18 November

Day 147...

Ok, so my phone doesn't cope with low light very well. However, you can see the three cloches and the black plastic keeping the weeds down. Today was a quick chance to keep the weeds down and get the covers on before the heavy frosts next week.

The whole family helping out!

Made the last cloche in the twilight. And yes, my three year old now knows how to use a staple gun. Sue me.

The little man really enjoys helping out. "Daddy, thank you for the adventure!" as we left the plot!

Mid November and I was very happy to walk away with a bag of kale, two lettuces (the first of the 'radichio' lettuces) and 2 pak choi (however that is spelt). Not a bad haul considering there is more of each of them and I didn't take any spinach (which is what I went for!).

7 October

Not long since my last post but an afternoon of digging today. Hurt the wrist unfortunately so might be my last digging for a while!

Dried the spuds off outside and bagged them in paper bags. Not a bad haul - not exactly going to see us through winter, but the above I estimate about half of what we took. Not bad considering the season was so restricted between getting the plot and the abrupt end from blight!

A few shots of the family this time. The bean eater above - always enjoyed himself. The mud eater below, and the wife trying to get the mud out of her mouth!! (Sshh... don't tell anyone)

Yes... Mud on his finger...

The two shots above show the trenching method I chose. I just can't dig the whole plot with muck and break up the clay, so I'm going to try to dig as beds. I marked out some beds, dug out a trench of about a fifth of the bed, and put in a barrow load of compost. I forked this in, then buried it with the soil from the next fifth. Each bed starts by filling the back of the last. I dug 2 this way today. One for over winter brassicas, one for winter lettuce. I've got some fleece, mesh and piping so this weekend hopefully I'll build and plant! Will be ready for winter then.

EDIT: Just had dinner. Fish fingers (not home grown!), spinach (beet), chipped potatoes, cos lettuce and tomatoes (cherry and usual). Plus an apple and blackcurrant crumble to look forward to. Amazing! Thanks go to the wife (who doesn't read this ;) ) for making good use of everything. Thanks also for giving us a squash / bean break...

5 October

The blight cometh!!!

I thought I saw some brown patches 6 days before this. The next day I came down and sprayed the lot with Bordeaux mixture to see if that held it off. The thick foliage was reduced amazingly to the above - mere soggy sticks! The fact that any earth is visible is remarkable considering how thick the foliage was a week ago :(

Anyway, I lifted the lot. Four carriers of spuds on top of 3 I lifted earlier in the week. I'm amazed how quick they all grew.

A bag of spinach and a cos lettuce as well. Not a bad harvest although pretty hard work for what I took away!

Got  a humble reminder about the difference between digging with a spade and a fork today. Tried to break up some of the clay under the spud bed. Think I did a gd job but it was hard going. Must remember to dig with a spade first when breaking up soil in future. A fork was a waste of time until I'd cleared the bottom of each trench at which point the spade was a waste of time!

Only one thing to do with the foliage...

The plot itself looking nice. Was gd to take a lettuce off - will have to see tomorrow how bad the slug damage is. It didn't look bad at all.

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.

Week 12

Delighted by the plot developing. Mid-Sept now so not much new to go in. Just some winter protection, sets for onions / garlic which I'll consider, broads (although I'm not convinced I'll bother!) and HARVEST HARVEST HARVEST!!!

The last haul really was a bit of everything. From the front and clockwise: Blackberries (with a couple of strawbs!), runners (2 carrier bags...), kale (for piggies), french beans (I harvested about a fifth of what we had), spinach (baby - for salad), potatoes and a courgette.

Didn't make much of a dent on the plot with this lot. I spent ages picking beans but there are loads more. I really don't want them to get stringy. Pleased with the spinach as that's a real cut and come again salad crop. Will look forward to trying the french beans - I've never let them get that big before so I'll be interested to see if they're good!

Blackberries are a little sharp - crumble fodder :D

Week 10

Plot looking good so far, but the big news is... HARVEST IS HERE! Well, not exactly masses, but there's loads of beans ready (dwarf and french). 2 months since planting - not bad! Helped by a combination of lots of water and the heat / sun we've had recently.

Above - lots of beans all growing well. Below - today's harvest. Left most of the beans as I've guests coming soon and will take some to share out.

Week 9

Just a quick update this week. Finally cleared that scrappy bit at the front (with a bit of help from the wife!). Also put in some random leaves (first bed on right, halfway down). A range of different things - cos, radishio, pak choi - just to see what grows well and what the family uses. The beet leaves sown direct are coming along well, but the lettuce is not - neither here or sown at home. Bit disappointing! Generally I'm finding the rate of weed seed germination is swamping that of my seeds. That's fine, but when sowing lettuce that looks very much like the weeds, its hard to pick them out and weed around them. Currently I'm just relying on my string-marked rows and will hope that my lettuce (if there is any in there) outgrows the weeds. If they've not come up at home, might just be slow to germinate, else seed might be naff (some of it is several years old). I'll buy new for next year anyway, and I've bought some this year already. Still feels easier to raise from seed in trays and transplant for the delicate lettuces.

Left side all looking good. Used Bordeaux mixture on the potatoes to help keep blight away as its starting to rain now after a very dry July. Nice rates from the seed potatoes - not one hole in the rows!

Kale continues to come strong under the netting. The black kale and cabbages I put in the middle doing ok (although may get covered by the kale in due course!). Next year I'll do it the other way round - a few kale plants in the middle will be fine, with some more variety on the outside.

The first runners! Must be within 2 months of planting the small shoots. Split the first one with my son - no string and lovely taste. Am keeping the watering heavy on the beans but really need to make sure I do more of a trench next year as some water is running off the slight mound.

Still thinking about whether to get a second manure load or not...