Pump up the, er, pumpkin

A lot of growing in 14 days. And the foliage is staging a bid for world domination...

More sweetcorn porn

The sweetcorn changes every day, and is between 4 and 5 ft tall - I swear it grew 6 inches in one night. It has flowers on the top, and these exotic red beards have just appeared. It seems to like being on a little hillock alongside beans, and being fed on blood, fish and bone and 6X. Yum yum!

Coveting my neighbours' plot

My neighbours, Lyn and Richard, have a very tidy and well organised plot - and a huge frame of sweet peas that look and smell lovely. They grow a small number of a lot of different vegetables, and a large amount of strawberries, which is an approach I shall be copying next year.

I was lurking behind my sweetcorn (now the tallest on the whole site, yay!) to take the pic. Isn't it pretty?

That's shallot

Geddit?

A very satisfying crop, especialy as I only planted them as an afterthought (and with a bad pun in mind). Here they are having a nice sunbathe, prior to being plaited for storage.

A salutory tail

Remember, not everyone is going to be as impressed with your vegetable-growing efforts as you might like.

Everybody needs a bosom for a lottie

The three sisters bed is doing very well, with sweetcorn about two foot high, and little visible silks forming, and the runner beans racing skywards (at least on the lee side!) and flowering beautifully (which makes up for my broad bean failure - note to self: plant them in November ths year!). Several people have said they always have a little look at the 'strange lumps' on my plot with sweetcorn and beans coming out of them which one friend kindly called 'bosoms' - well, everybody needs a bosom for a lottie... (with apologies to Cornershop, obviously).

Squash up

Everything is growing away happily despite the sunless weather we've been having. All the squash on everyone's plots have been very slow this year, but last week, mine have taken off. Here's my 'heritage' squash from Garden Organic (HDRA) which is producing some lovely custard pies.

My pumpkin has also woken up and had a good stretch, and some colonisation looks likely in the near future - it's even produced the very beginning of a tiny tiny pumpkin (aaah).

What's Up, Doc?

Carrots, that's what! My nantes carrots, sown on a wet cold day in the early spring, have come good. I sowed them far too close together, and only did a little bit of thinning for fear of the dreaded carrot fly, but they have done me proud anyway. Pictured here with a cheeky radish and a baby beetroot...

I even managed to get almost half the plot weeded today, dodging showers - apart from the final monsoon when the skies opened (and it took all my moral fibre to go back and shut the gate, I can tell you). Must weed the onions and shallots this week (weather permitting) though it's so hard to avoid damaging the plants - any tips welcome! Also need to lift some spuds to make way for purple sprouting broccoli and cavolo nero.

Despite the weather, I've got to the stage where I can come home from the plot every day with produce - and am self-sufficient in green vegetables, at least at the moment. Makes all the back-breaking digging earlier in the year feel worthwhile.

Giant cabbage demands to sit in the comfy chair!