I've Made It!!

Finally I’ve made it to the allotment, yep I forwent my Sunday lay in and prepared a pack lunch for myself and kids and took myself off the plot. The kids were walked down later by their dad after they had their lie in and a relaxed brecky (lucky them).

On arriving I immediately got stuck and since the kids weren’t there I was able to get quite a lot done in a short space of time without any distractions whatsoever (except Oscar the lotty cat who wanted a rub down) .

So what did I get done; I started the week before last to clear the last 10ft or so of the back of my plot of the composting materials that was on it from the communal heap and I also started to cut back the nettle to a manageable level for digging out. As I was not able to get their last week the work I had done was undone by others not realising I had started clearing and they had add fresh composting material to an area I had already cleared but as it was fresh it was easy to move off again.

Today I cracked on and removed all the composting material off the plot, there was lots of useful stuff on my plot which I removed and neatly stacked on the communal section, such as bags of soot, ash, bark and leafmold, there was also large folded pieces of carpet, chicken wire and 4” thick logs approx 5ft in length. Any rubbish was left in a neat pile for discarding Wednesday when I would see the others as I didn’t know where or how the got their rubbish dumped.

In between all that I was constantly cutting down the nettle patches which weren’t a lot but tall. I disturbed many a frog and lots of snails, very little slugs were seen. All that is left to do is to cut down a small holly tree but I didn’t walk with a saw so that will be my Tuesday job and I also hope to start digging over that patch of ground to remove all the nettle roots and as much as I can get out of the bind weed roots I came across.

The kids did join me about a half an hour before lunch and we all had a nice picnic together. They also helped me to shell some past their best runner beans which was on my plot and which I noticed the others had been clearing and composting. And as you know I hate waste so the remaining plants I cleared for myself and de-podded the fresh full beans, which was made into a lovely stew for dinner today.

Here is a before and after of the area I cleared. The first photo was taken on the 11th when I started.

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Now here is a quick update on what’s been harvested before the weekend:

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Friday morning before the day ran away with me I harvested what needed to be harvested. The runner and French beans are doing so well this late in the season with their second flush of flowers saving me from cursing myself for my lack of discipline re successional sowings and watering of the current crops. The patty pans are still producing and I removed this damaged butternut to use now (this will let the plant concentrate on ripening the undamaged ones better), it will be lacking in sweetness but the flesh would be lovely and dense with a clean starchy flavour. The radishes (which I forgot about) and the carrots will be used over the weekend and the sweet corn was used Friday. The tomatoes are finally slowing down but there is still more than enough for our needs. The borlotti beans are starting to dry at a faster rate now and as you can see in the picture below the ones I picked earlier have stared to split and shed their seeds.

On Friday I also took pictures of these two pretty blooms;

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Another new but tiny sunflower.

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This emerging carnation/ dianthus which was bought in Morrisons a few weeks back, I really need to plant the poor thing out, maybe tomorrow.

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Hope to do a little pottering in the garden tomorrow, such as; planting out some plants that are in pots, etc, but i'll fill you all in when those jobs are done.