Carnival - and excercise amongst the tomatoes...

Belleville School carnival brightened up the streets of Battersea this afternoon as it paraded up Northcote Rd. The vegetable growing department managed to sell twenty four bags of swiss chard, little gem lettuce, spinach and salad to a captive audience of parents during the fine festival of dance and music that was put on afterwards in the school playground.
(Right: Italian Ridged Pumpkin - just starting to grow)
(Below: Marmande. Below that: Courgette - a few days from being ready to eat)
The mass harvesting of salads resulted in a major thinning out, leaving the year three and four beds looking a little bare; but they'll regrow soon enough, with a bit of luck.
There was also a major pruning of tomato plants (cordon varieties often having forked into two main stems when I wasn't looking, you know the sort of thing!) which has allowed more light to get to the tomatoes, and also revealed a couple of ladbirds trying to play leapfrog amongst the leaves, I think ( click on the image above right).


Above from left to right: Carrots with parsnips in the background, the flower of a french climbing bean, and and onion.

The vegetable growers union would like to congratulate headmaster John Grove, the teachers and the assistants, all of whom put in so much work to make the carnival such a success!