Its all gone mad

Haven't written anything in about 5 weeks, bad me. In that time the allotment has gone nuts...I went away for 2 weeks to China, came back and it was like an overgrown jungle. Amazing what some sun, heat and rain can do!

Not long after my last post there was a very hard May frost. All the courgettes and the runner beans were reduced to mush which was more than horrifying, and some of the tips of the potato leaves were burned black. I couldn't believe we could have such a bad frost so late in the year.

Luckily I still had a courgette plant at home and a couple of runner bean plants, and I quickly sowed a few more. One of the mushy courgette plants survived so the situation isn't as bad as it could've been.

Here's a sort of before and after picture, the first picture is from mid May and the second from yesterday:

The King Edward potatoes are literally waist height, its like they're on crack or something, I have no idea why they're that big. The Pent Javelin and Lady Balfour are also taller than I would imagine they'd be. I'm hoping that the ground isn't so fertile that all the energy is going in to making fabulous foliage and no tubers. I'll be very upset if that's the case.

One of my prouder moments this year has definitely been CARROTS!!! I have finally managed to grow carrots, phew. Not many but carrots all the same.

James built a new bed yesterday, in between the fruit cage and the tool box.

I went today and sowed a row of parsnips up one side, planted out the rest of the leeks on the other side and planted some purple kale and cabbage plants that I'd started at home in the middle.

And this year I actually managed to get some straw to put under my strawberries, I've always meant to but never got round to it in time. So here's hoping I get lots of fruit.

I picked these from the plants I have at home. They were delish.

Here's some other pics from Plot 28a.