14 September 2008

Autumn it is then

The nights seem to have well and truely drawn in now, so I'm only getting to go down at weekends from now on. It was distinctly Autumnal this morning as I made an early start to pick up a few things from plot no 2 before trying to sort out plot no 1 (ha!). I was just about to go through the 'gate' when I disturbed a fox on the plot. Sadly it disappeared before I could get the camera out.

So I picked the remaining tomatoes, admired the slug population I'm now supporting and then picked up some seaweed meal and chicken pellets to take down to plot no 1. I also took pictures of the apples trees to see if anyone has any ideas as to what variety they may be. They're currently quite large, bigger than my fist and have been red since they were quite small.




Moving on to plot no 1, a quick review revealed the weeds remain healthy. The raspberries are still struggling through, but the pumpkins are coming on nicely. A few weeks ago I attempted to write my son's name on the one pumpkin I had at the time. Not necessarily that succussful, but you can see the 'F' on it - if you look carefully on the left hand side. Fortunately a couple of weeks after this a second pumpkin appeared and (with a little more success) I managed to write the letter 'E' on it - well I wasn't going to get 'Elizabeth' on it!





The larger pumpkin is now a bit bigger than my foot in diameter and the smaller one is catching it up fast. And to be perfectly honest I could do with them both being the same size to save arguments!

I dug up the particularly crap looking leeks from the new plot in the hope that transplanting them to the old plot would help them get going. So put them in next to the others I was given earlier in the year, they've looked considerably better since I transplanted them.



These were the ones that were trasplanted some time ago, I'm too ashamed to show the others! I also planted some red and white over-wintering onions, alternating them!

I then put the seaweed meal on the compost heap, the whole compost area looking a bit rubbish still. But I 'acquired' a couple more pallets and the next job will be to sort them out so that they stay standing in the Autumn winds. The leaf mould next to the complost heap on the other hand is looking very good. I'll be applying that as a mulch somewhere soon - not sure where is best to put it, possibly round the brassicas. Speaking of which some of my Brussels are looking very close to being ready, don't think they'll last until Christmas!

I then moved on to sorting out the strawberries, cutting the leaves and runners off the plants and clearing the straw from around them. I took the runners home to pot up the plants and ended up with over 50 potential plants...

Just before leaving, I picked a couple of Borlotti beans that were ready. There are plenty of more coming and fortunately the mice (or what ever they are) that ate the broad beans and peas seem to be ignorring these.



Finally, I made these the other week. I'd like to say these were entirely from our allotment, but they were mostly from my Grandad.

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