​Compost and rubbish

Monday 12th September
I arrived at the plot today with a builder's bag of grass and leaves from a neighbour, and some of my own garden and kitchen waste in my trailer. Having emptied the big bag out in front of my plot I discovered that it was mostly leaves, all ready to blow away.  Having emptied the rest of the waste onto the compost bin I covered it with a good layer of leaves - a good 'brown' contribution to the heap to balance the mainly 'green' material I normally add.

​Then once again the emphasis was on harvesting.
The runner beans were lovely and young - apart from the odd ones I had missed last time, and there were once again lots of raspberries despite me having picked then yesterday. I decided to leave the French beans until next time but picked instead a good crop of peas before the mildew got through the pod into the peas.

​I also cut quite a few courgettes, mostly yellow as the green ones seem unusually reticent.
I wanted to add to the few Sarpo Mira potatoes that came out of the ground when I removed the haulms so started digging up the end plant. To my surprise that one plant gave me a huge pile of spuds, despite me throwing away 4 large potatoes that had gone green, as you can see in the photo.

​I then started bagging up the potato haulms using my plastic bag filler, a large semi-rigid plastic sheet which when rolled up and pushed into the bag, unrolls to keep the bag open while I push the rubbish into it. The Sarpo Mira potatoes had so much top growth I filled three large bags!

​I also pulled up and bagged the tomato plants from my glassless greenhouse as they had been badly affected by blight.
Having put those bags in my trailer I sorted into separate bags the rubbish inside the gate into metal, bits of old wood and green waste such as cabbage stalks and raspberry canes. Now it is all nice and tidy.

​However by the time I had finished the tip was closed so I would have to leave dumping the rubbish until the morning.