Re-taming The Bindweed

A couple of hours on the plot On Saturday morning working on the main path, getting the slabs back in line and filling the gaps between the edges of the slabs and the square foot garden beds with woodchip. harvesting another bed of onions and starting to clear the area around the Hotbin of stinging nettles

Clearing stinging nettles from around the Hotbin, and trimming back the tree. Topped the Hotbin up again.

Daleks will go to the edge of the path once I have trimmed back the tree and removed the square bed

Sweetcorn consumed by rats with fluffy tails and bed behind all growth and no Butternut Squash to harvest, so that will all go in the Daleks once relocated along the path

Onions from third bed of onions

24 Hours later Sunday morning ......

I started by removing the cable ties on the netting and clearing the bind weed on the path to the left of the 4th onion bed. 

Once the majority of the bind weed had been removed from the path, and put in the Dalek on the left I started hitting the bindweed on the path on the right of the onion bed. I'm only putting the weeds in the Dalek to keep them dry so I can burn them without generating too much smoke once I have cleared around the incinerator.  

Strenuous work for someone who can't get down on their knees to work and is worried about falling over or tripping on so much bind weed. It did catch me a few times. 

That bindweed that got in the bed has circled around the timber framing and gone round and round and in and out of the planting membrane. It's grown so fast this year plot 1A was clear of all bindweed until I was diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago. 

It's going to take a few more visits to remove all the bindweed and harvest the onions which are really small and only a couple of sizes larger than the sets that went in. The foliage got nobbled by slugs and snails early on and I think that was what stunted their growth this year. 

The woodchip on the path on the right has totally broken down into soil and both paths need removing and replacing in full like the one in the photo three up. 

What it did enable me to get at the apples safely and harvest them ready to process so my daughter Emma can make some cake and crumble with them.   

I was down on the allotment early and went to TESCO on my way home at lunch time, only to find a numpty had parked over my car that was in the disabled bay when I came back from getting my shopping.  

It does annoy me when people don't consider others, I backed in there because it's easier to get out if there are two cars parked more sensibly.