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! |