Tidier And Tidier

One of the nice older men at the site informed me that the committee had sent out 13 failure notices this time, so I don't feel quite so bad! He also told me that you get 3 notices from the committee and then 3 from the Council before anything bad can happen to you, so I'm taking a bit more time cleaning up the plot than I would have done and feeling more serene about it all rather than freaked out and panicked!

Last weekend I went down alone and cleared up 3 beds, dug up some potatoes and picked my first courgette which was lovely. I put weed suppressing fabric over the 2 front beds as I have nothing to go in them and no desire to keep weeding the things. Should I pick up anything at the Southport Flower Show next weekend it can go in those beds after just a little weeding.

This weekend DH went with me down to the plot and hacked away at the hedges for an hour or so. I weeded 2 more beds and chopped down the grass path from the gate to the shed. The squash and pumpkins are doing brilliantly, a couple of the plants are huge and have lots of buds coming out. If all goes well we should have Turks Turban, Spaghetti Squash, Butternut Squash and Trombolino along with 2 types of pumpkin, yummy lots of soup! The sweetcorn is about a foot and a half tall, not sure if it will catch up and give us anything but it's nice to see it there. No runner beans at all came up, so I guess I don't have to worry about having no marrow plants (my family eats runner beans with marrow and white sauce, yum). I do have Necker Gold beans up so I will see if I get any of those. Still lots of potatoes to harvest over the next month or so, half a bed of pink fir apple, Cara and some Aran something or others. I made roast potatoes from the Aran Pilots last night and they were as yummy as last year, didn't get such a good crop this time though but plenty to keep us going for at least a month or two. My elephant garlic is doing well and I have 1 cauliflower plant which is growing brilliantly and some chard which is taking it's time. I watered everything that needed it and added some 'worm juice' from my wormery. I've never used any of the compost they've made (it's about half full now) and I keep forgetting to feed the poor things now that it's hidden away in the outside shack (was the toilet for our Edwardian house originally), I will probably hand over all the compost to my Mother and let her use it as I can't see my having much use for it, perhaps she'll help me clear it out when they visit this weekend.

My plan is to get it all weeded and then keep the beds I'm using weed free. The back of the plot I will chop down but not hoe or clear as I won't use it again. If I can find some cheap black plastic I will cover the unused beds with it so that if someone takes over my plot they don't have to start all over again clearing it. If I can't find any I will try and hoe the beds every couple of weeks until I leave.

Blackberries are now ripening all over the site as well, the carpark is particularly good picking and I got a punnet from the brambles in my hedge as well. I now have just over 5 lbs of blackberries in the freezer and will carry on picking and make some blackberry jelly which Little One and I adored last year. The blackberry and apple wasn't so nice so I'm not making that again, I have most of the jars still left, will send my Mother home with more of it I think!

Will try and remember the camera next time!

Failed

I got an official letter this morning saying that my plot failed it's inspection, apparently it's too weedy (tell me about it) and the hedges are too high.

The weeds I agree with, it does need a good weed, but also I've been putting off hunting around for things to hold down the weed resistant fabric I'm going to put over the beds I'm not using so if I actually do that and weed the beds that are in use it will look a lot better and not take too much hard work.

The hedges I'm actually quite angry about, they better have failed everyone who has a plot down the 'alley' that my plot is on for that as my hedge isn't as tall as several there. I can't reach to cut the hedge and I don't have the funds to pay someone there to do it so I guess DH will have to pack the kitchen stool and come down and do it for me.

I am really almost done mentally with the plot, which is sad in a way but a bad habit of mine, I mentally pack up and move on before I'm fully done with something. There is still things that will hopefully grow and be harvested, we may get a good crop of different squashes and pumpkin if the weather plays nice, but beyond that and potatoes and perhaps some swede and chard there isn't really that much growing there and I don't see myself planting anything else as it would all be stuff that was for overwintering which won't work for me as I will give up the plot at the end of December.

This year has been pretty depressing at the plot anyway, the weather and soil have conspired to kill almost half of what I've planted which hasn't inspired me to be more productive there. Out of about 8 courgette plants I put out I have 1 left, and that was grown by someone else. Two attempts at marrows failed, no parsnips at all, no turnips came up, pumpkin plants have died off several times, no runner beans have come up (french beans have but are still short), first attempt at chard failed, broccoli died, 1 cauliflower plant left, I could go on and on..... I had a great crop of onions which will keep me going for several months so that is a good thing to come out of it, and my potatoes are doing really well which is great, must try and see the good stuff and not just all the bad.

So I will go down there when the rain finishes and have a good weed and cover up the empty spaces and try to keep on top of it. Things may actually get worse with the plot due to a health issue which will stop me from going down there for a while but hopefully I will get the food that I've planted off the plot and walk away in December not feeling quite so disappointed with what has gone on there this year, although I know I will definitely not have made back the rent in food which I did last year.