Friday 16th December
Having bought the necessary hardware in the morning I came down to the plot in the afternoon to hang the gate I had prepared yesterday. By fixing a plank across the gate posts and fixing the gate to it with a couple of temporary screws, I found hanging the gate went very smoothly and quickly. I just need to fix some mesh to it to keep the rabbits out, though the pallets I used before would hardly have stopped them!

​The front of my plot, with its new gate and neat bags of leaves, is beginning to look fairly smart - but don't look at the back of the plot as it is still a mess of weeds and junk and will have too wait until after Christmas.
As I had half an hour of daylight left I set about fixing the large metal mesh I obtained from InExcess to the second brassica tunnel. Once again the work progressed surprisingly easily. As the light finally failed at about 4.30 I managed to cut through the fine mesh and roll it up and clip it with cable ties so the small birds, like blue tits that love the aphids, can now get in.

Next spring I shall be able to unclip the fine mesh and roll it back down to keep the butterflies and their caterpillars out.
In the semi-darkness I put out some more rat bait as most of it had disappeared but once again none of the traps had been triggered.
​As it was dark, as I left I figured none else would be coming onto the site so I locked the gate.

Thursday 15th December
This week I have had to sort out huge amounts of leaves donated by neighbours at home and on site. I had already filled my leaf mould bin and my builder's bag so checked online and found a source of 'misprint' bags at £2.50 each if I ordered 10. They came yesterday and I was pleased to find they were smaller than the normal 1 metre cube so will be easier to lift and move when full.
So today I have fetched 4 huge bags in my trailer from my neighbour at home and packed the contents into a row of my bags. When I added the leaves in large plastic bags given to me by a nearby plotter I finished up with 5 bags filled with compressed leaves stacked next to my bin which I expect will decompose down into the one bin during the next year or so. That means I will have 2 cubic metres of leaf mould to use in 2018. Last year's leaves should be ready next autumn in 2017 but will be a bit less than this year's batch.
In between humping bags of leaves around I also repaired an old gate and removed the old catch ready to hang it from the gate posts I set in concrete yesterday. I was very pleased, and a bit surprised, to find the gate fits perfectly between the posts. I just have to buy and fit the hinges and catch now. It will be a great improvement over the two pallets I have been using to close my entrance for the last few years.
Harvesting has given a few surprises. Whatever has been nibbling my Swedes has turned its attention to my parsnips and a cauliflower. Yesterday I lifted a beautiful parsnip that had been nibbled at the top and pulled the damaged cauliflower together with its neighbour which I dare not leave to be attacked. I put down containers with rat/mouse poison and set rat traps inside plastic milk bottles with both ends removed. Today the poison bait had been taken but no traps had been tripped. My parsnips have had a light sprinkling of paraffin hoping to deter the attackers!

Friday 9th December
Being away for most of the week meant I had missed a visit or two. This morning was lovely and warm but cooled a little as the sky clouded over and a slight breeze arrived. However it was delightful to be on the plot.
Fixing the netting on the side of the brassica tunnel had to wait as once again I did not have all the materials with me but I did manage to sort out my leaf storage. They were in two of my neighbour's builder's bags on loan but I managed to squeeze them all into my single bag by squashing them down a bit and watering them. I covered the top with a piece of old carpet to stop the leaves blowing away but made sure it was dipped in the middle so the rain would collect. A few jabs with my pen knife ensured the water will soak through to help the leaves decompose.

I then returned to the task I finished with on my last visit, hoeing of the mass of weeds at the far end of n my plot.
As I started I was horrified to see that the rats, not content with gnawing through my crop of Swedes, had started on my carrots. It did not take long to dig up all the carrots left in the ground!

I had planned to leave them in the ground and harvest as I needed them but now I will have to sort out stage for them. Fortunately the crop was not too large so they will all be eaten before Christmas I think. While doing this I also lifted all the overgrown beetroot and will spend tomorrow trying to find a use for them.

That left a nice clear patch to hoe between the chard and the parsnips and soon I was pushing a barrow-load of weeds down to the compost bin.
Finally I lifted a couple of leeks to take home, the first of my crop this autumn.

