remember Ms T was very impressed with the £2 prize, Oli was aiming for a fiver!

So there probably won’t be much work done but we have work plans for Tuesday and maybe Friday!