My loss of nephew time this weekend was definitely my allotment’s gain. It’s been about a month since I’ve done any work beyond collection and watering. So it was past time for a tidy up.

The first thing to do was deal with all the dead and dying tomato plants, I’d collected all the tomatoes in the week so it was just the poor blighted plants (more like sticks) to deal with. We cleared the square bed and buckets, the compost from the buckets going to the two tomato beds that are done. I took out the tomato plants from the last bed but we didn’t cover that because the marigolds are still going strong.

Ma then went to tackle the weeds at the top of the plot and I attended to the summer squash plants, cutting back mildewed leaves and weeding the beds. The big butternut squash plant is done and brought in the four squash in the week, so I just cleared it.The little one at the back of the plot has got three baby squash on it and they had better hurry up and grow before the frost hits. The herb patch is thriving and the borage came back and is flowering, I hope that it does this every year!I also brutally cut back the nasturtiums because I couldn’t see my paths and made the decision not to sow them next year, if they self seed, I can live with them but no more planning to be overwhelmed by them!

I also tidied up the greenhouse, I need to make a decision about the strawberry bed extension!Then I admired Ma’s handywork and finally planted the day lily outside.Ma and I  also discussed the ‘top of the plot situation’. The area in front of the raspberries to the main path has a plum tree, two rhubarb plants, two gooseberry bushes, a shed, a greenhouse and a whole of space that grows weeds. We’ve planted some flowers, there were other plants that came up. This year we sowed peas there and put the buckets of spare tomatoes there. Overall though, it’s a bit of a wasted area. So we are going to do a couple of things. First move one of the gooseberries up there (yes I have been saying that for over a year!), second pave the area outside the shed and greenhouse. This gives us a proper sitting down space, we can plant flowers etc around a patio area and we can pull more tender plants in pots that can be moved in and out. Decision made, now all we need to do is get it done (and paint the shed and do a heap of other things that we’ve planned)