Hot tomatoes!

We've got our first baby toms forming , yay. Aside from today we've had lots of hot weather here in Norwich ( and hardly any rain) which must've helped bring them on. Will take a piccie tomorrow. If I counted correctly earlier, I've managed to squeeze 21 tom plants into our little lean to! I've saved a bit of space as decided not to do cukes in there this year ( they did ok last year but had red spider mite) so have a bit more space for toms. Also the peppers did badly, think I overwatered them, so not got so many of them either.

Down at the allot things are going ok. Lots of strawbs ( about 10lbs so far). Lots of other soft fruit on the way, rasps have just started ripening. Ooh and my Saskatoon plant has loads of fruit that's ripening , quite tasty but I think the dry weather hasn't helped them. Have given the bush a good water to hopefully make them more juicy. Also gave the rasps a water too as last year lots of these shrivelled up when it was dry.

We have our first little baby courgettes forming, yay. Had a few losses to slugs a few weeks back but have re-sown the beans and most things're ok now. Had some excess squashes as well so it wasn't too bad. I found some slug and snail hotspots so now know to keep an eye on those places e.g. Under some newspaper I was using to keep an area free from weeds.

The early potatoes are really tasty, have Colleen. I've been trying a different harvesting technique - instead of digging up a whole plant, I feel around in the soil and pull out any larger tubers. Has worked really well so will try this again. Quite often when you lift a whole plant you get a mix of sizes and the plants themselves still have a lot of life in them. So with this method, the plant carries on growing and the small tubers continue to grow. I think I'll try and make it easier to get to both sides of the plant next year ( I have two short double rows which means having to reach across between the plants)

And some bad news, we've had some thefts on the plots this week. I had some onions stolen from the ground and my shed was opened, but nothing taken. They returned a few nights later and took some tools from an allot neighbour ( wrenched open a locked drawer) and also uprooted a whole apple tree and took it away.this was particularly stupid as of course the tree will have died, what a waste. We've reported it to the police who've been round and taken it quite seriously (PCSOs) but not too much they can do without any witnesses. They did ask around the neighbouring house but no luck,  The perps broke in at night.....

But to end on positive note, tomorrow I'm going to pick a load of broad beans and cook up a soup or something :)