More from the allotment

After two weekends of T's birthday parties and two weeks of almost non-stop rain, today it was finally dry enough to go over to the allotment and see how things were progressing. 

All in all, they were progressing rather well. Our new potatoes (charlottes) are in flower and we lifted the first two of sixteen. T was thrilled to be picking them out of the soil. Despite picking all the sugarsnap peas that were ready last Monday (in the rain), he picked a further half kilo, as well as many strawberries, a few raspberries and (finally) some sweet peas (which at one point this year I was giving up as a total failure). My pinks are a bit of a disppointment - the label on the plants said "to 45 cm" but they stubbornly refuse to gain any height or extend their stem length. They making a pleasing mini-bunch, though.

Of course, the weeds have also been doing well, so despite a couple of hours spent weeding today, I think I'll be heading back tomorrow if the weather holds. 

I'm also working my way through James Hanson's "Chemistry in the Kitchen Garden" which is also prompting me to look back at Bowsher, Steer and Tobin's "Plant Biochemistry". I think improving my knowledge of plant metabolism might be a project for the summer holidays.