LL's Gardening Diary

Members adventures in the Vegetable Patch all year round
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lancashire lass
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Re: More tomato harvesting and ... chickens!

Post by lancashire lass »

I had to go to the allotment today to do some more tomato harvesting as I haven't been since my visit last Tuesday. Surprisingly not as many as I would have expected considering the length of time gone by, but still a few lbs in weight. With the autumnal feel to the air, and no sign of a warming trend in the forecast, I thought it might be a good idea to give the plants a short back and sides to expose the fruits on the vines and this might hasten some ripening.

The past 2 weeks of my leave has been spent building a secure run for chickens, and on Saturday I got 4 Point-of-Lay hybrids - a Gold Star Ranger, an Amber Star, a Black Star (has a surprising amount of yellow in the feathers - she looks spectacular) and a Blue. The Black has established herself as top hen, with the Amber and Ranger on the bottom. The Blue is just plain evil, going in for kill bites. I feel really sorry for the Amber and Ranger - of all the hens, they are the friendliest and most approachable, letting me stroke them whereas the other 2 are a bit skittish to say the least. Third day in their new home and they seem to know the routine now. Anyway, just wanted to introduce the new members to the LL family even though I know this is not the chicken section:

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davina112
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Re: LL's 2013 GYO Diary

Post by davina112 »

LL, they are lovely hens.
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Linda S
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Re: LL's 2013 GYO Diary

Post by Linda S »

Gorgeous looking girls LL, prepare to let the weeds grow while you chicken watch :-D Lindaxx
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lancashire lass
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Re: LL's 2013 GYO Diary

Post by lancashire lass »

davina112 wrote:LL, they are lovely hens.


Linda S wrote:Gorgeous looking girls LL, prepare to let the weeds grow while you chicken watch :-D Lindaxx


thank you - they are certainly amusing to watch and getting to know them. I'm starting to see the chicken psychology ... if one of the others is enjoying something tasty, it must be tastier than what you've got even though it's the same thing LOL When Black found an earthworm, she then went into a "mine mine mine" mode running round the run attracting attention, and if you pop something wriggly in the run (I found some wood lice), they get so excited. As for listening to the different sounds - the time for bed chorus is so funny, but getting them all settled has become a regular thing while I make sure they are going into the coop (Amber and Goldie don't want to go in the coop if Bully Blue has already gone in, and Black likes to be the last one in)

As for letting the weeds grow, I've still got potatoes to dig up which was meant to be the task today. Suffice to say I decided instead to tinker with the run (now has a bit of guttering as I was the one standing in the mud outside the gate while they enjoyed a nice dry run) and I also built a bit of shelter for storing the bins with the bedding and the feed close by - so now I've not got great big sacks cluttering up the house and the bins won't get all the weather )t'
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Re: LL's 2013 GYO Diary

Post by lancashire lass »

I finally made it to the allotment today and regret not using more of my 3 week leave to get on top of things. Suffice to say the plot from the track side looked very weedy and neglected :oops: With the forecast of high wind and heavy rain, I just had to go and rescue some stuff - once conditions start to get damp at this time of year, a lot of things go mouldy or the slugs and snails move in. I took several bags of old/used compost that I'd been collecting over the year, along with a big tub of chicken poo/soiled bedding (even though only one hen has only just started laying, the poo is still good stuff for the plot )t' and earning their keep LOL)

I harvested 2 big bags of tomatoes - there are loads more just starting to ripen too so fingers crossed the weather doesn't stay too cold and wet for long. Today's other task was to clear the french bean frame (already swinging in the wind and held together with string but it would never survive gale force winds) There were loads of purple pods but most were still fleshy - I actually save the beans and use them in soups and stews - so will need to be dried off first. Last year I had a disaster and did not spread the beans out properly and most went mouldy, so lesson learned.

Next the Borlotti beans - again I use them in soups and stews and as they are full of protein, are a good way of reducing the amount of meat in a meal without compromising the nutrition. Most of the pods were dry and I could hear the beans rattling inside so at least they were easy to extract. I also had some Yin Yan dwarf french beans and a few Minidor bush beans for seeds next year.

Sweetcorn - I teased open a cob and the kernels were juicy and turning colour so ready to pick )c( I've been so worried that I was going to lose this crop - however, not all are ready so fingers crossed. I grew Lark F1 - a tendersweet, and I even ate one raw and it was lovely.

