Got down the plot - eventually!

Saturday morning I finally got down the plot as it was nice and sunny after not managing to visit at all this week. However it was still cold and the soil was still frozen - as were the heaps of compost and leafmould I had planned to rake out flat. That included the six barrowloads of compost my son, Ivor, had dug out of the bin last week and heaped out on this year's bed for sweet corn etc.

​
It was immediately obvious that the small brassica tunnel had been blown out by the gales. It took quite a while but, with the addition of a few extra pegs, I had it fully enclosed with netting again.




​Next I tackled the single remaining climbing bean tower. I extracted the canes, sliding them out from the haulms once I had cut through the tier holding them to the top of the central pole. They slid nicely into the rack in the shelter by the shed. The haulms went into the compost bin.
I then emptied the kitchen waste bin on top and fetched the two big bags of house dust from a neighbours built-in central vacuum system. Clouds of dust made me stand upwind of the bin to cut open and tip out the bags. Spreading it out meant much of it trickled down through the haulms and mixed with the top layer of compost.

---

​The next hour or so I spent pruning. I did a basic pruning of the blackcurrants and honeyberry and jostaberry bushes, removing badly placed and dead and diseased branches. I'll look up whether I should trim them back. The gooseberries need their winter pruning as well but I will need thick gloves for that!

In the greenhouse I had left the pepper plants hoping they might survive the winter but they hadn't. In fact they were very dead and mouldy so I cut them down and removed the roots, twisting them round so they left as much as possible behind in the grobags. I plan to use the contents of the bags to enrich the soil beneath so I can plant this year's crop directly into the soil in the greenhouse.
Finally I folded up the empty builders bags I had used to bring down leaves ready to take home for more leaves from my neighbour and collected the non-functioning electronic animal scarer from the shed to recharge it's batteries at home.
The following day, Sunday, I came down as usual in the morning and bought an additional post for the tayberry support from the Trading Hut. My son, Ivor, was otherwise engaged so I on my own. I pruned a couple of big branches off the crab apple tree, trying to continue the process of rebalancing the tree after the gale damage last year. I also chose which of the two leader shoots I would retain and pruned the other down to a few buds.
With help from John from a neighbouring plot I loaded my oil drum incinerator into the barrow and, together with the prunings, took it round to Association burning patch, run by Ray. With the rule banning fires on plots he'll be able to make much better use of it than I can.



I then harvested the last remaining cauliflower. The spring cauliflowers I had grown from expensive seed and planted out had succumbed to the weather - more protection needed next year!




​I was about to set off home when I saw John collecting barrowloads of neat fresh manure form the end of the track so I collected two loads for the compost heap, spreading it out over the house dust.
Then I went home - late.

---