Finally got to the plot on Thursday afternoon. I found the rope I had left over was enough to brace the second brassica tunnel after struggling a bit to straighten them on my own. I also measured out and cut to length the cord I will use to support the Jerusalem Artichokes, dieting it to the posts in readiness.
I then moved the cloche over from the few struggling autumn sown pea plants to protect the newly planted broad beans I had bought cheap in Lidl. Those I sowed a little while ago have just started showing through the compost at last.








​Cutting down the Phacelia green manure with my bill hook resulted in a heap of green stuff which I couldn't spread over the patch to rot down.








I therefore scooped it up and put it in the compost heap and spread a thin layer of compost from my bin of ready to use compost ready for this year's crops.

​In last year's potato patch I noticed several raspberry shoots that had escaped from the next door row. Using a fork I eased them from the ground, trying not to disturb the soil more than necessary.
Looking at the leaf bin I realised there was room for more so I emptied another bag into it, covering it with its carpet cover to limit leaves being blown away. At the same time i emptied the kitchen waste bin into the compost bin burying the waste on under the green manure.
Harvesting consisted of some immature cabbage plants that were beginning to run to seed as spring greens. I also dug out a couple of parsnips.
On Sunday I spent a while with a couple of willing helpers filling some of the potholes we missed on the Working Party. Once we had used the last of the scalpings I returned to the plot having just enough time to harvest some Brussel Sprouts and a good crop of Purple Sprouting.

It has rained so much over the last ten days that I've not got to spend too much time on the plot.
However, after saving the willow whips for planting to shade my greenhouse I realised that maintenance of a willow hedge might just be too much effort. Instead I decided to bang in a couple of posts I had lying around so I will be able to support the Jerusalem Artichokes when they grow tall. I also banged in, using the thumper borrowed from the Trading Hut, a couple of 8 foot posts to support the loganberry that I pruned back. However, when my neighbour from the plot behind made the suggestion we put a gate in I realised one post was now in the wrong place.

​It took several days for me to gather everything together to extract it as it was over two feet into the ground. Eventually I levered it out at the second attempt using a block of wood screwed to the post and my scaffold pole/post hole borer and a stack of slabs, bricks and wooden slabs. It was so deep and firmly stuck that the first time the screws securing the block to the post just ripped out!
I'll be able to re-position the post once I've cleared the junk behind the shed on the other side of the loganberry!

​The other structural task I've done was, fortunately, a success!
​Using some rope I had left over from another job, I have straightened up one of my brassica cages using the rope as a diagonal straining wire to pull it back upright. The constant gales over the winter had pushed it over, giving it a crazy lean. At least now the support arches are in a vertical plane.

​Having sown peas last autumn under cloches and had them grow well only to gradually disappear, I had sown some Kelvedon Wonder and some Sugar Snap in pots at home in the greenhouse. Now they are a few inches high I have hardened them off and planted them out in a sheltered spot with a net tunnel over them to keep the worst of the weather off. I ripped out what was left of the autumn sown broad beans to give space for them and sowed a new short row of beans alongside.

​Using a new hoe my son has brought with him which has a huge cutting head, I hoed off the weeds from the bed (4m. by 1m.) where the cucumbers grew last summer. It shows how much I am behind as it took a wheelbarrow to take the heap down to the compost bin! Now I need to mulch the bed.

​With just a short time left on the plot I started digging over the path next to the Autumn raspberries (Joan J) taking out all the fine roots in an effort to reduce the number of wayward shoots that raspberries always seem to send up away from the main plants.
Harvesting to take home was some small Brussels, some purple sprouting, a leek and two huge parsnips that had intertwined! 

​P.S. I was frustrated when the next day I visited the tip to dispose of some un-compostable garden waste, only to see a dozen stalks of huge Brussels in the skip. If I could be sure that they were wholesome and not sprayed with chemicals I would have gathered some up to take home instead of my puny crop!

​PPS On the way out, yet again, I found someone had left the gate wide open! Perhaps the rash of pilfering is someone wandering in through the open gate!