This was the week I decided that it was ok to stop doing something if it wasn’t doing well. That thing was the boston squash. I had put what I thought was 2 baby blue hubbards in the box to grow up the arch. One of them was a boston squash and while the baby blue seemed fine the boston squash was not doing well.
On Thursday night after a short conversation with my wise neighbour Joe, I decided to cut my losses and take the one remaining boston squash before it too died. 
Say hello to the massive squash. Also say hello to the winter squash plant that is doing really well. The monster butternut squash plant which has seven squash on it and is spreading into the raspberries!
Over the week, I gave Kathy a courgette, a crookneck, a cucumber and a herb. Joe took a cucumber on Thursday, I picked another massive load of french beans, a cucumber and some plums.
On Thursday night the fox was most put out that I was on his plot.
I told mum that there probably wouldn’t be much to take home at the weekend. I was wrong. There were no courgettes, but eight crookneck squash, three beetroots, seven cucumbers, six tomatoes (which were eaten straight away and hopefully are a sign of tomatoes to come), four carrots, spinach, salad leaves, spring onions, french beans and loads of plums.
As for actual work on the plot, there was weeding, I finally sorted out the strawberry bed and cut off all the runners. I’ve planted a load of them up, for when I extend the bed and for Laura and Georgie, if they want them. I tidied up the crookneck, cutting off all the mildewed leaves and did the same to the cukes. I also tidied and tied up the tomatoes. 
I discovered that something (slugs most likely) have eaten holes in my peppers which I am unhappy about but what can you do? More slug pellets in the greenhouse.
While I was in the greenhouse, I sowed some pak choi, chard, beetroot and kale, I also managed to drop the pak choi seeds everywhere so I’ll need to buy another packet of those! I also took some cuttings of the mint and have plans to do the same with the oregano. I want to sow some basil as well to have it through the winter indoors.
We pulled up the first set of french beans and I planted chard in the space left behind. I sowed another three rows of beans on that bed and in the brassicas and they are in flower so we won’t be without beans for long. I also planted out the tarragon in the herb patch. Ma weeded that bed and I think some borage seeds are coming up to replace the blackfly invested borage I pulled up a couple of weeks ago, so we left them there.
Next week, we need to bring a stepladder to get to the plums, weed and water and collect food!
But I have the creeping fear that it’s all going to go wrong and everything will die. Let’s start with the winter squash. This is probably my fault. The ‘squash in the box’ were I thought both Baby Blue Hubbards. This is not true one is a baby blue, the other is a Boston Squash. Ok, so all was going well, and then the bloody aphids had a go and all the baby squash got brown and died. And then this happened.
Then Ma points out that the carrots are ok, we’ve had over two kilos of beans from three rows of plants (half a bed), that the crookneck plant is doing well, that the butternut squash plant has six squash and is a monster, that we had blight last year and got tomatoes, that we grew beetroot, that the leek and salad beds are fine, that the cucumbers are still producing, there was even kale this week and “really Nic, you just need to stop being so negative”.
Easy for her to say, she ate the first ripe tomato! However, she’s right, she often is, so here are the produce pictures from last week (minus that tomato!)
On Monday, I sent Kathy home with a courgette, a cucumber and a crookneck, some parsley and basil. The plums are almost ready as are the tomatoes and I need to stop being so anxious about it (especially given that yesterday I was just talking about the problem of expecting perfection!)
So last weekend, we weeded, we watered, we picked and we built a new brassica cage.
We also viewed the rain from the shed while having a cup of tea
It’s all ok. Some of it will go wrong and that’s ok too.
I’ve been thinking about this recently in regards to mental health. There has been a lot in the news about the strain on the NHS, the increase in children and young adults dealing with mental health issues. CAMHS is very underfunded as is mental health care generally in the NHS and young people aren’t getting the help they need. At the same time I’ve noticed a whole raft of people posting stuff about having mental health issues most generally anxiety and depression. Also lots of what not to say to a depressed person posts (I get it, don’t tell them to pull themselves together or go for a run!)
I didn’t think that boys would make me feel better, I was well educated about sex and I was lucky that I had a bunch of wise older women to advise me when I wouldn’t listen to my mother. As an adult, I understand that deep down I understood that life was sometimes terrible (and at 17, I truly believed it was grim) but that you just got on with it.
What I’m trying to express, probably very poorly, is that although I don’t wish to tell anyone that they don’t have mental health issues, I think that as a society we have a problem with perfect that is causing a mental health problem for young people.
So we have lots of young people who don’t know how to move through feeling low because they never learnt to regulate their behaviour or emotions. They don’t know how to deal with the pressure from social media and how to cope with their lives not being instagram perfect.
Dinner was low on cooking and making use of the allotment produce.
Grilled courgettes with feta and herbs. This is one of my standard summer meals. It’s easy, there is no shortage of courgettes, the herb varies, today it was parsley from the plot but I’ve also used basil, coriander, mint and dill. 
Salad leaves, because we have them and they are just lovely as they are.
Potato salad. The only allotment thing in this was the dill but soon, I should be able to do this with homegrown produce. This is amazing, the recipe is from 
