Finishing off winter preparations in the potato bed

As I am taking a trip away next week I tried to finish off the sowing of Green Manure I needed to do. Having cleared the second potato bed I dug out the required trench along the fence, again removing as much of the bindweed as I could, and levelled off the ridges left from the potatoes. With the ground already broken up the digging with the Backsaver spade took very little time though I needed to take a break halfway through to gather my breath. Despite carefully harvesting the potatoes, I still found nearly a dozen I had left behind and they were not all small ones! There was also a fair few bits of bindweed root showing it is very difficult to remove every single crop/weed when digging.

I had intended pruning out the old summer fruiting raspberry canes but decided that could wait until I return from my trip so instead I started harvesting.

I picked quite a bit of Calabrese/Broccoli. The new crop started with the first big head on the plant and this was added to by the second crop of side shoots on the older plants.

The Runner Beans are just about finished I think. I got enough for a meal but the only pods still on the plants now are those I am leaving for next year's seed. I will leave them to ripen and hopefully turn brown before the winter sets in and they go all soggy.

There were a few climbing French Beans, more than I initially thought when I started picking as they hide themselves very well and I needed to check over the row several times.

Raspberries are coming thick and fast from the half row of 'Polka' autumn fruiting ones. The transplants I have planted in the other half row, taken from those growing on the plot when I took it on, have still not started cropping and I am not sure what I shall get. If the harvest is not good I shall be buying new canes next year!

Finally I got a reasonable crop of Courgettes. Only two yellow ones (and one was very small) but the green 'Tiger' marrow/courgette has started producing. Last time I found a couple of huge "Courg-arrows" (as I call them) at the back of the plant. One is now at home awaiting stuffing; the other I gave to a neighbouring new tenant working hard to clear his plot and not yet harvesting. He also got the split red cabbage I could not use before  going away. Hopefully he can rescue something from it.

With another picking of peas and some Swiss Chard, I took home more than we can cope with before our break away so our neighbours will get the benefit. I hope one of them will be able to water my greenhouse in return!