Sunday 1st October
I arrived even later than usual (F1 on TV) and stopped by the trading hut to buy some landscape fabric for my garden. In the absence of my usual Sunday morning coffee (the café did not open this week) I spent some time discussing Association issues with Alan Ruck, our secretary, and helping to sort out a problem with the new container's lock so it was very late before I got to the plot!
First I checked the patch where I had sown green manure but there was no sign of any germination. Once again I had used old seed! A new package of winter green manure, ordered online, arrives at the end of the week and I shall have to re-sow.
I then raked flat the ridges where the potatoes had been lifted ready to plant my onion sets and shallots before checking my winter root crops. The Swedes needed a bit of thinning. However the radishes were very crowded and overgrown so few are usable. I pulled several handfuls from the ground and found less than a dozen worth taking home to see if they are reasonably tasty. Most have been attacked, by slugs I think, and many have split with the recent rain so are compost material. I then started thinning the leaf beet but soon realised the thinnings would make a good meal so stopped when I thought I had enough. (Though when I got home I was informed I had enough for two or three meals!)
There was lots of chickweed around the Swedes and radishes which I had hoped to clear but I had only just started when I was told of a plotter who had access to a heap of top quality horse manure but no bulk transport. After a short discussion it was agreed that I would take my trailer over and help share it around 'deserving' plotters in a couple of weeks.
Buy the time I got back to the plot and cleared a small amount it had come on to rain so I cleared up and went home for an early lunch!

Thursday 28th September
Once again I arrived in mid-afternoon! I had bought some garlic and onion sets in InExcess last week so decided it was time to plant some.
I used the cultivator to smooth a patch where the potatoes had been growing and marked out a row. I plant garlic fairly deep, given the light soil, so I used my dibber to make holes 8" apart. (Afterwards I read that garlic should be planted 12" apart!) Two of the three bulbs had enough cloves for the row leaving one bulb to give some to fill in gaps later. I finished with a row of Germidour and a row of Casablanca both of which I think are soft neck varieties which keep well.
My Leaf Beet and Mooli  are both growing well and needed thinning. The Leaf Beet is a staple winter/spring crop I grow every year but the Mooli, described as a winter radish, is a first for me. I thinned them leaving a couple of inches between each but had obviously left it a bit late as the thinnings were as big as carrots so I sorted out the bigger ones and set them apart to take home. I offered a couple to neighbours to try before they think about growing them and will see for myself when I try them sliced up with my salad tomorrow!
Then I realised I had forgotten to bring down the overflowing kitchen waste bin for the compost bin and, as it was teatime, decided to pick the raspberries and blackberries and take them home while I fetched the bin.
After tea I returned to the plot to finish weeding the young Kohl Rabi plants. They had been attacked by pigeons so I draped a length of netting over them after I had finished. The radishes and Swedes in the next rows also need weeding - next time.
By the time I had finished it was getting dark and I cleared up leaving just one plotter finishing off so I left the gate ready to lock up as I went.

Monday 25th September
Waiting in for the delivery of a package containing the locks for the new container meant I was very late down on the plot this afternoon.
I had brought my trailer down full of garden waste from a neighbour who was doing an autumn clear up. I emptied the sacks of plant material onto one bin and added the necessary two handfuls of activator. The three big waste sacks she had filled with the grass from scarifying her lawn were too big to add to the bin so I left them in a heap on a vacant patch on the plot.
While emptying these sacks I was surprised to see quite a few young runner beans so I picked more than enough for a meal leaving the big old pods to develop and dry out to give some seed for next year.
I did a quick check of the makeshift slug traps I had dosed with beer from an out of date can I found at home to find a few small dead slugs in one. I am sure there are lots more out there!
Before going home I drove the trailer round to the long compost bin at the far end of the site and filled it with the last of the good quality 'manure/compost' that had not been taken by anyone. It took a while to remove the weeds that had begun to sprout all over the heap but I didn't want it to go to waste when the next delivery of 'horse litter' was dumped on top of it!

​Sunday 24th September
After doing some work on the new container with John Bachelor our chairman, and recovering with a delicious slice of cake and coffee despite the damaged café shed, I arrived on the plot quite late.
My main priority was to prepare the patch next to the leeks where I had lifted the potatoes ready for planting the garlic and shallots. Buying the bulbs from InExcess means little choice but they are ridiculously cheap. I am still checking whether garlic 'Germidour' is a hard neck variety that doesn't store - or not. However the cost was only 15% of the £30 I would have paid if I had ordered online.
Having already dug out the rows of potatoes I only needed to dig the trenches between and remove the odd weed. I then decided to weed the rows of leeks next to the patch. I managed to hoe most of the weeds without chopping through a single leek plant but I really need to leave a bit more space between rows as I trod on several! I tried to range off the weeds with a cultivator as the rake was too wide but eventually found the fork was the best implement. For once I even remembered to hand weed between the plants where the hoe couldn't reach without damaging the leeks themselves.

Now all I need to do to before planting the garlic and shallots is rake it over to get a good tilth and work in some fertilizer.
After exerting myself doing that I cooled down by picking some greens for my evening meal. One of the cabbage stumps had produced several shots with good heads of 'autumn' (not spring) greens so I pulled up the one plant and trimmed off the heads to take home. A Savoy cabbage had formed a good solid head so rather than leave it to go off, I pulled it up and plan to hang it in the garage to eat later in the week. As I was leaving the brassica tunnel I noticed a broccoli head and then found a couple more I had missed - just enough for a meal!
Then I looked at my squashes as Monty Don said to clear leaves away from them to let the sun ripen them. I did this by removing most of the mildewed leaves, revealing 5 well developed marrows as well.

