Harvesting and clearing

Monday 16th October
On the way to the allotment I picked up 3 bags of grass litter from a neighbour who had just scarified her lawn. A huge pile of compost material but no space in the bin so I am stacking it on the old pea patch.
Then I checked my green manure again. There was no sign of the rye grass though there were a few seedlings that must be the Vetches. Some of the tape had become detached and needed re-tieing.
​There was a picking of runner beans, enough for a meal but probably the last of the year - apart from those growing seed for next year.
I then thinned about a third of the row of spinach beet collecting a huge amount of spinach to take home.
Next I harvested the rest of the row of carrots. Unfortunately nearly half had to go straight on the compost heap, including the one that had been reduced to a squishy mess which I had to scoop up with a trowel.
Then I moved on to the bed of mixed squashes. While planting the shallots next door I realised that many of the vines were dying bank so the squashes must be ready to harvest. After going through the bed cutting the squashes free I started gathering up the vines for the compost heap only to find several more squashes that had remained hidden. I want sure if the small dark green ones, 'Rolet', heard grown fully but read later that they only get to grapefruit size. Wherever possible I make sure each squash had a short length of vine with the stalk attached so it had a short of T-handle as I read that it makes for better ripening. They finished up lined up allowing my greenhouse path at home to fully ripen and garden their skins so I can store them through the winter.

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Finally I spent some time trimming off the seedheads on the weeds growing through the netting on the strawberry bed, catching as much as I could in a plastic bag as they had fully ripened and threatened to scatter all over the place!