​Clearing the decks

Friday 20th October
On arrival on the plot the first thing I noted was that there was still no sign of the Ryegrass in the green manure. There was a smattering of vetch seedlings but it took quite a while to find the odd grass shoot. Needless to say there was a developing carpet of weed seedlings. I needed to consider re-sowing.
First I wanted to harvest the broccoli heads, hoping for enough for a meal. As I started I removed some of the old leaves only t to find more heads hiding. By the time I had picked over the 4 plants my trug was overflowing and there was a pile of yellowing leaves and weeds on the path destined for the compost.
Once the broccoli was bagged up I moved to the Brussel sprouts to tidy them in the same way. Two remaining cauliflower plants were blind so joined the growing heap of compost material. I weeded the patch fairly easily as there is still the remains of the horse litter mulch I laid down before planting the brassicas. However, along the side by my strawberries I came across some shoots of bindweed. I fetched the fork and started digging it out only to find a nest of shoots growing under the surface coming out from the strawberry bed. I probably need to lift and replant the whole bed to get rid of the bindweed - which won't be good for next year's strawberry harvest!
Bindweed disposed of and weeds on the compost, I took my new wooden trug to collect the last of the squashes. I picked about ten, fairly small, butternut squashes and three vegetable spaghetti squashes. There was also three large marrows but when I cut them I found holes in the underside of two where slugs had taken advantage of breaks in the skin. Worth taking home for immediate use?
Two of the squashes were given to neighbouring plot holders to try before they think of growing them before going home.