Wednesday 1 October 2008

Acting on sudden impulse...

Crop updates

I was sitting half-asleep on the train tonight when my stop came: I almost jumped up and looked out, it was still relatively light. My watch said it was ten to seven so I suddenly decided I would just drop in at the allotment. With my laptop on my shoulders, the city suit and all, I almost run there. And it was fifteen great minutes before it got too dark.

It rained quite a lot today in central London, so I was sure the ground would be wet, but I was disappointed: not a lot of rain seems to have reached here, certainly not the allotment.

The wind (that does not make a good companion to the dry weather) has damaged the corn; on the positive side, though, it seems that the cobs are swelling a bit, which I take as a good sign.

Five tomatoes have ripened and I picked them: they look really appealing and smell delicious, even though the photo (with the light of this time of the day) does them but limited justice.

The yellow fruit that is with them is the pumpkin I photographed a while ago: she did not make it, so I picked her to avoid any more waste of energy by the plant. Several leaves on the runners have also wilted, which might seem a bit depressing if you do not consider that - underneath - I found the biggest pumpkin so far: some 30 cm in diameter. I had not realised it was there, it grew bottom up! Looks healthy, so the count has gone up to four.

The courgette plants are producing several little flowers but no real courgette: it looks like they are wearing out.

Florence fennel is also growing, for the rest, no news. But what a nice wind-down I had tonight!

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