I was – although I still haven’t got as far as unearthing the cucamelon in the pot! I will try and dig up the one on the allotment, as that was quite shallow soil so in theory it should be easier to find the tuber.

I’ve never grown florence fennel before (that’s the one you eat the ‘bulb’), but I’ve also never cooked with herb fennel (the seed one) before – I just grew it originally to make a nicer smell around the compost bin!

I think it’s definitely been a Goldilocks year for veg! We kept up with the watering much better than I’d expected, but partly that was because there was a bit more time seeing as the grass pathways didn’t need quite so much cutting this year.

There’s also three more tomato plants where we planted a second row of florence fennel! Ironically the tomatoes were stronger than the fennel, seeing as in that row, none of the fennel germinated.
That’s impressive to have tomatoes fruiting through November!

The first year I had the allotment, we ‘rescued’ 10 strawberry plants from a relative’s garden. I hadn’t realised the allotment would get quite so wet & boggy where I planted them, so the raised bed ended up being essential to not only help with the drainage, but also to prevent us from walking over it and making it worse! Also, in theory it stops the deer from trampling over it all quite so easily (although in reality they have still sat in the raised bed, pushing the bamboo canes & netting over while they were at it).

I’ve never tried growing celery from seed (yet) – is it really as challenging as it says in the gardening books I’ve read?