The allotment judges will be doing their rounds soon so I assuaged my post-referendum bleakness with a weekend of tidying. It’s not so much a desire to ‘win’ – more a sense of wanting my beloved huerto to be looking her best.
Above we have: lettuces ( Flashy Butter Oak Bicolour Oakleaf Lettuce & Red Iceberg, both from the Real Seed Company), courgettes (Romanesco, Bianca, Soleil), Mara des Bois strawberries along with cheery french marigolds and tomatoes (Crimson Crush & Sweet Aperitif), broad beans (crimson flowered & Red Epicure) and asparagus.
The peas and beans are finally taking off and I trimmed the box hedging so it looks nice again, despite what I had feared was blight but now appears to be regrowing. And the flowers are also starting to smile bravely, in between showers (sometimes hail).
The standard gooseberry seems well recovered from the trauma of an overloaded branch breaking, while the quince tree needed a severe pruning to stop it taking too much space – only a few fruit on it this year, due I think to the flowers being badly frosted.
Huerto 
What a lovely plot. Lots of care and attention has been lavished on your huerto.
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Thank you Sharon, your comments much appreciated :0)
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Looks amazingly neat and tidy! Well done.
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Thanks Zoe – loved your recent post too. Your Shiraz mange-tout are looking MUCH better than mine, which are still fighting back from a pigeon fest!
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Oh no! I did put some bottle cloches over my baby plants when I planted them. We have a big problem with pigeons on our site, so I feel your pain there!
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Thanks! I like the bottle cloche idea – I now have a barrier of wire mesh along the whole perimeter of the pea bed and that seems to be working, but a bit late. However, a magpie somehow got inside my carrot cloche (covered in a tent of micromesh) and has now trashed that. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh – The Birds are taking over!
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