Harvesting and watering...

Last week I had a couple of RHS professionals up at the allotment- can't get better than that eh! Ian le Gro and Tracy Leveritt helped me plant out some sweet potatoes that they had grown on from slips at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex. I'm growing a selection of varieties as a sort of experiment up some hazel wigwams, but it's the tubers underground that you dig up and eat in late summer. My one concern is that they like plenty of water so I have mulched after planting to keep as much moisture in but in reality can only get up there once or twice a week to water. If we have a wet summer like last year there'll certainly be no worries in that department!

We were all up there yesterday (Sunday) all afternoon till early evening and had a lovely sunny time. There were plenty of others up there too. Cathy bought me a little gas camping stove for my birthday so we could have a cup of tea or even start cooking some produce straight away, so it feels more like home every time we go. We dug up Manuel's garlic as it had a bad case of rust (he's given it to half the site!), but managed to salvage plenty of the garlic cloves, which are fine. In its place we sowed some Pak Choi as we love a good stir fry. Stan and Connie sieved a few shovels of compost and soil to create a fine tilth to give them a good start. They got a good little system going, and produced enough fine soil before they got tired and a little hot (boy they slept well last night though!). We also sowed some more herbs to keep a good succession going. At the end of the day we dug up and brought back some fab potatoes and cut some salad for the week and Ken gave Cathy a lovely bunch of sweet peas as well as a huge onion. I didn't think it would taste of much as it was so big, but Cath was crying her eyes out when she cut into it last night to start off a pasta sauce. This allotment lark must be finally getting to her!

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