Monday 5th December
My broad beans have been hardening off in a growhouse at home for rather longer than I planned so they have become too tall. However they are growing strongly so worth a try.
I had scraped bare of horse litter a strip next to my winter peas so after cultivating the soil a little I cut 32 holes with my bulb planter, that being the number of cells in the Rootrainer set they were growing in. I arranged the holes in two rows zigzagging them so there was about 8 inches between them. Having watered them well just before starting, the plants came out of the cells very easily. When I had formed them in I watered them then scattered slug pellets sparingly along both the row of beans and also the peas next door. I am told farmers aim for 7 pellets per square metre but I find it impossible to achieve that so use about 5 times that. I have seen them used much more liberally but that is a waste, as well as a danger to other animals.
Last year I lost two thirds of my plants to mice digging them up to eat the remains of the seeds so, once again, I used my trusty paraffin bottle, giving the peas a last sprinkle as well. Then I realised that I had a ready supply of beech twigs that had been mixed in with the leaves so used them to support the flopping lanky plants. Then they were ready to have the net tunnel over them to protect them from wind and extreme weather. Pigeons rarely attack broad beans. They didn't look too bad in the photo.

​By then it was too dark to fix the large mesh onto the side of the brassica tunnel. Instead I removed the fleece covering my parsnips and carrots now there is no chance of carrot fly attack. While doing so I was disconcerted to find all my Swedes which were very small but, for the first time for me, big enough to use had been eaten away, probably by rats given the size of the bits that had been bitten off.
Finally, as I still had no way of storing the leaves in my neighbour's builder's bags, I moved them aside and laid a strip of carpet to leave them on so they don't get mired into the mud.
Once again I left in the gathering gloom, the sun having set some time before. Somebody had left the gate open but I shut it behind me anyway.

Sunday 4th December
I arrived on site after going round my neighbours collecting bags of leaves. Two full builder's bags in my trailer and three plastic bags of leaves in the back of the car.
I had hoped to construct a temporary leaf bin or enclosure with bits of carpet but none of them were the right shape and size. So I just stacked the bags behind the bin, covering each with a square of carpet weighted down with brick to stop the wind blowing the leaves away. If I can obtain more of these bags they make ideal storage without the fuss of building a bin. If I cannot find a source for more so I can return these two to my neighbour, I will have to squeeze the contents into the one bag I have at home.
I had intended fixing the 2 inch mesh to the side of the brassica tunnel but forgot to bring it from home. Having borrowed an identical roll of mesh from the Chairman, I then discovered I didn't have the tools to fix it so will have to do the job on another visit. I did, however, clear the blackberry plant out of the way and unwrapped the roll of mesh ready for the actual work.

​There were a few plantlets where the stems had touch ground and rooted so I left a couple in a friend's greenhouse as he wanted a thornless blackberry.

The only job that I could do was to hoe the mat of weeds, mainly chickweed, from my leeks and roots bed. Having cut through the roots I then had to rake them into heaps by the path before finishing the job by hand weeding round the leeks. Weeds seem to know the best place to take root is right next to the crop! The bed looked much better when I had finished.

​As everyone seemed to have gone home for lunch, the sound of the wind rustling through the tall grasses on a nearby plot was very soothing and replaced the similar sound we have had throughout the summer from the trembling aspen beyond it.

Saturday 3rd December
Yesterday my neighbour called across the fence to say he had more bags of leaves for me. Four builder's bags full of leaves! Nearly four cubic metres!
Fortunately they are bone dry and therefore light and will compress especially when wet.
I squeezed two bags into my trailer and then collected six bin-bags from another neighbour squeezed into the back of my car.
By squashing them down I fitted all the leaves from the builder's bags into the bin, covering the top with a piece of carpet to stop leaves blowing away. The bin-bags I spiked with the fork and poured a gallon of water inside each then stacked them next to the leaf bin to rot down separately until there is enough room in the bin - probably next April! I am not sure what I will do with the leaves in the other two bags. I will have to pile them up somewhere out of the way and cover them - or they will just blow away.
Then I started dismantling my climbing bean frames.
I could not believe how many cable ties I had used to fix the runner bean frame (on the right of the photo), especially as I had not used any for the climbing French beans (on the left). The dried vines went into the compost bin and the canes that were in good condition went into the shed. (I have been told that storing them inside in the dry enables them to survive longer!) 

​Leaf bin full and bean poles tidied away!

​Anyone want the crab apples off the tree to the left. Cannot use them this year! Help yourself! (Plot 52 - halfway down the middle track on the right.)
Finally, needing to be home early for lunch, I pulled a cauliflower to take home.