I am giving them till the weekend to show themselves or I will be sticking some squashes in. And in any battle of parsnips vs squash I know what my money would be on.

Bar 3 minor casualties the plots have survived last night’s gales unscathed: my giant plastic cloche is in tatters, but I can use the frame as a net cover for brassicas. It pushed over a few of the sweetcorn in the wind, but I think that they will recover. My Marina di Chioggia had its stem partially snapped, I’ve got other squashes, but sod’s law is I gave my spare Marina to Dave. I have pegged it down and am trusting to its survival instinct. As well as a liberal scattering of (organic) slug pellets. Thirdly the broad beans are looking very tatty and woebegone – they are groaning with beans though so we won’t go short…

The little apple tree was completely bent over and resting on the gooseberry netting. I think I need to put in a taller stake for it, the 3ft one just won’t do any more. I have snipped off just about a third of the baby apples and hopefully some more will drop this month because I think it is carrying way too many. I haven’t put sticky bands on the tree either and some of the ends of the branches are twisted over with aphids. Getting rid of them isn’t my favourite job, but I’ll regret it if I don’t.

The salsify is getting into the swing of flowering and so there should be plenty of seed for the circle. The beetroot is about to flower too, but I can see that there are quite a few chard plants also flowering so I need to work something out to isolate them or I won’t feel confident offering the seed. Plus I can see patches of black appearing on them, which can only be more ruddy aphids.

It does feel a little like allotmenting is currently a very long To-Do list. Stuff in the greenhouse needs sorting out – planting out or potting up and perhaps as soon as the winds die down I can start doing that. When the squashes and beans are out of the way there will be an awful lot more room for things to go in bigger pots. Of the plants so far with feet in the greenhouse borders, most seem happy. I’m particularly pleased with the aubergines. I put them in the ground with no more than 3 true leaves each a week ago and already they have 2 more leaves and have nearly doubled in size.

Sowed: swede, turnips, Shetland kale, Nero di Toscana, 2 kinds of psb & pricked out about 50 breadseed poppies.  I’ve been donated some sprout plugs too, though I don’t know where they will go.

Job list:
1. take some washing liquid to the plot and douse the apple leaves and the broad beans to get rid of the aphid population.
2. put in a taller stake for the apple tree and tie on some sticky bands to both.
3. finish digging the bed at the bottom plot to put in some of the saffron and either squashes or beans.
4. put up the munty frame.
5. pot on the peppers in the greenhouse

PS Noticed 4-5 of the shallots are starting to flower.