Earlier this week I dropped in to the allotment to do some watering and noticed that the newest sweet corn are being nibbled, so had to go back the following day put lemonade bottle cloches on them to give them some protection until they are a bit sturdier.  I then noticed that the sweet peas are looking a bit ravaged, but I’m not sure that we can do much to protect them.

Today, we had a really busy day on the allotment today.  We have finished the trench for the rabbit fencing, so I can start to get that up on Monday.  We did plenty of watering, weeded the sweet corn, potato, onion and pea beds and Lynn created a walled sanctuary for one batch of the sweet peas.  The photos below show that there is definite growth, albeit against a back drop of pests.  Hopefully the fence will help with the rabbits, we think that they have had a go at the sweet peas and there is plenty of evidence of rabbit droppings to confirm this.

We now think that the peas may have been suffering from pea and bean weevil and this is not so bad as they should grow through it.

Sweet pea protection

Peas and onions

Squashes and courgettes

Weeding the sweet corn

We recognised that it would be a long day and took a cool bag with sandwiches, drinks and fruit and also took the radio down.  [Rugby League interjection] The radio alerted me to the fact that Castleford were playing in the challenge cup and we got home (via the village shop for much deserved beer) in time to watch a dying minutes equalising penalty, followed by a sudden death match-winning penalty to get Cas through to the last eight.