Dry land

We went back to the allotment this evening (and harvested more stuff! Spinach beet leaves, which we had for dinner, along with a potato that was accidentally harvested - we want to leave them a bit longer to get a bit bigger, but when Pete took a peek at them to see how big they were getting one separated from the plant, so it would have been a shame to waste it). I think this shows really well how clay-ey the soil is, and how dry it's been lately. The dark brown bits are where I watered stuff. The soil is really dusty as it's absolutely parched.

Last week I planted out some broccoli, cauliflour and beetroot seedlings, but it looks like they have wilted to nothing. There are one or two tiny seedlings which I watered just in case, but I think I'm going to have to admit defeat on them. The stuff we planted a while back is largely going well - brussels and quinoa are looking good under the net on the left, the courgettes (as demonstrated yesterday) are doing well, as is the spinach beet and the runner beans. Last week Pete planted more fancy green leaves (konatsuna and other stuff) which are good for steaming but also in salads. This week I sowed some more spinach beet and also some onions (the ones I started off in the greenhouse came to nothing, I think thanks to the slugs) - I'm not holding out lots of hope for them as we can't go there every day and water them, but no harm in trying.

Anyway - we are now eating stuff we've grown! It's all very exciting :)