Between the raindrops!

The whole of the section of the post in front of the scaffold bar was in the ground. Nice and firm!

It has rained so much over the last ten days that I've not got to spend too much time on the plot.
However, after saving the willow whips for planting to shade my greenhouse I realised that maintenance of a willow hedge might just be too much effort. Instead I decided to bang in a couple of posts I had lying around so I will be able to support the Jerusalem Artichokes when they grow tall. I also banged in, using the thumper borrowed from the Trading Hut, a couple of 8 foot posts to support the loganberry that I pruned back. However, when my neighbour from the plot behind made the suggestion we put a gate in I realised one post was now in the wrong place.

​It took several days for me to gather everything together to extract it as it was over two feet into the ground. Eventually I levered it out at the second attempt using a block of wood screwed to the post and my scaffold pole/post hole borer and a stack of slabs, bricks and wooden slabs. It was so deep and firmly stuck that the first time the screws securing the block to the post just ripped out!
I'll be able to re-position the post once I've cleared the junk behind the shed on the other side of the loganberry!

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​The other structural task I've done was, fortunately, a success!
​Using some rope I had left over from another job, I have straightened up one of my brassica cages using the rope as a diagonal straining wire to pull it back upright. The constant gales over the winter had pushed it over, giving it a crazy lean. At least now the support arches are in a vertical plane.

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​Having sown peas last autumn under cloches and had them grow well only to gradually disappear, I had sown some Kelvedon Wonder and some Sugar Snap in pots at home in the greenhouse. Now they are a few inches high I have hardened them off and planted them out in a sheltered spot with a net tunnel over them to keep the worst of the weather off. I ripped out what was left of the autumn sown broad beans to give space for them and sowed a new short row of beans alongside.

​Using a new hoe my son has brought with him which has a huge cutting head, I hoed off the weeds from the bed (4m. by 1m.) where the cucumbers grew last summer. It shows how much I am behind as it took a wheelbarrow to take the heap down to the compost bin! Now I need to mulch the bed.

Sets planted in the homemade compost mulch from my bin

​Down by the gate I have planted my Spring shallot and onion sets. The Autumn ones are doing well but, as I suffered from them going to seed last year, I am hedging my bets with a couple of rows of Sturon white onion sets, 3 rows of Red Baron red onion sets and two rows of Golden Gourmet shallots. At home we are still eating the 2018 crop of shallots, which is good as last year's crop will not get us through to next harvest.

​With just a short time left on the plot I started digging over the path next to the Autumn raspberries (Joan J) taking out all the fine roots in an effort to reduce the number of wayward shoots that raspberries always seem to send up away from the main plants.
Harvesting to take home was some small Brussels, some purple sprouting, a leek and two huge parsnips that had intertwined! 

​P.S. I was frustrated when the next day I visited the tip to dispose of some un-compostable garden waste, only to see a dozen stalks of huge Brussels in the skip. If I could be sure that they were wholesome and not sprayed with chemicals I would have gathered some up to take home instead of my puny crop!

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​PPS On the way out, yet again, I found someone had left the gate wide open! Perhaps the rash of pilfering is someone wandering in through the open gate!