Today has been a good day - lots of weeding, lots of planting, and lots of harvesting! We left the plot with bunches of raddish, lettuce and herbs, enough to keep us occupied with cooking tomorrow.

Weatherwise, we've had nearly everything except hail and snow today. Temperatures averaged out at about 16 degrees during the day, but the wind was strong enough to bend the radish stalks over, and the rain heavy enough to  knock gooseberries off the bush. A beautiful double rainbow made us feel a lot better about the soakings we sustained.

Although its still a little early I planted out the sweetcorn this afternoon. I'm  off walking Hadrian's Wall for the next couple of weekends, and so now is the last opportunity before mid-July to get them in the ground. They haven't hardened off, but they have been planted under a mesh polytunnel, which should keep off insects, and the worst of the weather. Last year the badgers took all my sweetcorn, and so this year I'm hedging my bets - some will go into the new raised beds, and some have been planted in the ground, nearly as far from the garden entrance as possible. I also planted out some kale, having also grown them from seed in the greenhouse. My neighbour Victor gave me a top tip which I'm trying out this year - planting the new seedlings with toilet roll cores around them to prevent slug attacks. I'm really hoping this works as my cabbages and cauliflowers have been decimated by slugs this year.

In other news, most of the onions are doing well, the potatoes look great (the earlies should be ready to harvest once I'm back from the trek), but the beans are doing terribly - only about four of the thirty-six bean seeds have sprouted. I've a few runner beans growing on in the greenhouse so I can supplement the canes a little, but I suspect this year is going to be a Bean Failure.

The raised beds are the success of the year so far, sneaking top spot from the clematis, which really seem to have enjoyed the cooler weather. Other highlights are the Red Hot Pokers, and the marigolds, which are adding beautiful splashes of colour already. Thanks to Ewan for the pics...

 Lettuce bonanza

 Proto carrots...

 Bee central.

Well this, as Firefox might say, is embarrassing! It appears that a whole year has elapsed since the Plot 129 blog was updated. A combination of appalling weather to close 2012's growing season, equally awful weather to start 2013's,  plus technical difficulties put the gardener off reflecting on progress, and only the produce picked today has cheered her up enough to begin posting again:
Raddishes!

So what's new since June 2012? Well, Plot 129 now has a well - desperation at the constant need to cycle water two miles from home and the dearth of water butts (now resolved, I'm happy to say!) persuaded me to sink an old, cracked water butt as far down as possible. Down by the Thames, its not hard to reach the water table, and so this has been more effective than you might think. The addition of heavy stones on the lid to stop animals falling in has made it a perfect resource. We also have two wonderful new raised beds (4'x6'x2') that have made all the difference to root vegetable planting - for the first time in five years Plot 129 is well on the way to producing edible crops of carrots, parsnips and lettuce (not, of course, a root vegetable, but also vulnerable to ground predators). We're also trying some new varieties this year - Jerusalem artichokes went in about three weeks ago, and we have cucumelons, aubergine and lots of sweetcorn growing on in the greenhouse.

As of today, we also have early and late potatoes (King Edward) growing successfully, plus lots of onions (Centurion, Red Baron and Stuttgart Giant), mild shallotts, green and yellow courgettes, spinach, rocket and garden peas happily in the ground. The cabbages and cauliflowers met an early and catastrophic slug attack, but appear to be making a fine recovery, and have been planted round with Cabbage-White-butterfly-defying Hyssop. The 2012 Hyssop plants overwintered well, and have been supplemented with another 10, so Plot 129 is crossing its green fingers that the plants continue to deter the pests.

Other pest-control measures this year include the enthusiastic planting of marigolds around the vegetable plots. I'm not at all sure if they work, but they look very nice.

If I were to fill in the details of all the changes and planting that have taken place this year, this would be a very long post! So instead I shall try to blog a little, often, and keep a better record of Plot 129 in 2013! Happy gardening, all!