I still had some potatoes in the ground, so I dug up the last half row of Kestrel and one row of Estima. Despite a dry summer, there were plenty of baking potato size spuds in the Estima. Three more rows yet to dig up but back to work tomorrow so did not want to overdo it.

The wind started to pick up and get really gusty by midday - we'd get the occasional light rain but not enough to need running for shelter. I decided to lift up 4 of the courgette plants as they were now coming to the end, and harvested a mammoth marrow. Just as I was packing up, a quick glance at everything else, and one of the squashes had collapsed and was rotting }hairout{ Some of the neck was still solid, so I lopped off the bad part and took the rest home for the chickens for their afternoon treat. There was also a rogue kale plant in the squash bed, so I picked the older leaves for the girls and should give it time to throw out some new leaves before it gets too cold.

My house is like something out of the Good Life series, with crates and buckets of stuff and nowhere to put them LOL. I had harvested the Discovery apples the other day that still needs to be dealt with. I spent the afternoon spreading stuff on trays and extracting beans to dry off. There's something about this time of year when gathering in the harvests that feels satisfying - I know I'm not going to starve with the shops down the road, but you do get a sense of what early farmers must have felt when a good harvest was essential to survive a winter.

As for today's wet weather - well it rained but hardly downpours and more like showers, with the wind just bearable. At least my chicken run seems to have survived quite well which had been my biggest worry.
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billnorfolk
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Re: LL's 2013 GYO Diary

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Sweetcorn - I teased open a cob and the kernels were juicy and turning colour so ready to pick )c( I've been so worried that I was going to lose this crop - however, not all are ready so fingers crossed. I grew Lark F1 - a tendersweet, and I even ate one raw and it was lovely.


Realy glad you are manageing to get some of your sweetcorn ripe LL,i have managed another 4 but if weather stays as it is today i dont give alot of hope for the rest of mine.
Sounds like you need to take a few days holiday to sort out your harvested produce well done )t' yes time was when people needed there veggie harvest to get them through the winter ,must have been some very dire days at times.
A leek in the hand,is worth 2 in the roof.

Bill's Diaries.....2012 2013 2014
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lancashire lass
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Re: Some piccies ...

Post by lancashire lass »

billnorfolk wrote:Sounds like you need to take a few days holiday to sort out your harvested produce well done )t'


LOL - my boss already baulks at the idea of my taking 3 weeks off in one go as it is but yes, it would be lovely.

Thought I'd better upload some piccies - last night I made a chilli using the Black Russian tomatoes, one of the sweetcorn (cut the kernels off), one of the Kaibi Round peppers and a Beaver Dam chilli which are ripening thick and fast now. The pepper was small but very fleshy and tasty. The Beaver Dam are supposed to be "mild" so I cut a slice off and had a bite - at first I thought it was like a sweet pepper as it was sweet and crisp, then the heat came out, cor ..... Not so mild but then I am a bit sensitive to chilli heat (says she who has been growing extremely hot chillies {rofwl} ) so I decided to only put half the chilli in the sauce and gave the other half to the chickens (chillies and peppers have the highest vitamin C - and interestingly, birds are totally unaffected by the capsaicin which is what gives chilli the heat, thought to be a dispersal method as birds will eat the chillies and fly away from the main plant and then leave their droppings and seeds elsewhere) Anyway, after cooking the heat was indeed so mild that it was barely noticeable so next time I'll try a whole chilli (or 2) The Black Russian had an unusual flavour - not unpleasant and made a lovely sauce, but different from my usual sauce toms. It wasn't juicy and sliced up well.

The Kaibi Round sweet pepper:

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Black Russian:

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Beaver Dam chilli:

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Lark F1 sweetcorn:

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lancashire lass
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Re: LL's 2013 GYO Diary

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I still had some minced beef and decided to have another "chilli" as I've also got lots of tomatoes ripening but can only get on with making passata over the weekend when I've got more time. I decided to use 2 Beaver Dam chillies - despite being in the fridge, once again I tested a piece raw and it was hot so I wasn't too sure if 2 was such a good idea after all. I'm not sure why, but despite my reservations the heat is definitely lost in the cooking :? but I'm not bothered as they make lovely "peppers" in the sauce.

