Shelter from the rain

The sunshine was fooling around with us today. When we left home the sun was out, by the time we got out of the car and walked onto the allotment site, it started pouring down. Typical. Look at the guttering and you can see the rain pouring in. Good job we recycle the rainwater which slowly, or in this case very quickly makes its way to the water butts behind the hut. An ingenious system developed wee Alex, my plots previous owner.

D decided to hide, I mean shelter in the tomato greenhouse, where he began the process of pricking the tomato side shoots, whereas I spent most of the time inside the other greenhouse. So let me give you a little up-date on what's happening indoors.

Rainbow swiss chard coming along very nicely. These did really well last year, plus they made the plot look rather vibrant.

A whole list of other seedlings including green beans, cabbages and lettuces are stacked on this rack. Some of the trays need up-potting, a job for tomorrow I think.

This broad bean plant is beginning to flower, it needs to find it's way to Ds plot tomorrow.

Hestia is a dwarf runner bean. It shows of some lovely red flowers that later develop into the edible runner bean. It's a good productive plant for pots, a good one for the balcony, veranda or porch.

Silverline white sprouting broccoli.

When the rain stopped, which it did now and again, I managed to transplant both the white and purple sprouting broccoli into its allocated brassica bed, which D then covered over with netting.

The strawberry bed is starting to perk up even more. I wish I knew what variety these were. I transplanted these last year from D's plot, as they were getting overcrowded by the raspberries.

A good tip I picked from Celia Brooks Brown blog was to move leeks that you are not ready to use, which I have done. I will cook with these when I get back from Paris. At the back of this plot are my potatoes which are starting to emerge through the soil.

D also took of the netting that was covering the alliums (red and white onions) to stop the magpies from pulling the allium seeds out. I think they should be safe from the magpies now.

Carrot seedling coming up too, all in a nice neat line.

I also took a peek under the netting of the other brassica bed where I had planted some cabbages, turnips and cauliflower - they seem to be okay too, not swished or dislodged by the downpour.

Even though it rained on and off, I managed to spend about 4 hours at the allotment today. Most of it undoubtedly in the greenhouse, hence the number of pictures in this entry.