.. which means this post is going to be an epic one.  We’ve had a very busy few days, helping people move house, cycling to Liverpool, shopping for my week in the Middle East, so we have not spent too much time at the plot.  Which is a shame because the weather has been perfect for it, however the advantage is that when we went tonight the plot seems to have kicked off it’s shoes, soaked up the sun and generally been having a fine time of it.

So, may we present for you a full on photo tour of our tiny piece of former car park in Manchester… (I’m not going to talk about all of them, it would take me all night!)

The broad bean flowers are a big hit with the local bee population.

The dwarf french beans are not looking great, but I only planted them out yesterday so I’m hopeful they will harden up over the next few days.

Before having an allotment I don’t think I’d ever seen a potato plant and now I’ve seen a potato flower. Aww, isn’t it cute?

The mixed lettuces look great.  Which reminds me, I need to google how plants photosynthesize with red leaves.

Lots of our fruit is starting to ripen.  We definitely didn’t plant enough strawberries this year, next year I think we will do them in some big bins we have with holes cut in the side.  I think we’ll get more plants, more varieties and a more efficient use of our space.

Things in the greenhouse are going well.  The tomato plants are big (and have lots of flowers) and the cucumber plants are so big they are starting to frighten me. 

Our flowers make a big difference to the plot, I think we will grow more next year. 

And this is what it is all about.  We got our first proper vegetables in the form some radishes (and also learnt a vital lession in remembering to wash our produce before eating. Mmm soiley).  And if you want you can play a fun game with the last picture – try and count the number of different varieties of plants.  I count 30.