I used a Brandywine tomato:

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and I thought these 2 were Pantano (but apparently they should have green shoulders ... so not sure what they are now. I'll have to see if there are anymore on the plot and hope the label hasn't faded):

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Meanwhile, I keep finding green tomatoes on the patio floor from one of the hanging baskets - thinking it was perhaps some pigeon that had been trying to dislodge them, I had a look at the Cherokee Purple and for some reason, the fruits fall off at the slightest touch. These seem to be slowly ripening but I think the cold weather hasn't helped and I've picked them and brought them indoors:

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Back in February:

The chilli growing has turned into a challenge from my colleague at work - he is a chemist - and to see if we can grow the "hottest" chilli and try to use our own equipment at work (called an HPLC) to see what Scoville Heat Units we come up with (click on the link to wikipedia to find out what it measures) I doubt we'll be in the Guiness book of records LOL. This however, has meant perusing chilli seed websites and buying some more seed.


my colleague has been perfecting the procedure and I'll be taking some of my chillies in to see how hot they are )t' I might take along one of the Beaver Dam to see if I'm just a wuss when it comes to chilli heat LOL or whether there really is something there. I'll report back on any results ...
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Re: LL's 2013 GYO Diary

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It was only meant to be a short visit to the allotment as I had so much to do today - housework is piling up :oops: , need to do a bit more on the chicken run while it is warm and dry such as painting, make passata, sort out the potatoes and put into store, Tuesday is garden waste day so the hedge could be trimmed and clippings binned ... well, it didn't happen. I arrived at the plot with some bags of stuff for composting (and a bucket of chicken manure/soiled bedding) and a couple of bags for tomato harvesting. As I drove up to my plot, the weeds at the front were enormous and the whole plot generally looked very neglected. As much as I would have liked to have left it until later, I couldn't and ended up pulling weeds up and getting stung by nettles. When I finally got to the tomatoes, I was a little surprised to find no ripened tomatoes at all although quite a few were taking on a pale orange colour. I decided to harvest those as who knows what it will be like by next weekend as the weather changes mid-week.

My next task was to tackle the achocha corner - this vine like plant takes on a triffid mentality and romps away in all directions, gripping on to any upright structure including plants like bindweed. I grew it 3 years ago but somehow it has readily self seeded and become a weed - well, a very productive plant if you like the fruits. The fruits are not strong flavoured but more like cucumber and raw bean flavour - loads of people love them, use them in stir fries or stuff them before cooking but I wasn't too struck on them. They are also said to be very good at lowering cholesterol and high blood pressure. Anyway, to avoid another self seeded take-over, I decided to pull them all up, take off the fruits and compost the vines. Each vine must have had over 20 pods and I quickly filled 2 bags full. I was going to save some seed for passing on, then started to wonder if the chickens would eat them? The seeds have a slight nutty flavour but I had to look it up - no part of the plant is poisonous, and the young leaves can be eaten too.

Meanwhile, more weeding and harvested a Golden Acre cabbage - I noticed that the slugs seem to have a preference for early-mid summer cabbages but the later ones such as the Red Ball, Kalibos and Langedijk were untouched. The sprouts look amazing - I don't think I've ever had plants with totally unblemished foliage - not a single hole in them and big and glossy with no whitefly (another first!) The sprouts are forming but albeit a little slow for my liking. This time last year, some were already little buttons ...

Despite the cold spell last week and some rain, the soil is still parched. The celery are stalling so won't look like the crop from last year - despite all that rain then, they were the best I'd ever grown and revelled in the wet conditions. I grew plenty so I can chop and freeze for cooking (not a great lover of celery, I have noticed that a small handful in a stew or to a tomato dish brings out the flavour without the need for adding salt, and another health bonus is that they are another vegetable good at lowering blood pressure) Meanwhile, I noticed a couple of the winter squash plants had died off so I decided to bring those fruits home - an Improved Green Hubbard, a Blue Kuri and what looks like a large orange pumpkin ... the only pumpkin I grew this year was a Small Sugar so I'm mystified by this one - possibly a hybrid or misplaced seed from one of the suppliers. I also harvested the marrows and composted the plants so that I can prepare the bed for planting garlic next month. The Defender had started to produce courgettes again but despite 2 lovely fruits, it still came up.

