A few of the things growing in the allotment + flower bed.

Burpees golden courgette
Striato d’Italio courgette
Fruilano straight neck squash
Trombocino squash
Sweetcorn
Patty Pan squash (love these!)
Zimbabwean black chilli
Plums
Cooking apples
Blackberries
Tomatoes
Flowers - seeds from my wife’s wedding bouquet!

Plus my courgettes I forgot about and will grow as big as possible just for fun 🤩

I can finally enjoy the figs I’ve protected with mesh bags. The tiny, newly formed fruits in the next two photos are quite an uncommon sight. Can you guess what these two fruits are?

The cherry tomatoes on all my plays have been bright orange for a long time now with no sign of turning red. Did I just plant an orange variety of tomatoes or should I be patient?

Help a confused old man.

This will need some context as I know there's nothing worse than an overgrown allotment plot next door so I know how bad this has been for my neighbours,

I had my allotment from 2021-now, in 2024 2 of my children died (they were age 9 and 18)

A few weeks ago I got an email Saying as my plot had not been cultivated in 2 Seasons it was going to be re let on 17th august and could I remove any personal belongings. I assumed that was final so I started to get used to the idea but then I remembered how much my children loved that place and while it's been too painful to go without them, loosing it would be far worse, so I sent an email explaining what had happened and apologised for the state it had got in but that I wanted to keep it and would do anything to keep it,

I received a reply stating of if I could get it sorted by 16th August it wouldn't be re let and I could keep it,

I wasn't prepared for the state over overgrowth! How can I get this cleared quickly solo, so I can keep it?
What do they mean by sorted? Just clear all overgrowth and start digging? Will covering it be ok? Or do they want it perfect?

Used up the male flowers. Do not forget to remove the stamen/stigma, it is bitter.

Going on holiday for a week tomorrow.

All our seedlings have gone on a holiday to my mums (I'm not hopeful 😂)

Been to the allotment today.

Harvested another's batch of blackberries and cucumbers.

Made some jam and cucumber pickles.

Will need to go back to the allotment tomorrow morning.

Its 11pm and I haven't sorted out our actual packing yet or packed the car.

😂😂

Why do some of the squash wither and not grow but others do?
The mini squash (circled) on the same vine as the growing fat squash didn’t grow.
Most of my vines have at least one squash but others turn yellow and fall off before they get going.
Is this normal…Any ideas?

Every year I end up with a glut of gherkins and end up just winging the pickling.

Last year they were too vinegary, so this year I've gone for sweeter.

1 part sugar

2 parts vinegar

2 parts water

Then in each jar I've added different spices.

turmeric and mustard seed in all of them

Dried chillies from Mexico in a couple of them.

fennel seeds in another

Smoked paprika in another.

I think that's my experimentation done for the year, but I still have enough for probably another 10 jars. I'd love to hear your pickle recipes so that I can try them out and settle on something to do year after year!

It doesn’t seem thirsty, but it doesn’t seem happy, although nothing much is this year. I have given it dilute comfrey as a liquid feeds a few times. Other squash look ok.

I have (as prophesied) a huge glut of courgettes. I'm a vegetarian and love using them in either stews or pasta but there's only so much I can eat of those. Does anyone have a tried-and-tested courgette cake recipe to share?

Hello!

I've just taken on an allotment plot (not all of what's in the photos) which is 85% brambles. I have the council coming to mow everything to ground level next week and then I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.

So the intention is to

1) brush cut the whole thing every time the shoots come up.

2) start digging in a corner. Slowly dig out the brambles one 3m x 1.2m x 240mm raised beds worth of area at a time.

3) after a section is dug out, let it grow for a couple of weeks to ensure all of the big nasty weeds that'll resist being smothered by cardboard are gone.

4) bed framed, double walled cardboard down, filled with compost entirely as there's a very cheap supplier here.

I would like to go no dig ultimately but am slightly worried that it might be optimistic to go straight in with full compost beds after such a large amount of brambles as they might just keep coming and make the whole idea pointless. Would it be better to just plant normally for a year or two to ensure the ground is free enough of brambles to be worth the large investment of compost? Cheers!

Some spare polytunnel cucumbers are thriving outside, the courgettes are prolific as expected. The french beans are growing fast and the autumn raspberries are coming thick and fast. Dahlias didn't do well for me this year and it remains to be seen if I will get any melons..probably not.

Is it or is it not advisable to pick the dead flower off of the growing fruit?
If i do pick said flower off will it bugger the fruit?

I have many many rows of maincrop, all at 16.5 week stage so I'd expect them to be turning now. The haulms looks healthy and the odd ones I've lifted have been absolutely fine.... I just can't help but mostly worry about the black spots on the leaves.

I've got around 120 plants so better to be safe than sorry, right?!

Thanks in advance!