June update

 We have not had  much time on the allotment due to continueing bad weather and a busy few weeks otherwise.
It must be the worst June for decades and despite wind and rain we have had our potatoes wiped out by blight!
Blogger puts me off trying to upload photos in any order and these are very hit and miss, and I find I cannot put text where I want to!
First pic we moved out the grafted plants out to the greenhouse where they have thrived

I did have a photo of the tomatoes on the Elegance tomato plants but I dont know where it has gone to??!!They have grown great but I do find they can sprout side shoots at a fantastic rate and keep growing them even after pinching them out time and time again.

The cucumbers are midi sized and there are three on each of the three plants

Looking back at my previous post at the photo of our red duke of York potatoes coming through back in May nearly made me cry because this is what they look like now after cutting back the stalks since they were  being hit by blight.

Peter and Anglea on our next door plot have the only perfect unblemished potatoes on the whole allotment, he bought blight free seed from Mr Middletons and I think we will all be buying from there next year

Mallow Homes and garden festival is on over next weekend and we have a 'show' garden  as usual.this is it in its embryo stage today when we had got started in heavy rain, hopefully over the next few days it will take shape and not be a mud bath by next Friday!

My sister Kathleen and myself paid our annual trip to Bloom in the Phoenix park in Dublin over the June bank holiday weekend only this year we went over night and got to spend the whole day there.The first day was a washout but the saturday we were there was sunny and warm until late afternoon.We got our pic taken with Nevin Maguire one of our top celebrity and TV chefs who is also a really nice down to earth guy.

I was called up on stage with another 'volunteeer' to make spun sugar baskets!I got to keep my rather miss shapen basket and also got a signed cookery book and a Bosch blender for my performance

Blue skies and sunshine! Kathryn and the kids spent a sunday on the plot and instead of taking the strawberries home they brought up the ice cream and eat on site, this is Stephen tucking in!

Eldest son Kevin is gone to Uganda for 6 months with the army as part of the UN mission, this is him straddling the equator.

Some of the happenings to date, we have also spent 3 days in Bristol attending my aunt's funeral.

Nothing seems to be growing normally on the plot this year, carrots put in in March failed to put in an appearance despite being covered with fleece.

We have now put in 6 courgettes, normally 2 is more than enough but they keep dying off in the cold!

The brassicas are doing well but slug vigilance has had to be stepped up as they seem to be out in force.