As I loaded the car, I read on John Harrison's allotment diary that comfrey leaves are very good to feed to chickens, with lots of nutrients including calcium. I picked a few young shoots, and also the borage flowers and a couple of marigolds and diced them up for a little treat when I got home - the hens stood there rather disappointed and mystified (half expecting their favourite cabbage or marrow) and half heartedly pecked at them but I noticed that they were all gone by the time I gave them their proper afternoon veggie and corn treat.

I got home for 2.00pm ... so much for my other plans.
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Re: New garlic arrived

Post by lancashire lass »

)c( the garlic I ordered has finally arrived. Last month I got an e-mail from DT Brown about re-registering my account (I think I've only ever bought a couple of packets of seeds from them in the past) and as a thank you, a one-off free p&p on anything ..... oh, too good to miss. I had made a short list of what new garlic varieties to try as I was hoping to get more early maturing ones. Alas, they didn't have the ones I was after other than some replacement Early Purple Wight (mine didn't do so well this year - the late winter planting did not work out) I was however, interested in the Spanish Rocambole Wight which they seem to be the only sellers. I also went for Carcassone and Lautrec Wight and along with some bulbs I've set aside from my harvests I think I will be planting a lot of garlic soon LOL! (I really do like garlic - and learned that adding a crushed clove to the chook's water now and again is good for them too )t' )
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Re: LL's 2013 GYO Diary

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I had quite a few bags of stuff to take to the allotment - I finally emptied all the pots where plants have died off (the surplus plants plus quite a few that I never got round to planting), and a couple of bags of kitchen waste plus the chicken poop. I got to the plot for about 8.30am and my first task was to do a final harvest of the sweetcorn and lift up the plants. I've decided I'll use this bed for planting garlic (the other selected is where I had the courgettes next to the pond bed) I've done a swap with a friend for a couple of bulbs of Castano (La Mancha Mauve from the Really Garlicky company) for a couple of my Illico bulbs so one more variety to add to the list )t'

My plan today was to harvest any ripened tomatoes to get on with making some more passata but it all went a bit pear shaped when I noticed the winter squash were dying off. They are a little early but the soil is bone dry again and we've not had that much rain for some time so has probably hastened it along sooner than expected. Rain and changeable weather is forecast later this week, so makes a lot of sense to lift them than risk them getting rot and slugs moving in. There are some very large squashes but surprisingly, I don't think any one plant had more than one fruit. I remember the wasp hiding in the flowers and now wonder if those fruitlets ever developed afterwards - there was certainly a mass of flowers in the squash bed throughout summer. The butternut bed still looks fine and lush with some great looking fruits coming on.

By the time I'd cleared the bed and loaded the car, it was already gone 11.00am and I still had not done the tomatoes. So I grabbed a couple of bags and wandered down to the shed end of the plot. As I came alongside the popcorn, the cobs were looking tired and ready to pick - unlike sweetcorn, popcorn needs to be left until the seed has matured before picking. Not the biggest haul but will still be useful (and can also be fed to the chooks) When I got to the pond bed, I was in for a shock - in the past week, loads of tomatoes have ripened (probably brought on by the lack of water) but then there were also serious signs of blight {cry} At first I thought the odd fruit had scorch marks but then it was apparent that the plants themselves were diseased. Very odd as I often associate blight with warm and wet conditions but with very little rain for several weeks, it seems unusual. So my plan to harvest a few ripened tomatoes turned into a mass pick of both green and red toms and hopefully they would all be fine. I filled 7 bags and could have filled more but I had no more room in the back of the car with all the squashes. Besides which, I still have to make the passata and with work in the way, there's only so much I can do.

I got home for 2.00pm and then had to move everything to the back of the house, making multiple trips with my sack barrow and longing to ease my weary bones. I'm pleased about the squash, but the tomatoes have really put a damper on that.
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Re: Anyone interested in a swaps for Kent Blue pea seeds?

