Sunday 22nd September 2013

Up as it got light 7:00ish dressed and breakfast and left for the allotment about 7:30. Started inspecting my domain which once again had been raided by Mr Fox or perhaps a couple of them. Bed 3 had two dig holes and he obviously was not interested in the potatoes that he had dug up! Bed 9 had a hole and a few of the wood chipped paths around had been dug as well.

Got the wheel barrow and went to the car and found Mr Fox standing between the two gates watching me, as I got nearer he slipped away under the fence and into the overgrown area where I suspect he has his den. I picked up the two tugs of paving bricks that I brought down to the allotment to make a base for the water butt. I also took some sheets of cardboard and hessian and onion sacks that I had brought from home, and wheeled them back to plot 1A

So first thing first, I dug up all the remaining potatoes from Bed 3. I dug around in the 2/3 of the bed that I had already dug the potatoes from and found quite a few that had obviously been hiding. The soil is really good and I managed to remove some couch grass and a few other weed that are trying to re establish themselves in this bed. In the harvesting and weeding process I have removed quite a lot of stones and bits of brick and general debris from the bed. I can see that with each season the soil should get better and better, what I don't really understand is with the age of the site why it isn't better than it is already?

So with the sieve full to the brim with potatoes I raked, levelled and removed more stones and sprinkled the bed with mustard as green manure. I then topped it off with a sprinkling of compost to cover the mustard seeds to keep them away from the birds prying eyes. Bed finished the wind sock went in and two bamboo canes with plastic bags to hopefully scare and keep the birds away, (fat chance).

The weed are really growing well under the pop bottle cloche, so I decided to move it to Bed 2 over the spring onions. This is where I shall over winter the rest of the onions.

Next job was the bricks under the water butt 

I have seen very few slugs so far, but during today's visit I captured and exterminated four of the bleeping things, two going up the debris netting, one outside and more worrying one inside on Bed1, another on the very large compost bin donated by my sister and the last on a brick that I moved. I shall have to get into the beds with sprouts and cabbages, clear the weed and the lower leafs and sprinkle blue pellets of death me thinks, perhaps a job for a lunchtime visit.   

Thinking about winter and the need for the water butt then looking at how the sun has bleached the front of the shed, I decided to paint the front and side of the shed. The side where the greenhouse is will have to wait until I've done with the greenhouse. I have a side extension to the shed planned for there. There are a few locations where the odd nail would be useful to stop the rain running inside because of the way the feather edge cladding is bowed - another lunch time job me thinks.

I harvested another large onion sack of  runner beans and all of the corn as they are not looking good and with the weather turning. So corn on the cob tonight for tea, especially as Kelly loves them so much and she is away on holiday for a week from tomorrow. She considers all corn from the allotment hers but is willing to share with immediate family and Sid only.

The black dalek is full and I ended up clearing a small bed in the edge of the site and installing the large green dalek donated by my sister. By the time I had filled it with the grass and other allotment plants and leafs etc it must have been at least 9inches to a foot deep. A sprinkling of comfrey on top as an activator. The runner beans will end up in there when I finally strip them. If the weather holds there should be a couple more weeks of beans to harvest yet.