Finally at 5 o'clock I realised the rain had stopped. With the runner bean plants still in the car from yesterday, I nipped down to the plot before it could start again. I needed to put in the canes before planting but had to scrabble around for old ones some of which were too short. However I shall replace them in the next day or so before the plants get to entwined. Grown in deep Rootrainers, there were just enough 'Moonlight' plants to fill half the double row but some of them were a bit weak and I had to separate those where two seeds had both germinated to get enough plants. The rest of the row was planted with 'Firestorm' where almost all the cells had two good seedlings. They are growing so strongly I felt I could risk leaving both to grow on. Purists would say to remove one seedling but that is difficult for me to do when they are a foot or more high.
This is the second sowing of 'Moonlight' and both have been problematical so, if 'Firestorm' is good to eat I can see me abandoning the former next year.

Tuesday 28 June
Having got back from Yorkshire after a family funeral, I had lots to do at home ready for the arrival on Thursday of my son and his family from America, so I did not get down to the plot with my over-grown runner bean plants until about 3 o'clock. As I went on to the plot it started to rain and soon it was soaking me as I had no waterproof clothing with me so I gave up and set off straight home. As I got to the gate it eased and almost stopped so I returned to the plot.
As I harvested the strawberries it came on to rain again so I decided just to harvest enough for dinner. However, it was clear blight had got to my early potatoes (Foremost) so I cut all the haulms off at ground level and stuffed them in a plastic bag ready for the tip and dug up one plant for dinner. It produced a good crop though I still managed to spear one large potato and split it in half!
I then pulled a cabbage. Although large it is not very dense but as fresh cabbage it is still good.
By then I was soaked and scurried home vowing to return tomorrow if at all possible. The runner bean plants are still in the back of my car!

Sunday 19th June
Today I planned to brace my brassica tunnels and fix them down but things did not go quite to plan. Being Sunday the cafe was open so, as I arrived a bit later than usual, I decided to start with morning coffee. As usual there was the normal crack and a delicious slice of cake. I was just about to go and start working on the plot when I heard a familiar voice as my son arrived with a Father's Day card - with a suitably veg and computer theme! I then gave him a tour of the plot while we chatted until he left to enjoy his Father's Day celebrations.
I then discovered that I had forgotten to bring the right screws for the bracing! So I went home to get them where lunch was ready!
Having had lunch and got the right screws I turned in the afternoon and fixed the tunnel with little difficulty. I used short lengths of dahlia stakes from the Trading Hut banged in beside each post and corner  and then a long screw drilled through into the tunnel's woodwork. I doubt the strongest gale will dislodge the 10 stakes for each tunnel.
There were a few weeds that had penetrated the horse litter mulch but most had not managed to put down strong roots - apart from the thistles and bindweed which got a squirt of glyphosate.
I then harvested strawberries but quite a few had slug damage, so a light dressing of slug bait followed when I reset the netting. There were also broad beans ready though the spring cabbages seemingly refuse to heart up.
Finally I weeded half the row of parsnips that have just come through so I was able to harvest a huge bunch of the radishes I had sown as markers.

​Friday, 17th June
Despite the weather I decided I needed to press on and plant out my squashes as they are growing apace. When I picked up the pots containing the spaghetti and butternut squashes from where they were standing in the greenhouse I found they had rooted into the soil beneath.
Having placed the pots around and between the corn I decided they needed something better than plain soil, compacted during the growing of the brassicas. (The last time this patch was dug over was the autumn before last as they like to be in firm ground.) I therefore fetched a barrow load of good quality horse manure from just inside the gate. Having dug a square hole a spit deep, I loosened the soil at the bottom before adding a good shovel full of manure and mixing it with a fork. I then scraped the soil back over and pressed my foot onto the heap to compact it a little.  The various stages are illustrated in the photo. (Spade - hole dug: Shovel - manure added: Fork - manure mixed and soil returned ready for  planting: Planting complete in the background.)

​Planting into that was then easy.
I added three Patapan squash plants in the space behind the corn. All the squashes should enjoy the semi-shade of the corn and the plum tree on the neighbouring plot. I don't plan to follow the 'Three Sisters' approach by planting climbing French Beans to climb up the corn as when I tried it a few years ago I got a good crop but harvesting was a nightmare picking my way through squash vines trying not to step on the developing squashes while picking the beans. By the time I harvest the corn I hope the squashes are big enough to avoid!
After adding kitchen waste to the compost bin and covering it with grass clippings from a neighbour, I picked some strawberries and pulled masses of radishes from those marking my parsnip row while weeding the row. I also dug out the first plant of my first early potatoes and took home enough for two meals.
Needless to say, despite sheltering in the car several times, sometimes with the engine running and the air conditioning going full blast to dry me out, I went home soaked!

Thursday, 16th June
I am still way behind with everything so I had to come down to the plot, even though it was almost incessant heavy showers. Even so I didn't get down until after 3pm.
My priority was to get my sweet corn planted now that the tunnels had been moved off the bed reserved for them. However I had forgotten that the ends of the posts were still in the ground! It took ages to dislodge them especially as I had to shelter in the car from the rain twice. Once they were out of the ground it started to pour down so I went for a coffee break in the car. After waiting 20 minutes I decided if it didn't stop by 5.30 I would collect the trays of plants, put them back in the car and go home. At 5.29 it stopped so I started marking out the bed. Setting out the 30 plants in a 5 by 6 grid should produce good cross fertilisation. This arrangement almost fills the bed but leaves enough room for the squashes that I want to plant in and around the corn.
The plants have been ready for some time so they were pot bound and the roots needed teasing out as I set them in the ground with a little bunds round them to concentrate any water to the roots. I also added a dose of chicken manure to each plant to get them off to a good start before giving them a good watering despite the rains.
I went home with a nice patch of neatly planted corn.

