
Going away in a few days and too much to do! With the warm weather I struggled to work on the plot during the day that resulted in me arriving early and then going home for a late breakfast them returning after my evening meal and working until dark. Indeed today, for the first time ever, I unlocked the gate this morning and locked it as I left in the dark.
Early morning and late evening on the plot are the best times to enjoy the atmosphere. - and get the work done. Over the last few days I have sown, planted, netted, dug and tidied ready for my break and not had chance to write up the blog. This therefore is a summary of all my diurnal sessions.
I started my morning visits on the first day of June, the start of the meteorological summer. I came down to sow my climbing French beans, two seeds at the base of each cane in the newly constructed framework. I then formed a groove between the rows to make sure any water stays close to the seeds and plants. Finally I removed the fleece screen from the runner beans, as they had grown tall enough to avoid bring pecked at by the red-legged partridges, and arranged it round the French beans instead.


Three courgettes, two yellow and one green, will supply most of our needs I hope. Yellow courgettes, which I prefer as they have a thinner skin, produce less vigorously and last year failed almost completely. The grass cuttings will form a mulch to keep the moisture in - after the rain that is forecast.
In the bed where I had planned to plant sweet corn (but the seed didn't germinate) I planted three vegetable spaghetti squashes (my favourite) and three butternut squashes with two marrow plants between. These are Tiger Cross F1 variety which can be picked as courgettes if the others fail.
In a vacant patch of the potato bed I had to dig the soil over as it had been left for nearly two years while growing brassicas. It was very compacted despite previously being covered by a woodchip horse litter mulch.
The dry soil came up in big chunks that needed much prodding and bashing to break it down. Fortunately I had hoed the weeds off beforehand which made the task much easier.
In this patch I planted two winter squashes (Crown Prince) and two summer squashes (Rolet) with a pumpkin (Small Sugar) in the middle. At the back I found space for a fourth vegetable spaghetti squash plant so I don't run out next winter!
All this presupposes that they will survive while I am away but 'you can but try'!
