Lazy Sunday Afternoon

My eldest Daughter was unwell and unable to come and help look after the wife this morning in order for me to get a morning plot visit in. Thus, there was little alternative but to make and afternoon visit after a nice Sunday Roast dinner.

John has built a huge pile of Debris that he has removed from the back of vacant plot 11 in order to get at the tree and remove it. For someone in his mid 70's the guy is just awesome, and I don't know where he gets his energy from but if he could bottle it, I would buy some! 

The debris was head high before John when on his clearance mission, he and Henry have cut the tree in the middle of the plot down to about 2 feet above the ground. 

Henry has been subscribing to a service that provides plug plants for each month and decided he didn't want to grow what they have supplied for September, so he distributed the love between Michelle the bee lady and myself. 

SFG Bed 1 was cleared of the Cucumbers, the last few being harvested, I gave the Chard to Michelle as she loves it and I also gave her one of my Celery plants. The Black Beauty Aubergines didn't bear a single fruit and I have no idea why, so they were pulled and added to the composting Dalek.

Once weeded I removed the climbing frame from the back of the bed and planted the Lettuce Autumn Vailan and Autumn All Year Round, taking the Corn Salad and Land Cress home to grow. I watered the lettuce in and re-covered the bed with debris netting   

  

The courgettes have a light dusting of Downy Mildrew forming on the leaves as does some of the comfrey leaves, which is to be expected now that we have rain and morning dew forming as we enter Autumn. There are still a few Courgettes forming. 

The Green Manure I sowed last week was not really showing, but there again I had not managed to get down to the allotment to water it like I did with the last batch. I managed to sow and rake in some more Winter Rye and set the sprinkler on the middle of the bed. I ran out of time as I wanted to get off the plot before the biting insects started as the sun was going down.  

The 2nd sowing of sweetcorn when tested proved ripe and ready for harvest but only eight of the ten managed to survive the rat with a fluffy tail, and that was because I covered the cobs with pop bottles.

Two celery and a small tug of runner beans and four and a half cucumbers, I shared one of the celery and half the runner beans with my neighbour Sid who is in his late 70's and loves it when I bring him goodies back from the allotment. 

The sweetcorn and runner beans were processed and frozen just before 7pm and as it was getting dark. All in all, a good short afternoon and fruitful visit to the plot.