​

Last Tuesday, having been away for the weekend I planned a good session on the plot.
Things did not start well when I discovered I had left my cordless drill behind which I had wanted to use to fix braces to one of my net tunnels. Without it I set to earthing up the row of late planted potatoes. Unfortunately that meant digging out clumps of dandelion roots growing alongside the row first but I soon had almost covered the emerging shoots in a nice ridge.
I am surprised that we haven't yet had a 'Smith period' warning, a period of high risk of blight spreading. Warm night's and humid days usually mean the fungus thrives and spreads. However I have pulled a few brown spotted leaves off my potatoes, just in case and well check them at every visit, removing any suspect foliage as soon as I can.
On my next visit I will 'firtle' around beneath my first earlies to see if there is anything worth eating yet.
Then I realised that I had several bags of garden waste from my neighbours. The bin only had room for the one in a reusable bag so the rest were stacked up with all the other black plastic bags behind the compost bins ready for when there is room. The contents will rot down nicely while they are waiting.
I then decided to do some harvesting. There were quite a few fat pea pods so I picked them - my first crop of the year. It was a bit of a long drawn out process as the chickweed had grown well under the netting and needed dealing with.
The autumn planted broad beans were also big enough to pick and, as the row of plants was so sparse, I just pulled up the whole row and then picked the beans off the plants. A much easier way to do it!
I then got a call from my son saying he and my grandson could come and help move my brassica tunnels. A request for help from my good neighbour, Tom, and a call home to my wife and I had enough manpower to move them. It took a few minutes, while waiting for them to arrive, to cut through the last few stakes holding them down and, with one on each corner and one in the middle they were soon on their new sites. One will need some extra bracing but will stand for a day or two unless we have a gale.
A rooted plantlet of spineless blackberry had to be dug out to make way for the tunnel so I gave it to a new tenant who had just started cutting down the jungle of weeds on the plot she had just taken over. I also offered her some rhubarb which is the only thing I have plenty of - though I did have a few strawberries to collect. 
That done and my helpers dispersed with grateful thanks, I tidied up and went home.

​As I was going away for the weekend again on Thursday I felt I had to deal with the weeds that had taken over the far end of my plot. For once it did not involve weeding as they were so large and well rooted and the soil so dry and hard, all I could do for the most part was cut them down! There was so much buried equipment in amongst the jungle that I had to get out my trusty bill hook. Using it is a skill I learned fifty years ago doing a summer holiday job cutting the grass for Stevenage council before the days of strimmers. By keeping it sharp with a file I can use it to cut large areas or to work in confined spaces. Nevertheless it took over an hour to dispose of the jungle with five barrow loads of growth going onto the compost. There are rather too many seed heads in it for my liking but I had nowhere to burn it and no time to take it to the tip.

Having been away for the weekend on Tuesday I needed to catch up with the weeding. The last few visits to my plot I have had to concentrate on weeding and today was no exception. After borrowing John Bachelor's strimmer to tidy up the long grass just outside my plot, I was horrified to see, or rather not see, my strawberries. They were completely swamped by chickweed. Now chickweed is a sign of fertile soil I am told, but it doesn't do any good for strawberries to be covered in them. It took over an hour to hand weed the bed. The photo shows the job part done and how thick the matt of weeds had got.
    I pulled out everything except the bindweed. This I teased out and laid to one side as can be seen in the foreground of the photo. Then when I had finished weeding I fetched my glyphosate spray and a bottomless bottle. Two plants were so big I could lay them off the bed onto bare ground and spray the foliage but the smaller plants, in amongst the strawberries, I stuffed into the bottom of the bottle and then sprayed into the neck of the bottle. If you keep the open end close to the ground none of the spray can escape onto the crop but the weeds inside gets a good soaking. Just be careful not to allow the wet weed leaves to brush against the crop as you remove the bottle.
​I try to only use glyphosate on bindweed and thistles where the root is almost impossible to pull out completely, even with a fork.
​    I was reminded that my New Year's resolution to hoe before the weeds got too large had gone by the wayside and I was now suffering the consequences. While the weeds this year have grown faster than I have known before, that is no excuse as my neighbours have managed to keep their plots tidy.
    I finished off pushing the hoe through between my autumn sown broad beans in an effort to remove the worst of the weeds without chopping off the bean plants. While doing this I noticed that the blackfly had started colonizing the tips of the plants so when I had cleared most of the weeds I fetched my pyrethrum spray and pinched of all the tips of that row and the first spring sown beans, giving each plant a quick spray to deal with those that blackfly that may have migrated further down the stem.
    By then it was way past lunchtime so I went home leaving piles of pulled weeds scattered around the plot waiting to be added to the compost heap, hopefully tomorrow - and a large patch of thick grass and weeds at the far end of my plot to deal with as well.