Herb Spiral and allotment update

I seem to have spent more time on other things lately, that the gardening has been a bit neglected. However, all is doing okay - even our Runner Beans which were all terribly hit on our allotment site by blackfly this year have recovered and are now growing, so we shall still hopefully get a harvest albeit a later than usual one but it is mild here and we were still picking them last year into Oct/Nov.

Before going on holiday Alex had placed the pond liner (found on the allotment plot when we took it over last year) and built a mound up around it for planting up - this will be something we spend some time doing in the Winter months.


The herb spiral is really looking good, although I really should get around to planting more in it. The concept of a herb spiral is great - it creates different environments in a small space and it allows each herb to grow in the conditions it prefers - full sun, shade, dry, damp, etc. We have also placed a sink (again found on the plot) at the bottom to act as a little pond although this is unfinished at present. Jacqui at The Interrupted Gardener requested I post an update on the herb spiral so here it is.
I detailed the herb spiral build in these posts here, here and here.

and here is an updated picture of it so far, hopefully next time I put pictures up I can say the pond is finished and more herbs are in, that's if I don't get distracted by something else!


Lots of harvesting today too -

Potatoes

Lollo Rosso

Rainbow Chard

Rocket
Spinach
Radish leaves (the radishes didn't form so pulled up to use as salad leaves/wilted as spinach)

Baby Parsnips - thinnings

Baby Carrots - thinnings

Finally cut down last years Purple Sprouting Broccoli plant that we left after harvesting to go to seed to collect seed to plant for next year. We are keen seed collectors as it saves a lot of money on buying new seed. For a great introduction guide to seed saving check out this website and download their booklet - Real Seeds - also a really good supplier of seeds.


I took some photos of other things growing so will publish another post as a picture tour of some of the allotment.