​I also found a courgette which I put by on a slab ready to take home. It is still there as I forgot it! I hope it doesn't suffer overnight before I collect it tomorrow.​
​Before going home for a late lunch I harvested a good helping of raspberries and blackberries though I got caught in a shower before I had finished.

Saturday 23rd September
I need to get the last of the Sarpo Mira potatoes out of the ground so I came down to the plot specially. After sorting out a couple of issues regarding the new container with our chairman, I set to digging them up. I had cut down the haulms some time ago to avoid the dreaded blight but obviously didn't do it early enough. There were at least a dozen soggy stinking masses that had been potatoes. Most of the plants had one or more affected tubers. I need to remember that even Sarpo Mira is not immune from blight, only 'resistant'. There was also quite a bit of slug damage, possibly because the slugs had a lovely time while I was away on holiday and the weeds grew luxuriously. The spuds will need careful sorting before I store any and the bag of haulms and infected potatoes will have to go to the tip..
Once the tubers were out drying in the sun I dug out some carrots. Once again they had suffered from various forms of attack and I threw more than half of those I lifted onto the compost heap. They were seriously crowded as well, resulting in some peculiar shapes so when I had finished I turned to the row of young seedling carrots and went along the row thinning them so there was at least a finger width between each seedling. Later I will thin them some more and then lift them before they have time to suffer too much.
Having forgotten to harvest the dwarf French beans, Safari, last time I started on them. There were a few beans on the plants I had previously cropped but no flowers so I decided to pull the plants up and then pick the beans. This meant I didn't have to bend over so much (something I find a major problem with dwarf french beans) - and it is easier to avoid leaving some beans behind.
I pulled up the rest of the row bar two plants, which I have left to produce seed for next year, and got quite a crop. The Tendergreen beans growing alongside are going to be left to provide dried 'haricot' type beans as they are not as tender as Safari but have produced lots of pods.
I had brought down a plastic tub into which I had emptied two boxes of Garotta compost activator. I left it ready for use by the compost bins, two handfuls over every substantial layer.

Wednesday 20th September
Having arrived early for the installation of the new sea container for the Trading Post, when it was all finished I took the opportunity to do some work on the plot. However, before I left the Trading Hut I collected a dozen 8ft canes to train my blackberries along. As I saw in one of my magazines, using canes avoids having to strain wires between the posts.
I had a bit of a shock when I temporarily lost them from outside the Trading Hut while talking with another tenant. Fortunately I asked around and found that someone had taken care of them in their shed!
On arrival at the plot I stored the canes away and then stacked the bags of weeds onto my already full compost bins. I scattered a couple of handfuls of 'Garotta' compost activator (available from InExcess at a very reasonable price for 3.5kg) as a colleague has done a trial on two parallel compost bins using activator on only one. The activated one has taken 3 times as much compost and rotted down well. Currently mine are heaped up so high that they are barely covered by the carpet 'lid'. Hopefully they will rot down nice and quickly.
I then spent a bit of time with the hoe cutting through the weeds that had shot up on the patch at the back of the plot. I had pulled up the taller, deeper rooted weeds so it was the chickweed and groundsel that mainly carpetted the patch. However, the weeds made a huge heap on the path when I had raked them clear - too much for the compost heap for now.
While walking up and down a head of broccoli had caught my eye.  As I went in to harvest it I saw there were several heads on the plant and more on its neighbours - enough for at least two meals.
There were also a few young runner beans visible but when I started picking them I managed to find quite a few.
I also wanted to pick the dwarf French Beans but realised I had forgotten them on the way home!

Monday, 18th September
I spent most of the day on the plot today trying to catch up. I started by digging up a row of Sarpo Mira potatoes. There were none of the huge tubers that I had last year but there was still quite a good crop, though there was signs of slug damage. I left them on the soil to dry out while I did other work on the plot.
I then took some time with the hoe cutting through the weeds that had shot up on the patch at the back of the plot. I had pulled up the taller, deeper rooted weeds first so it was the chickweed and groundsel that mainly carpeted the patch. However, the weeds made a huge heap on the path when I had raked them clear - too much for the compost heap for now. I also cleared the ground from under the Blueberry bushes in the next bed as they were getting covered in weeds.
Checking over the marrows and squashes I collected two large marrows and several courgette size ones. The courgettes have almost finished, there are no green ones and a just a few yellow courgettes swelling nicely. I also picked a vegetable spaghetti squash but then spiked one that was next to the path while forking weeds into a heap so took home two!
Finally I picked a good crop of raspberries and blackberries before collecting the potatoes and going home for dinner.

Monday 11th September
Today, in response to the Blight warnings, I cut all the tops, or haulms, off my potatoes and bagged them up ready to take to the tip. I also bagged up the plastic waste I had collected in a wire basket at my gate to take to the tip at the same time.
With supporting rain starting I retired to my shed and started clearing it out. The smell was overpowering from the rats and I suddenly remembered I should be wearing gloves for this job. The good material I transfer to the greenhouse but there is much rubbish. It takes quite a while to bag up netting though much of it was torn so was added to the plastic going to the tip.
I got half way into the shed when I had had enough and as soon as the rain eased I stopped and started picking raspberries and both French and runner beans.
I also harvested the last of the current cauliflowers that appeared, a bit to my surprise, and matured nicely over the last few days.