Still so busy at the allotment

Still pushing to get it all done:  it's truly the final stretch.  Despite the slow start, my allotment is looking a lot more populated, though it also has a couple of really grassy sections too.  I'm still sheet mulching bit by bit--it's a never ending process:  as soon as I reach the bottom I have to start at the top again.  

For the first time since I've been growing there, the local council has provided a couple of tons of compost for members, deposited into one of the bays by the on-site stables.  I've been using the stable bedding in my own compost and as sheet mulch since I started back in 2018, really improving the soil, but obviously it has to compost first (usually there is composted stuff--if you dig it out of the bottom of the pile).  This I have used in sheet mulch and also to fill up about half my planters, as my own compost has run out (I top dressed those planters with the contents of the last bin).

The past weekend I got in all the squashes, some very small still (fingers crossed).  I actually made one more late sowing last week too, in trays, to act as zucchini as my other zuc sowings didn't sprout;  however, I recently sowed a different zuc variety which has begun to sprout--perhaps the late sowing of squash will still have time to make actual squash.  They taste zuc-like when immature--and sweet when mature--so I'm ok either way.

The husband, son and I have all donned gloves several times in the past week to pull out nettles, filling up a couple of emptied compost bins in the process.  This isn't as persistent as the grass and is easier to remove too, despite the stings;  but like the grass, there are a lot of of them.  Makes good compost at least.  I really don't bother trying to dig up the grass except in rare cases where it has sprouted in a new sheet mulched bed. 

At the weekend I also planted out the first tray of green climbing beans and erected a couple of bamboo canes for them to climb, and have been trimming some longer garden prunings to fill in the gaps.  I have several more trays of climbing beans, both green and purple, mostly sprouted and almost ready for transplant.  I'll continue sowing the purple beans (run out of the green bean seeds) probably until the middle of this month.

I even staked most of my tomatoes this weekend;  I've had to pinch out the first side shoots and tie them in already.  My cherry toms are indeterminate--and in planters, not the ground--so these I have just let get on with it.  Most of the cherries are flowering, though not as tall as the plum toms.  And I've put in pea sticks around all the peas now, most of which are now growing a bit better, though not as tall as I'd like.

And finally I got in all my pickling cucumbers (also small, like the squash), though I'm wondering if I should make a late sowing of them too (probably).  I did a late sowing last year--early June--and they had enough time to fruit.  I finally have reached the tipping point on my trays/pots situation:  I've transplanted enough stuff to have some empty at last.  But we are still saving plastic cream pots from the fridge for the future:  next spring I will definitely have enough pots!