Post by lancashire lass »

Last year I obtained a few of these heritage pea seeds from a swapsie - just enough to grow a few plants, sample some of the mangetout for myself and leave the rest to mature for seed saving so that next year I'll have more than enough to grow for my own use and be able to offer a fellow gardener a few seeds to start them off to do the same (this helps to preserve a heritage line that has not been grown for commercial use)

If you want more information about the pea variety, please click on the link to The Heritage Seed Library I found the plant had pretty flowers, leaves were a little different to other pea varieties, compact (it will still need something for the tendrils to cling on to) and slightly smaller than average size plants. The mangetout were not big, but were tender and sweet. Taking one or two pods from each plant for tasting encouraged more flowers and thus more pods for seed saving - I have to stress that the goal will be about saving seed rather than being offered seed to grow veg for the kitchen. Although peas are hardy and can be sown from about March, it would be worth leaving the seed sowing until about late April - mid May when hopefully it will be warmer and encourage quick growth but before the pea moth arrive.

I don't have that many seeds to give away (about 20 seeds to maybe about 3 or 4 interested people) I'm open to any swap suggestions ... Please PM me if interested )grin2(
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Re: More Garlic and Compost

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Normally I participate in a bulk buy of garlic from The Really Garlicky Company and get a kg of their Music variety (works out at about 80-90 cloves - sounds a lot but I do use most of it and it stores well) but this year opted out as late maturing garlic just don't seem to be doing as well as early maturing on my plot. However, the buyer had also obtained some garlic of a variety called Castano (their blurb: "Our Scottish grown La Mancha Mauve garlic is available now for Autumn planting. It is a hardneck porcelain garlic varietal name 'Castano' with a lovely purple skin and pungent flavour. Also stores well") so I thought I'd give them a try and did a swap for a couple of bulbs for a couple of my Illico variety and just cost me postage )t' So I should now be set up and ready for the big plant out in a couple of weeks or so (I like to aim for mid-late October, early November at the latest)

Yesterday (Sunday) is usually my allotment day but to be honest I just did not have the time - I still had not sorted out last weekend's harvests and I knew if I didn't do something I might as well chuck everything into the bin or compost heap. So I spent much of the day sorting out tomatoes, washing, squeezing the juice and making a big pan of passata. Surprisingly that part of the process actually doesn't take that long - about 3 hours in total, but then it was a case of filling up clean glass jars and then heating them up to boiling point for a good half hour or so before screwing the lids down tight - 16 jars in total so 3 lots of heating up so the whole process took most of the day. I gave the skins and seeds to the chooks and they loved them ... I do hope they digest the seeds otherwise my compost heap is going to have hundreds and thousands of tomato seeds when I put their poop on it {rofwl}

I did need to pop down to the allotment to drop off loads of compostables though - bean pods, sweetcorn casings and empty cobs, apple cores as well as other kitchen waste and the bags I collect from work plus 2 bin loads of chicken poop/bedding, so while I left one batch of jarred passata on the hob, I popped down to the plot with a car load. I didn't linger and was just a case of unloading and bringing home a couple of cabbages. I was itching to do some weeding when I got there especially at the front of the plot. As I set off home, I glanced at the rest of the plot and it didn't look too bad. I just have some late summer/early autumn cabbages that are not quite ready, Brussel sprouts, celery and butternut left that is still growing but it sounds like the Indian summer is coming to an end by mid week so in the next couple of weeks I think I'm going to be very busy clearing the plot and getting it ready for winter - once the rains set in, the soil can become unworkable (too wet and heavy, doing more damage to the soil structure if I try to dig it over)

At home the apples on the trees are still not quite ready but anytime soon .... Meanwhile the chillies are ripening thick and fast now )t'
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Re: Rain rain rain

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{cry} I don't think we got more than a 10 minute break from the rain the entire weekend so my allotment plans went out the window. And temperatures have taken a tumble too. This morning I gave the chooks coop a good cleaning and bagged up all the bedding to take to the allotment along with the rest of the compostables when the rain was supposedly easing up this afternoon ... suffice to say I didn't make it as the forecast never happened.

Summer is well and truly over so time to rescue the chillies from the polytunnel. The Black Hungarian, Espelette and Padron did really well and I got loads of chillies. The Ancho on the other hand are not drying and instead have been going soggy and mouldy so I think I'll be chopping them up and putting into the freezer. Meanwhile with the secateurs ready, I slowly tackled the jungle and picked all the hot chillies - the Chocolate Habanero were particularly productive )app( as were the Lemon Drop, 7 Pot Red and 7 Pot Yellow but despite growing 5 plants, only one of the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T had any fruit - you can't imagine how disappointed I was after spending all that time caring for them, feeding, misting, "pollinating" ... I'm not entirely sure why they didn't do so well. The Red Morouga on the other hand did surprisingly much better as did the Dorset Naga.

