30 Sept

Days are getting too confusing (although this was taken on day 97!), so I'm switching to normal dates. The plot is doing very well - great in fact - but starting to see a few problems.

First off, there's bean rust on the runners. I'm not that fussed as the beans are nearly done. Apparently it can be made worse if nitrogen levels are too high - I can't believe that's the case as I hadn't enriched the soil (and noone else had!). However, they did get a dressing of growmore. Thankfully its usually a problem which develops too late in the season to damage yields (as seen here!), but it does mean burning rather than composting all the leaves.

Secondly, and much more serious, is potato blight. Its there in small amounts across the whole patch. Again, I'm not really worried as there is a crop under the soil. However, I thought it meant lifting the lot. Thankfully I spoke with an old hand (John) who suggested I did what he did this year, which is to just remove the foliage and to leave the potatoes in the ground till needed. I might do that to start (again, burning the leaves), as it will let me leave the undamaged foliage a little longer, and give the potatoes a chance to grow. That said, if the rain gets heavy, I'll have to lift the lot.

So here it is! Main changes since last shot are growth in the lettuce leaves, some tidying of paths (I trimmed down the amount of grass) and some clearing at the back ready for the compost heaps to move (which isn't really visible). Soon the strawberries, squashes and potato leaves will be gone, the small compost bin at the back taken down and eventually the compost heap will move.