What have you done on the plot today?

[border-rider]

We had a power cut this afternoon so I couldn't do any work.  I gritted my teeth and started the War Against Ragwort.  Long sleeves, long trousers, wellies & a 20 litre backpack sprayer. Geeeez it was hot & sticky

Loads and loads of cinnabar moth caterpillars were helping; I felt a bit guilty about depriving the stripy fellows of dinner but I'm sure I missed plenty.  They'd made a proper meal of quite a few plants 

[arry_b]

Garlic lifted and drying in the shed. Some of the beetroot pulled, washed and in the pan. Weeds beheaded and added to the compost bin. Lots of watering and feeding for the tomatoes, squashes and French beans in pots.

[longers]

Bit of tidying to make it toddler proofish and grabbed some vittles between the showers.

Just checked the forecast for tomorrow - it's changed and doesn't look so ideal for a picnic. Wellibob job then.

Rellies have taken over a cafe* recently and the local "wherever  . . .  in bloom" judges have booked a five course evening meal with them and have requested local produce. Was planning on offloading some edibles onto them and cadging a lift home tomorrow but might just cut some for us and run.

I'm spending roughly equal amounts of time gardening and cycling - not enough of either, but enjoying both.

* not been round the museum but the cafe owners are great.

[border-rider]

We had a power cut this afternoon so I couldn't do any work.  I gritted my teeth and started the War Against Ragwort.  Long sleeves, long trousers, wellies & a 20 litre backpack sprayer. Geeeez it was hot & sticky

Loads and loads of cinnabar moth caterpillars were helping; I felt a bit guilty about depriving the stripy fellows of dinner but I'm sure I missed plenty.  They'd made a proper meal of quite a few plants 

Round 2  today; it's a long process but it seems quite effective - the ones I nuked last time look well-nuked, and there are not that many new ones.  I might start on the other fields tomorrow if the weather holds

If we can eradicate the ragwort then we can borrow some sheep to keep the fields in order for us

[Tail End Charlie]

Not been to the plot, but when I got home today there's an official looking letter saying I have been "highly commended" in the annual plot competition for the area. Invite to awards night and photo opportunity. I'm well chuffty. Any tips on my acceptance speech? I'll try not to blub.

[longers]

Well done TEC  I'll be surprised if a couple of folk near me don't get prizes, they reckon it's a good do at the awards night but won't get told until november.

Just a bit of pottering and giving away of produce to my neighbours today. Very pleasant couple of hours.

Did dig this beauty up, almost 800g.



There's another four more like it but a wee bit smaller that I didn't photograph.

[corshamjim]

Wow.  That's a spud and a half!

The only potatoes I had this year were some stragglers left by the previous tenant of the allotment.  I'll have a go at planting some next year.

Today, I finally got around to doing some hoeing.  Wow!  If I'd have known how easy and effective it was I'd have got started on it ages ago.  At least part of my allotment is finally looking a bit cared for now - especially with a cheerful sunflower in the middle of it which just happened to decide to grow there.

I guess I need to start planning what I'm going to do next year now.  It feels a whole lot less daunting now after one season of experimentation and lots of super help from the neighbouring gardeners and plot holders.  My Mum gave me some gardening vouchers as a  thank you for fixing her computer the other day, so I'm going to the garden centre during the week to get a huge compost bin (yes I know I could make one but I'm lazy and there's too much other stuff to do).  I've already filled the two plastic bins on the plot so I'll see if I can get a nice big wooden slatted one.

[clarion]

I did my first ever onion (and shallot) plait the other day!  It looks pretty cool

[border-rider]

Ate the first apple from the trees I planted in the spring.

The damn squirrel got all the cherries & the mirabelles

[border-rider]

Yesterday there was a take your apples to work apples day in Trellech. very good - the Gwent Wildlife Orchards officer was there and they're going to come along and help us develop a plan to recreate some local-species low-density orchards

They're also going to have a poke about at the rest of our wilderness and see what's worth managing, and how.

[Dinamo]

Picked approx. 15 kgs of white grapes from my vine.
Hopefully the wine will be ready for Christmas 

[corshamjim]

I'd not thought about planting a grape vine.  Good idea! 

[mike]

finally picked the beans!  MrsMike had planted these without telling me they were a bit odd...

[Tail End Charlie]

Great looking beans those, what sort are they?

Me, I had a strawberry today off the plot. Didn't taste too bad either, I thought it was going too be horrible.

[Canardly]

I have just rediscovered slow cookers and am messing about with lentils and green things.

[Pancho]

finally picked the beans!  MrsMike had planted these without telling me they were a bit odd...

Beans or penguin eggs?

[SandyV]

37degreesC here today and it's still 2 weeks until summer. 
Aircon at work gave up so came home early and soaked the garden which is suffering.  The mangoes and peaches are in for a bumper year if we can keep the water up and the flying foxes (bats) away.

[corshamjim]

I took a trailer load of composting stuff to the allotment today, my first visit for a few weeks.  Thankfully not too many new weeds.  I did find that my neighbour, 80 year old Don, bless 'im, has laid some more path.

Now Don used to be a railway worker.  As a result he likes to lay paths around the allotment like they are railway tracks, so they're all made using a stout timber frame filled with gravel ballast.  These tracks paths are all exactly the same width designed to be just wide enough to take a normal sized wheelbarrow.  In one way this is great because it makes use of the thousands of stones we're digging up all the time.  Unfortunately these paths are all just a bit too narrow to take my bicycle trailer.    I really don't have the heart to tell Don that actually his labours are making life more difficult for me, so will just have to work around it for the time being.  Don is a massively generous chap (he even built me my bean canes last year) so I'm sure he won't mind if I park my trailer next to his plot whenever I visit.

[Pancho]

Today I picked (plucked? dug up? harvested?) a test parsnip - just to be sure all's OK for the big dig tomorrow morning.

A bit worried to be honest; first parsnip was all of two centimetres long. Second (of two) was average parsnip size. Not the JCB-requiring whoppers I usually seem to get.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

[Pancho]

Well they were a bit undersize by usual standards but when roasted up by Mrs P they were bloody delicious.

Maybe next year all or veg well be garden grown.

[hellymedic]

David brought in one of the last tomatoes of the season; there are still a few that look like they'll ripen...

[spokenword]

Getting busy now.
Cabbage seelings (Hispi) sown last week are through, and today I bought Maris Bard and Charlotte seed potatoes from the nursery at Enderby whilst out on a ride. Yesterday I sowed salad leaves in the unheated greenhouse and ordered more of that seed as it's on offer at T&M for 49p a packet. They also have Sungold tomato seed at 20p, and last year they cropped from early July to late Nov with 13 trusses on the vine. 
It's about time to sow the broad beans and sweet peas in the greenhouse.
I'll cover over a deepbed, destined for the early crops, with a sheet of plastic to keep the worst of the rain off.  I think that's safer than putting the big cloche out in view of tyhe wind we have had over the last few days. That can go over the bed at the end of Feb

[border-rider]

Started clearing the head-high brambles where our new wood is going. Unfortunately a broken hitch pin on the tractor stopped play, but I've found another that I *think* will fit, so back at it tomorrow.

I did a dormouse check first. They're about, but hopefully not where I'm clearing.

[cyclone]

More digging of veggie plots (in an area less prone to having springs appear when it rains  ) Also a bit of fallen timber logging...just got to decide where its going to store for 2 years....
MV what trees are you thinking of planting??

[border-rider]

 biodiversity woodland; fairly low density assorted native species.

We also plan on some apple trees, but that's in a different bit of field.