I can't possibly over-winter them all so will be selecting the best one of each but somehow have to move the pasting board back into the house when I'll bring the plants in. There's still plenty of chillies in the greenhouses to pick yet as well as the peppers so I've got my fingers crossed that we don't get an unexpected frost before next weekend.
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Re: Warm day for October

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At this time of year I'd be scraping the first frost off the car windscreen, giving my winter coat a shake and cursing that I have no idea where my gloves are, but this weekend it has been exceptionally warm and easily 18oC+ today. While working I was getting a bit hot and bothered when the sun came out and had to take my lightweight fleecy jacket off. However, we have had quite a lot of rain recently, with a heavy downpour just as I was setting off for the plot, and a thunderstorm this afternoon. The forecast for the rest of the week is for more rain but still mild.

I'd already gathered stuff together to take to the allotment - 2 weeks of chook poo and coop clean out, all the chilli trimmings from last weekend, 2 weeks of compostables from work and a big bag of kitchen waste - so was just a case of loading the car and setting off. The girls had polished off the last of the summer cabbage earlier in the week and have made it known that they want more on the menu (the lopped marrow pieces and apple don't quite get the same enthusiastic response as shredded cabbage LOL Oh, and they have also polished the last of the sweetcorn cobs so some serious withdrawals and protests) so that was first on my list to harvest some more. The Langedijk were nicely headed up, but the red cabbages are still a bit behind. Normally I'd trim off the outer leaves straight on to the compost heap but these days I'm having to consider what I can bring for the chickens LOL.

The plot generally looked untidy but quite a few things were dying off although the weeds seemed to be flourishing with a fresh flush of flowers. A quick glance at some other plots and mine was probably on par with theirs so I didn't feel so bad LOL. I started on the butternut bed and harvested the fruits - most plants, like the winter squash, only had 1 fruit per plant and seemed to be the first set despite lots of flowers later on - really is a mystery. But at least a good 90% were fully mature so I'm pleased they turned out alright despite a very slow start in spring. Identifying which fruit belonged to which variety was an impossibility as the vines entwined and fruited well away from where they were planted. Only the Barbara F1 (a green mottled fruit) was recognisable. As I pulled the plants up and took to the compost heap, I also lifted up the many seed heads, mainly dock and fat hen though most of the seeds got knocked on to the ground }hairout{ ... so next year's seeds are now well and truly sown.

The next task was to lift the last 3 rows of Estima potatoes - once the rains had started in ernest, I dreaded lifting up the potatoes as the slugs were once again active. Surprisingly, most of the harvest were unblemished although there were a few green ones where the soil had got knocked back. The general lack of slug damage could have been down to the dry summer but I'd like to think sowing the mustard green manure last year had been beneficial too. I'm just glad all the potatoes have now been dug up )t' I've been very pleased with Estima - nice big potatoes, but the biggest plus is that I've found my perfect potato for chips (they brown up nicely, and the texture is lovely and soft which is how I like them :-D ) So I think I'll be growing them again next year. Talking of which, I've been perusing online suppliers to get an idea of what to grow next year and looking at growing more Vivaldi (I really did like these) and going to try a different first early.

The other major task today was to take down all the canes and put into storage. While the harvests have been taking priority, I've had to leave other tasks for another time and the canes were one of them. And then there were the canes supporting the outdoor tomatoes - all the plants are now dead with just a few rotting fruits scattered in the beds. As it was getting late, my priority was to get the canes put into the shed. Just before leaving for home, I gave the plot a quick glance - most beds were empty apart from the outdoor chillies, celery, cabbage, sprouts, oca, JAs, Chinese artichokes and the asparagus/rhubarb. Before I left, I harvested some borage and pot marigold flowers for the chooks and got home for 1.30pm.

My plans for the coming weeks are to get the beds dug over ready for spring planting, incorporate compostables in trenches ready for summer crops, plant garlic and wait for the frosts to kill off the oca and JAs before lifting. As my winter crop sowing has been a dismal failure (a combination of having too many other things to do as well as losing most of the plants to pests or heatwave), there won't be much else to do. Hopefully this will give me time to spend on getting beds into tip top condition and weeded weather permitting >fi< (and .... fit the new pond liner that I'd bought in spring :oops: )
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