Veg Plotting

I returned from holiday to find lots of my lettuces have started to bolt. It's due to a combination of the recent heat, the longer daylength and my having too many lettuces growing to keep them thoroughly picked to their central core.

It's too late to save my pictured 'Amaze' lettuces. A quick nibble on a leaf showed they're too bitter for eating. As these are windowsill grown, I'm not going to save their seed - NAH has been most tolerant of my growing activities, but I think seeding lettuces in the bedroom might be beyond his limit!

Outside I'm keeping my non-bolted lettuces well picked and well watered and I've moved the potted ones to a much shadier part of the garden*. These measures should help prevent my remaining lettuces from doing what comes naturally. As soon as they start growing upwards then I'll have to decide which are going straight to the compost bin and if any are worth saving for seed. So far, Black Seeded Simpson, Freckles, Marve…

My biggest and best project of the year so far has been converting part of my allotment to a no dig, raised bed system. A few sources of inspiration all converged last year to persuade me to finally take the plunge:
My visit to Charles Dowding and seeing no dig in actionListening to Alys Fowler talk about her Edible Garden at a study day at Holt Farm last year and then reading her book. Inspirational stuff which has got me thinking very hard about the way in which I garden and keep my allotmentFinally getting around to using the raised bed kit I received as a giveaway from Garden Answersa couple of years ago and realising that little patch is soooooo much easier to maintain So I invested in another six raised bed kits last summer. Unfortunately the bad weather meant I didn't get round to setting them up until late spring this year. I roughly cleared the allotted space of weeds and then laid a thick layer of cardboard with wetted newspaper on top to suppress any further weeds from …

After visiting several shows with accompanying cold weather and rain, it was rather a surprise to find this year's RHS Hampton Court show bathed in hot sunshine yesterday. It's decades since I last wore a hat (as I get 'hat hair'), but even I had to succumb to the inevitable and take shelter beneath a brim. Factor 45 sunscreen, plenty of water (with frequent top ups) and seeking shade were the order of the day. I even sneakily had a spray of water from the sprinkler on Chris Beardshaw's beautifully planted show garden in an attempt to keep cool!

Mark and Gaz have already thoroughly catalogued many of the show gardens with pictures much better than mine, and Matron has quite a bit to say on the edible side of things. So I thought I'd add some of the other things I spotted on the day which might otherwise get missed out.

A last-minute exhibit was the exotic butterfly dome, put on in conjunction with the Eden Project. This was an indoor area complete with tropica…

Set up a specialist gardening supply companyHide it away on an industrial estate well away from prying eyesDecide you really want people to know it's thereWait for a blogger with a camera to spot your advert on the roundabout by the estate where she livesEt voila! I've just started to get to grips with hydroponics, so expect more on this subject and possibly Bill and Ben to come :)

We've just come back from an idyllic week in sunny South Wales, where the pictured bay is the typical coastal scene. This is Mwnt, where we spent a happy hour watching dolphins just off the rocks to the right of this picture. The lady in the cafe at the top of the 139 steps down to the beach told us the knack for good dolphin spotting. 'Look for where the gannets are diving' she told us, 'that's where the fish are and you can guarantee they won't be far behind.' She was right. Sometimes the gannets flew further out into the bay, and sure enough, that's where the dolphins went too.

I think this potato bag is one of the best £1's I've spent in a very long time. It's a breathable sack which has a black lining, thus minimising the light getting through to the potatoes inside. As a result, the potatoes last at least twice as long as those kept in a sweaty, light filled plastic bag.

It can hold up to 5 kilos of spuds and because NAH and I eat them only 1-2 times a week, anything which helps to keep them for longer is very handy indeed.

I'll also keep on using it when I dig up this year's crop. By keeping a supply close by in the kitchen, it'll save me having to go outside and dive into the large paper sacks I use to store spuds in the garage whenever spuds take our fancy.

What's your favourite bargain at the moment?

Loud is the summer's busy song
The smallest breeze can find a tongue,
While insects of each tiny size
Grow teasing with their melodies,
Till noon burns with its blistering breath
Around, and day lies still as death.

John Clare (1793-1864), July