
The usual Sunday morning visit started with shopping at the Trading Hut. I needed fleece to protect the few carrots growing in the row. While there I saw there were only six 6 foot posts left. These are just what I need to tidy up my blackberries which at the moment are spreading all around where they are planted, taking with fruit bushes and squashes. So I bought them for later next month.
Then after a nice mug of coffee and a slice of coconut and cherry cake and a bit of chat, I went to work on the plot, pausing to try, unsuccessfully, to fix a post demarcating one of the manure heaps.
At the plot I started by setting up the fleece over the carrots. Before fixing the cover down I made sure I cleared all the weed seedlings. Experience tells me that the weeds like the cover more than the carrots - and I don't notice until they are huge! Then I hoed between the rows of seedlings on the other side of the path. I was pleased to see how the fennel I had weeded last time looked, growing well and without competition from anything else.
Neighbours still at the stage of clearing their plot were grateful for a couple of my beetroot. They have grown too well and got rather big but I hope they are still usable for them. If nothing else they can be juiced. Later I was able to offer runner beans and courgettes as I harvested. I also took home a good batch of raspberries and a few strawberries.
It is nice at the moment to be eating mostly home grown vegetables.