Rain & Yet More Rain

Normally I try to keep cheerful, especially in my diary. Who wants to read somebody being miserable, after all. OK, I know I’m, on very rare occasions, Mr Grumpy but normally I’m pretty upbeat.

Not today though. I’m thoroughly, absolutely, 100% fed up of the weather. It seems to have been nothing but cloud and rain for centuries. Well, since July anyway. Even if I was brave and hardy, ignored the rain and tried to do something on the plot, the soil is pretty waterlogged anyway.

There are two things that like this rain. Brassicas and weeds. When you look at the amount of leaf area on brassicas, you can see they need a lot of water. You can tell the weeds are loving it by their size. I reckon we need a dry week, with sun, to put things right.

If it carries on like this we’ll be growing rice and fish-farming. For now though, the plots don’t look too bad, apart from the weeds. This moan could be something to do with getting soaked on my way back from watering the greenhouse today.

Had a bit of a shock in the small greenhouse, the cucumber had died. I’ve always had good results with Burpless Tasty Green grown outside and this one had gone berserk in the greenhouse. There were 7 medium cucumbers on there and loads more developing but today the plant was no more. It was dead, an ex-cucumber plant. Compost.

The Carmen in the large greenhouse and the Burpless Tasty Green outside on plot 5 look OK though. I got 4 nice cucumbers off the Carmen. Any ideas on what to do with 11 cucumbers? We gave some away recently to my brother-in-law. After thanking us, he asked if we’d used any chemical sprays on them.
‘No’, I answered, ‘they’re perfectly safe.’
‘Great’, he replied, ‘because we want to feed them to our pet giant African snails’

I don’t know if you’ve seen these things. They’re a gardener’s worst nightmare. Huge things that could munch through a whole field of lettuce in a night. I don’t think a slug pellet will do the job. Time to find out about getting a rifle and a licence!

Some more peppers had ripened so they went into the bag and a load of tomatoes. The Jaune Flamme are really productive and they’re lovely fried. A little mild, but perfect for those who don’t like the acid in tomatoes. More Sungold, which are like sweets rather than a tomato. At least the kiddies think so.

As I said, the rain came down so it was back home for me. What really got me was the heavy black clouds above the allotment but clear blue around. Definitely felt somebody up there has it in for me.

The New Computer

Back at home, I’ve been busily setting up my new computer. Finally I have almost joined the cutting edge of technology and am running Windows XP. I know Vista is the latest but I know Microsoft. When a product is nearly obsolete, it means they’ve got it working properly.

It’s a pretty big task, copying the data is easy enough but setting up all the programs takes ages, finding passwords and activation codes. I can’t just put my hand on my Office 2000 CDs so I downloaded OpenOffice instead. Not only is the price right, free, it seems easier to use. Certainly does everything I need and far more. Including opening Office 2003 documents.

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary
14 comments on “Rain & Yet More Rain
  1. nicola nesbitt says:

    Hi John pretty wet here too even if it is Ireland,were used to rain. Was on hols during the floods thank god, didnt lose that much only outdoor toms. Maybe we will get an Indian Summer heres hoping.

  2. keith says:

    getting ready for local show its part of the ritual getting the veg ready in the rain happens every year

  3. RAINING HEAVY HERE OLDBURY WEST MIDLANDS WE ARE LUCKY WITH OUR PLOT NOT FLOODED OTHERS ON SITE NOT SO LUCKY. BEEN OVER TO SEE OUR FRIENDS LATEST PROJECT CHICKENS THIS IS TO ADD TO THE BEES HE ALREADY KEEPS, VERY INTERESTING.

  4. Tony says:

    WANTED

    One pair of extra long wellies or gum boots – preferbly waist high!!. Must be suitable to hang in the allotment shed with easy fit velcro. If any one has one to spare, it must have a in built waterprof hood as the continuase rain makes my head itch and turns my hair curly (what bit of hair I’ve got left!!) I’m not saying it’s wet down my allotment but the tatas have taking swimming lessons!!!

    There is one small consolation though, most folks have not turned out to collect the wild blackberries – which means more for me!!

  5. Alpin McGregor says:

    I have a fine crop of frogs and some common newts on my plot in Newcastle upon Tyne.

  6. Wendy says:

    It has been raining here all week in West Sussex as well. The weeds are just growing and growing! Tried to do some weeding today but gave up when it started raining again. Luckily the ground drains really well as it has so many stones in it – bad for hot weather but great for wet!

  7. layla says:

    decided to drag my kids out on saturday to do some pickin an a diggin! Only problem is that they ended up covered in mud and i had to clear them up. Definately had some some fun trying to sort out the potatoes from the mud! The rain is falling in Northampton like a indian monsoon for about 2 wks now and i had to get out there and do something before the slugs and weeds killed of my veges and i had now left, here’s praying to the late summer they keep promising!!!

  8. Felicity says:

    Blackberries – whilst I agree the rain is keeping the half hearted and less determined at home – they just arn’t ripening ! Even those that look ripe, often wont pick off the plant – _ phenomanon I’ve never come across before. On the positive side, the sloe crop is looking very promising.

  9. Richard Gomm says:

    After getting very behind on the allotment after a long illness, i treated myself to a flamegun to deal with the weeds super quick, trouble is i need a few days of sun for the second burn, roll on december when we will have some sunshine!

  10. nickyveglover says:

    Hi John no entries from you in a while. Hope alls ok, or is it just problems with new coputer?

  11. Colin says:

    Rain, cabbage whites, slugs and blight: who could ask for anything more!
    It is good to see a comment about the excellence of Open Office and its economical price (= £00.00). And you can convert documents to PDF painlessly to send to your friends.
    And it has spill chokers for every languish you can think of.

  12. John says:

    Hi Nicky – the dream has turned into a bit of a nightmare. One of those trying to fix a problem causes 2 more!
    Will post over the weekend – probably from Val’s computer the way things are going.

  13. nickyveglover says:

    Good to hear from you, was a little worried. keep at it youll get there in the end.

  14. ulrika says:

    hello everyone would just like to introduce myself had my allotment for nearly a year now. i really enjoy your website and have learned lots most of it by my mistakes lol that will teach me to ignore good advice. i love reading your diary and photos when its to wet to go out. x

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